Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Just so the OP is aware - there are lots of hospitals in NH aside from Dartmouth. That's obviously the one in our state that has the most notoriety, but there are LOTS more. Nashua and Manchester each have two hospitals (in addition to the V.A.). There are also hospitals in Rochester, Dover, Portsmouth, Concord, Wolfeboro, Exeter, Littleton, North Conway...the list goes on beyond those, I'm sure. And there are plenty of SNFs and other facilities beyond acute care that would hire nurses, too. I have friends who are RNs but do not have a Bachelors degree, and they are employed as RNs, so not all hospitals here require a Bachelors degree; maybe the competition has gotten more intense in this economy, I don't know.
I don't understand the "lack of cable/internet" thing people keep mentioning. I'm a lifelong NH resident and I grew up in an uber-small, rural town on the edge of the lakes region (population=3000) that didn't even have its own high school and was a half hour from the nearest grocery store and we were able to get cable TV starting in 1989. Even my relatives on sparsely-inhabited dirt roads in Effingham ("middle of nowhere" type of place) had it by the very early 90s. Internet wasn't around way back then, obviously...but my small hometown "in the sticks" got it by 1998 or so.
Never had that issue living anywhere in the Seacoast either. I'm near the Monadnock region now in another rural/farm town and cable/internet is available for everyone I know around here too.
So...those comments just really surprise me. My experience tells me that unavailability of cable/internet is not an issue in the vast majority of places one would move/live in NH.
I know for a fact that dunbarton also does not have cable internet and its 15 minutes from manchester and concord...
and my house in bow has ZERO cell signal, no matter what the carrier..
I know for a fact that dunbarton also does not have cable internet and its 15 minutes from manchester and concord...
and my house in bow has ZERO cell signal, no matter what the carrier..
Cell service is a different matter altogether and yeah, that can be an issue in NH. I've consistently heard that Verizon works well in most places. AT&T is definitely spotty in NH. In *most* places in NH, some cell carrier will work.
Just trying to give an accurate portrayal of NH as far as availability of cable and internet, for people considering those factors when thinking about relocating to NH. I think it's fair to say that both are available in *most* regions of the state, with limited areas of non-service, just like any other state.
z"I don't understand the "lack of cable/internet" thing people keep mentioning. I'm a lifelong NH resident and I grew up in an uber-small, rural town on the edge of the lakes region (population=3000) that didn't even have its own high school and was a half hour from the nearest grocery store and we were able to get cable TV starting in 1989."
Each town - when cable arrived - made a deal with a cable company.
That is - the selectmen - at the time - made a deal/contract with a cable provider/company.
The deal in each town varies.
Mostly - the deal/contract was about money or funds the town receives from the cable company.
Some/many selectmen at this time allowed the cable company to cherry pick the areas of coverage.
So in some/many towns there is not universal coverage.
Class 6 roads were not covered and many class 5 roads have no cable coverage.
z"I don't understand the "lack of cable/internet" thing people keep mentioning. I'm a lifelong NH resident and I grew up in an uber-small, rural town on the edge of the lakes region (population=3000) that didn't even have its own high school and was a half hour from the nearest grocery store and we were able to get cable TV starting in 1989."
Each town - when cable arrived - made a deal with a cable company.
That is - the selectmen - at the time - made a deal/contract with a cable provider/company.
The deal in each town varies.
Mostly - the deal/contract was about money or funds the town receives from the cable company.
Some/many selectmen at this time allowed the cable company to cherry pick the areas of coverage.
So in some/many towns there is not universal coverage.
Class 6 roads were not covered and many class 5 roads have no cable coverage.
Based on what you say about your respective fields, I would suggest the Concord area. Concord is the state capital and a case worker (as well as someone in the nursing field) may find work with the state. In addition, there are a number of private mental health and rehab-type companies (I'm not sure if that is what they are called) in the area, plus Concord Hospital and the NH State Hospital.
The Concord area, being centrally-located, also gives you a chance to be close to a variety of settings - southern NH, Manchester, and Boston are not far to the south, Portsmouth is not too far to the east, the pretty Monadnock region is not too far west, and you're also close to other mountains and the Lakes Region, as well as 4.5-ish hours from Montreal.
The Concord housing market has suddenly picked up, but there are a number of surrounding towns which remain very reasonable. Towns like Chichester, Epsom, Pittsfield, and Loudon are actually closer to the Lakes Region and Portsmouth (two very desirable areas) but are a bit more rural, for the most part, than Concord. These are typical locations for commuters to Concord, or even Manchester or the Seacoast areas.
It's true that the property taxes can be extremely high, and sometimes there is seemingly no rhyme or reason to it. Some people will tell you that affluent towns have high taxes, and less affluent towns have low taxes, or that high taxes always mean great schools, but these things cannot be said to be true across the board. In fact the exact opposite can be true... towns without much of a commercial tax base (often the more poor rural towns) have to pay for everything with residential property taxes, so the rate is high. It's not even always true to say, "sure, the rate's high, but since it's rural, the assessments are low, so the actual bill is low." You can have an outright high tax bill in a non-affluent town. The good news is that in many cases it all balances out. Maybe the tax rate is high and the assessment is also high. In cases of somewhat poor rural towns stuck with that situation, the actual market value (not assessed value) of homes is often lower even at peak times. So, you might end up paying a lot less on your mortgage than you would in another town with lower taxes.
Last edited by cowbell76; 08-06-2013 at 09:36 PM..
we could not get internet service at all in Hillsboro. Things had not improved in 2011. Location is everything.
I would also point out that small towns with small schools get a lot of aid from the state. These little schools often have the best books, supplies and curriculum. It's easier for a student to stand out in a class of 50 kids, compared to hundreds.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
My experience tells me that unavailability of cable/internet is not an issue in the vast majority of places one would move/live in NH.
