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.
Currently I live in San Diego with a 10 month old daughter. Originally I'm from a suburb of Boston. My husband and I would like to move out of San Diego. We love the weather, but I miss the seasons. In addition, we refuse to pay half a million dollars for a tiny box where neighbors peer into your windows and homeless people did through your trash. Anyway.... I have always loved New Hampshire. I also love the proximity to cities and family. I've researched a few areas and Bedford and Exeter NH sound like great areas to live. That being said... My housing budget ideally is between 250-350. My fear with these areas is that my daughter (and any future children) would be the "poor kids." This may sound ridiculous to some, but my husband grew up as a "less wealthy" kid in a wealthy town, and it was hard to see others traveling, wearing expensive clothes, etc. while he couldn't afford it. Both he and I want an area that has a happy, middle class, family feel with good schools and community (needle in a haystack right?). Is Bedford or Exeter a pipe dream? If so, what other towns do you recommend?
350k is not going to buy you much in either town. Even less so in Bedford, and that's at the top of your budget.
Take a look at Londonderry. It's more middle-class than the other 2 towns & yet has excellent schools without the concern of that "wealthy town" thing going on.
Thanks for the suggestion. I've heard Londonderry is nice, but their "great school rating" shows it is on the 4-6 category. Am I missing something?
There are several people who post on this forum who live in Londonderry that can speak better to the school issue than me. I know that Londonderry's schools are well respected, but are not considered top tier. IMO if you're willing to put personl effort into working with your childern's teachers a solid school system like Londonderry would serve your children well. Derry has an excellent high school that several local towns send students to, but I'm not a fan of Derry's property taxes.
The COL in southern NH is very high....perhaps not as bad as where you are, but high nontheless. There's no easy answers, like you mentioned. Hope you get more info from the regulars who post here....some of who have children in the local schools in southern NH.
Last edited by Brave Stranger; 08-14-2013 at 11:42 PM..
All of the schools in NH are good. Sure you might find horror stories about any school.
There are also many private schools in NH that skew all statistics.
School statistics are basically useless. Who collects the data. How data is collected. Poverty, divorce, one child parents, and on and on.
About 50% of all children in public schools fall into some category of special needs or special Ed.
There are also dumb kids. Yes, not all children are born the same. Most parents will never admit that they have a dumb kid - they blame the "system" - and not themselves.
Any child in any school can do well. It is called parenting. If education has a high place in the family then any healthy child can and will do well.
I would not pick a town just because of something you read or heard about the schools.
My town has a high reputation for "good" schools. Yet the test scores are in the middle. My towns is in the top 10% in money spent per child. So that can't be a good measure.
If you are deeply concerned about a good education - then find a town that has a Catholic school or a private school - and send kids there.
Otherwise be an excellent parent and get real involved in the learning process of the child. If so choose any NH community that you find a nice home.
Why is everyone so obseessed with good public schools?
The bottom line is that if you're not going to pay for your kids to go to private school they are going to be getting a second rate education. There may be a handful of of public schools in this country in extremely affluent towns that can compete with private schools. That's it. When you're in the suburbs in a state like NH the schools are pretty much a wash form town to town.
I would say that you can afford a decent home in Exeter if you can afford up to 350K.
Thanks for the input. I guess having lived in San Diego for 10 years, I'm used to the county system vs. town system. Regardless, it sounds like the schools in NH are a million times better than in San Diego. I work in higher education and see the what the school system out here produces (I'm not impressed). I completely agree that parents play a MAJOR role in the success of a student. However, I also believe importance a community places on education is also a major factor. Glad to hear none of the schools really stand out as "horrible."
Does anyone have thoughts on Goffstown? That has also popped up on my list of towns near Manchester.
I know that schools are a very important factor in choosing a place to call home, and that is to be expected, as communities with 'better' schools typically are more comfortable to live in for everyone. Other than schools though, what are you looking for in a town? What is your comfort level with things like private sewer (backyard septic system) and a private well water? Are you OK with bringing your trash and recyclables to the local transfer station (dump) or would you prefer to have municipal pick-up that is paid by your tax dollars. It sounds as though your location can be somewhat flexible since you are searching both the Route 101 (Exeter area) and the Rte 3/93/293 (Bedford) corridors.
Another thing to consider is if your family requires things like local availability for things like grocery shopping, various ethnic restaurants & maybe a coffee shop or two. Just comparing Bedford and Exeter: both are considered affluent and have plenty of upscale shopping & restaurants, but Exeter's historic and walkable downtown area attracts visitors from out of town, while Bedford requires a car to get from strip-mall to shopping center. Exeter's housing stock ranges from single-wide mobile homes (couple of co-op parks in town) to exclusive subdivisions with million dollar (and more) properties. Bedford doesn't have any mobile home parks, but there are neighborhoods in Bedford that have modest homes on small lots, close to the city conveniences of downtown and the west side of Manchester. What I'm trying to say is that while both towns are considered upscale and many will have higher-than-average household salaries, there are also areas with less affluent families live.
There is a huge difference between 250k and 350k, no matter where in NH you are looking. You could no doubt find what I would consider a nice home in either Bedford or Exeter at the upper end of your price range. Not so much in the lower range--there are homes, but they would be much smaller and may have some deferred maintenance OR a complete rehab (depends on the size of the house, and the neighborhood it's located in).
Once we see a little more of what you are looking for (in terms of rural, suburban, in-town living) I think more people will be able to actually name off a couple of towns
I am perhaps not the most observant person, but people in NH don't seem particularly snobby. I'm sure there are groups of people anywhere who think too highly of themselves, or too lowly of others, but they don't seem to migrate to particular towns.
Exeter is a beautiful little town with ridiculous property taxes. I can imagine there might be some snobbery associated with Phillips Exeter Academy, but (and perhaps because) it's pretty isolated from the rest of the town.
Bedford is a nice modern area. I forget what the property taxes are like, but it was on our short list of towns when we were house hunting, so probably not as high as Exeter.
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.
