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.
However, it is a short drive down highway 25 to Meredith & Laconia that have a combined population within the range you mentioned...
If you desire city water and sewer you could also look within the town limits of Meredith as some properties there a bit removed from the lake are more reasonable.
All the other areas out in the country or town limits will be private well and septic. Most roads are town maintained and plowed unless they are a private association and that would imply yearly or monthly fees for maintaining condition of road and plowing.
GraniteStater -- Your info is superb! Thanks so much!
Take a look at Dover NH - It isn't on a lake but there are properties on "Great Bay", which is water view and not far from Portsmouth. About a 15 minute drive from Rye Beach too.
Portsmouth or Durham sound good to me. I would be a little bit concerned about Portsmouth as being expensive and kind of yuppie (apologies if I offend anyone but it seems that way.) I'm not that knowledgeable about Durham but it's a beautiful area.
If it doesn't have to be New Hampshire, there are a few towns on the NH/MA line that are fairly cheap. One is Amesbury and it has lakes. Another one is Salisbury and there are fixer uppers and old cottages near the ocean with a lot of them for sale because people got scared off by last winter's storms.
A good thing about living on the NH/MA line is that NH has high property taxes but no sales tax. So you live in MA and you shop in NH.
The issue with MA is that their retirement income will most likely be taxed.
Look at Greenland, Newfield, Newmarket and Stratham. All these towns are close to the coast, have rivers and other bodies of water and are easily accessible to nearby cities.
I've been making periodic trips to NH scouting for a retirement property. I signed a sales contract a few years ago on a beautiful home on 5 acres which was in foreclosure. The well water inspection showed an arsenic level 1000 times higher than the EPA recommended maximum, a dissolved radon reading of >5000 Pci/L and a very high lead level. Needless to say, I passed on the property. I understand that high levels of arsenic are found in 20% of New Hampshire private wells.
Personally, I would prefer to have my own well and septic system. In the rural areas of most New Hampshire towns including areas around Lake Sunapee, that's the only option. Having your own system is usually a lot cheaper than town services. A submersible well pump usually only needs to be replaced every 10 to 20 years depending on usage and if you have an in-ground drain field for your septic system, pumping the tank every 5 years is sufficient. So, I wouldn't worry about being within town water/sewage areas.
The only public utility that I would really like to have besides electricity and telephone is natural gas. But most areas of NH don't have it available. Even big cities (for New Hampshire) like Keene don't have natural gas. Keene has gas pipes in the street but it's gassified propane (trucked in) not natural gas.
re: arsenic in wells. NH never had a problem until 1999 when the feds lowered the acceptable standard in drinking water. Up and until that time, the standard was 0.050 milligrams per liter. In 2001, the EPA designated the acceptable standard for arsenic at 0.010 milligrams per liter. Municipal water suppliers are required to adhere to government standards. Private wells are not.
Unfortunately, there is no rhyme nor reason to differing levels of arsenic in populated neighborhoods. One house may test high while the home next door tests low.
In the news TODAY, Timberlane HS in Plaistow has been cited for the umpteenth time in 3 years for arsenic levels at 10.9 ppb. The town is adding iron to the wells to capture the arsenic and chlorine (a known carcinogen) to bring the water back into compliance.
Arsenic is a naturally occurring element in the granite bedrock. A 2012 report from the USGS indicates that 40% of NH has some levels of arsenic in the water.
I'm retired and wanted to be near the ocean so my area suits me well. Even the snow doesn't really bother me that much. The roads are cleaned quickly and doesn't stop many activities.
The issue with MA is that their retirement income will most likely be taxed.
Depends on what they did for a living because Social Security, civil service, state/local government pensions are tax exempt. Pension income from other state or local governments that do not tax pension income from Massachusetts public employees is exempt from Massachusetts tax.
I have been busy for the past couple of days, so I am just now checking this thread again. Many thanks for all the new posts!
Again, our main criteria is to find a town with suburban conveniences, but with a small town feel with many pretty places to view and walk, so we have limited our search to those towns with populations between about 12,000 and 30,000. We have now narrowed our choices to Laconia, Keene, and Goffstown (away from the "southern hub"), and to Salem, Durham, Hampton, and Dover which seem to be more suburban. Does anyone have any thoughts, either strongly pro or con, for any of those towns for us?
(Btw, to reply to someone who brought it up, we will be living only on social security and savings, but this will amount to a monthly income of about $4,000 a month; and as we will be "even exchanging" our Littleton, Colorado home for the new one in New Hampshire. we are not too worried about taxes.)
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.
