Relo to Stratham from the Dallas... (Dover, Exeter: for sale, real estate, foreclosures)
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Hi all,
Great forum.
I am relocating to Stratham for a job and am looking for a nice area for my family.
Seems to cost more to live up there.
Found Freemont to be almost affordable.
I can stretch to $290K for a home, depending on the taxes and utilities.
Can someone please advice?
Thank you,
Paul.
Don't know much about the area so I can't help with specifics, but it would probably help others if you listed more details...
What do you mean by "nice area"?
What is your max commute?
How much land do you want?
How many bedrooms?
How important are schools?
Any specific activities your kids are into that might not be available in some areas?
Hi all,
Great forum.
I am relocating to Stratham for a job and am looking for a nice area for my family.
Seems to cost more to live up there.
Found Freemont to be almost affordable. I can stretch to $290K for a home, depending on the taxes and utilities.
Can someone please advice?
Thank you,
Paul.
I wouldn't recommend any stretching of your budget like that. NH is quite expensive to live in. High property taxes and high winter heating bills. You and your family are used to TX heat, so most likely you won't like keeping your thermostat turned down low in the wintertime. My boyfriend and I did alright with our 4 bedroom house, but all the rest of our friends had much larger than normal heating bills this winter. We kept our house in the mid-50's and wore sweaters and long johns all winter. I kept a fleece scarf around my neck while inside also.
I wouldn't recommend any stretching of your budget like that. NH is quite expensive to live in. High property taxes and high winter heating bills. You and your family are used to TX heat, so most likely you won't like keeping your thermostat turned down low in the wintertime. My boyfriend and I did alright with our 4 bedroom house, but all the rest of our friends had much larger than normal heating bills this winter. We kept our house in the mid-50's and wore sweaters and long johns all winter. I kept a fleece scarf around my neck while inside also.
Hi Miu,
What is your average monthly utility bill, if you don't mind me asking?
Or the average?
For an average 3000 sqft home in Texas, you can expect about $400 a month, due to the hot, hot weather down here.
Hi Paul. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but it's not likely that you will find a 3-br, 2.5 bath on an acre of land for under 300k, unless it was a bank-owned property in need of much repair and/or updating. Stratham is one of the higher-value towns on the seacoast. I would recommend looking in Barrington or Newmarket first. Also check out Dover, Epping, Exeter, Greenland and Newfields. All of these towns would definitely be 30 minutes or less to Stratham.
Hi Paul. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but it's not likely that you will find a 3-br, 2.5 bath on an acre of land for under 300k, unless it was a bank-owned property in need of much repair and/or updating. Stratham is one of the higher-value towns on the seacoast. I would recommend looking in Barrington or Newmarket first. Also check out Dover, Epping, Exeter, Greenland and Newfields. All of these towns would definitely be 30 minutes or less to Stratham.
Thank you Valarie for your recommendations, I will look in those areas.
Best,
P.
Hi. We homeschool, too, and there are many active homeschool groups in the Seacoast area (secular and faith-based.) The Seacoast area is also very family-friendly.
You might also want to add Kingston, Danville, and even Hampstead to your list. You can easily get to Stratham in 30 minutes (along Rte. 111) from many areas in these towns, and you might get closer to what you are looking for in a house. You might want to check out some active listings, though, to see what you can get for your $, and adjust your expectations accordingly. Also, snow is a factor here, so you might want to keep that in mind when figuring out where to live.
Winters are long, heating your home can get expensive, and we've found electricity to be expensive, too. Property taxes can also be high. Some online research can help you sort the out towns in which they are highest. Private wells and septic tanks are also very common here.
NH is beautiful, and the people are great. Good luck on your new adventure!
Do a zillow search of Rockingham County. There are a huge number of homes for sale and many foreclosures. Found a good looking foreclosure in Raymond, NH just west of Stratham. But hurry. These go fast. See below.
Plutonian - I'm curious about your property taxes in Texas, if you owned. I know around here we consider Texas to be very affordable, probably mostly because of average sale prices of houses. But I was really surprised to see, on another forum, that a poster had a tax rate quite similar to a typical rate in NH. I don't know how the tax rates are set in TX (county? town/city?) but now I'm wondering if perhaps the rate itself will be nothing new to you. Otherwise, TX and NH are similar in having no personal income tax (the often mentioned "balancer" of the high property taxes in NH.) TX has a sales tax and NH doesn't, so that will be in your favor. (Although, the often-overlooked truth is that NH has a 9% meals and lodging tax which residents can avoid if they never eat out, but even my typical morning Dunkin Donuts has an extra 45 cents tacked on every day. So it's not exactly "no" sales tax.)
NH does have some of the highest energy costs in the country, but at least you can get by half the year without doing much to heat OR cool your house. And Texas isn't exactly at the bottom of the list in terms of cost, so the prices here may be nothing new to you. The shock may be the large amount you pay in a short period of time for heating. And I think most things including basics like groceries are just a bit more here, so overall it adds up to being more expensive here. But I think the biggest difference is what you're going to pay for a house equivalent to a "nice" house in Texas. Although even that is not across-the-board more expensive... but you're looking in one of the more expensive areas of the state.
We live in a small (1700 sq.ft.) newer, energy-efficient house and have programmable thermostats so we keep the house cool at night and when we're not home. Between mid-December and now, we've spent probably $2000 on fuel oil, and were about to need more. So that's roughly $700 a month, but that was somewhat unusual. This has been a FREEZING winter. Now, this does not include electricity which is about $100 a month. The good news is that once spring comes, our tank of oil will last us until fall and we'll just pay our moderate electric bill.
Last edited by cowbell76; 03-17-2014 at 10:30 AM..
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Also, snow is a factor here, so you might want to keep that in mind when figuring out where to live.
