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My wife and I are seeking to relocate to NH in the next year or so, sooner if the job market is open for me. We have 1 small child not quite ready for school yet but need a good school district. My wife and I are bot career Police Officers and I see the NH standards for lateral (lack of a better term) transfer and I believe we both meet and exceed them; however we need to find an agency or agencies to hire us first. My mother in law will be relocating with us so I am looking for a 4/3 or a 3/2 with a MD/ MIL house on or attached to the property. We have narrowed our most important necessities which seems like a hard balance from what research i have done thus far.
1- low taxes
2- above average school district (6/10 rating or better)
3- LEO salary to cost of living (i believe two will do fine but can ONE do it?)
4- moderate living expenses (gas, oil, local taxes and fees, etc)
I currently have my 3/2/2 for sale in Ocala and my MIL house for sale as well in Citrus Co. Once those sell we are out.
Can you get a state trooper job? The next highest would be in the cities....so Nashua, Manchester, Salem.
As for schools, you always hear about bedford, Amherst, Hollis....but they come with a price....and that is expensive homes and taxes. Overall NH has excellent education systems. We are continually ranked as one of the top states for education. Pick a city or town that interests you and is near where you find work. It'll be fine.
We have narrowed our most important necessities which seems like a hard balance from what research i have done thus far.
1- low taxes
2- above average school district (6/10 rating or better)
3- LEO salary to cost of living (i believe two will do fine but can ONE do it?)
4- moderate living expenses (gas, oil, local taxes and fees, etc)
Your number 1 and 2 neccessities on your list are in conflict. The majority of any town's budget goes towards their school system. So pick one or the other.
About number 3, since you have children, I don't see how you could even consider one of you not working full time and at their full career potential. LEO's salaries pay well, so why not both of you be LEO's and pay off your NH house sooner and start saving for your children's college expenses and your retirement? For childcare, you will have your MIL.
About 4, well in the wintertime, there is no such thing as moderate gas or oil heating expenses... and our winters are very LONG and COLD, especially compared to what you are used to in Florida.
So... why are you wanting to move up to NH from Florida? Why not move to NC instead?
BTW once your Florida house sells... what kind of seed money will you have for your move and buying the next house? How much equity is in that house?
1- low taxes
2- above average school district (6/10 rating or better)
3- LEO salary to cost of living (i believe two will do fine but can ONE do it?)
4- moderate living expenses (gas, oil, local taxes and fees, etc)
People at right, 1 and 2 will be very hard to reconcile, as town taxes go towards the local schools, and even in the lower tax areas, NH has ridiculously high property taxes, and housing prices as well, houses elsewhere that sell for 250k could be as much as half a mil in desired areas, and a 4/3 will probably be 350 or so in any area with a lot of police work.
3, no way you can do it on one. My wife and I are both professionals, she's very well paid at near 70k, I less so at around 40k, and between heat, gas, and so on, we do just about comfortably in Southern NH, able to ferret away a bit of cash here and there. You'll be looking at 1-2k heating bills every year, if you're lucky, everything is a half-hour away, so expect to spend maybe 100 a week for gas if you need to commute, and miscellaneous house expenses that sometimes can't wait, like when your heat goes in the middle of winter. With children, you can't really afford not to have an emergency fund for medical expenses.
Gas is currently around $3.70/gal, but will likely go up in a year, figure on $4/gal for ease of calculation. Oil, again, around $4/gal, my 3 bedroom went through enough for almost three fills, like $1.2k if I recall (and I kept it at 62°), and don't forget plowing, if you don't shovel, that's usually $50-60 a storm, figure three a month from Dec-Feb. Car registration can vary, but tends to level out around 150/year per car in my experience, lower for older cars, but they need more work, etc. NH is, in general, a pretty expensive place to live.
In addition, remember that NH will have long winters, you'll need to find kids activities for three or four months in snow, so skiing, sledding, etc, all of which look great and are warm for a day or two, but can lose their lustre after a few pairs of wet boots. You'll need to deal with driving in snow, getting stuck, black ice, all that stuff.
I'll be a bit of a contrarian here. For 1, the OP only wanted schools rated 6 or higher. That would open up not just the primo expensive towns (Bedford/Hollis/Exeter/Amherst/Hopkinton/etc.) but somewhere like Concord/Penacook etc. where prices and taxes are liable to be more manageable, and at first glance comparable to what one would pay in Ocala.
I think the downside will be utilities (though on the upside, you'll save on air conditioning the other half of the year), and that what you can buy for $250-275k in Concord isn't quite as lavish as what you can buy in Ocala for that same price.
But cost of living in NH is high in general - not just utilities and housing prices, but you'll need clothes/gear for 4 seasons! And snow tires, etc.
Certainly I have NH friends who have carved out a happy living on less than 70k, but that's having grown up there with local family and community support - the mechanic uncle who changes your oil for free, the friend with chickens who gives you a dozen eggs, etc. I think you could do it on 1 salary, but I think you'd certainly be much more comfortable with 2, or even 1.5 salaries.
awaiting sweetbottoms tiring endless rants about NH and home heating prices..
First and foremost they should know the qualifications are not the same. They will both be sent to crossover academy in Concord and might possibly have to live on base till they are done with it. It's para military . Be prepared to be screamed at have ur feet set at a 35 degree angle while you eat and have ur beds ripped apart if they're not to military standards. My husband lived on base for 3 months. 1 three minute monitored phone call a week to spouses was all that was allowed. Can u handle that with a kid if you need the cross over? Likely u will considering you don't know NH law. Most police depts up there are in para military. I know for certain Dover is. Officers are required to turn corners military style and salute etc there.
Also if I remember correctly Florida Retirement System (FRS) does not transfer up there, they will
Have to pull out their retirement and put it in a private acct. FRS also does not accept retirement from outside source. So they will not be able to transfer it from ip there if they decide to come back. Also they need to check because with FRS sometimes once u pull ur retirement u can't reopen an account with them and if u come back to the same dept you won't be able to retire with them. We have several friends who moved to MA RI AND NH and moved back to Fla in a year or less not knowing this and had to
Change towns or depts.
Well, since you asked...Evidently my experience is always discounted because it doesn't mold to the "NH Is the most amazing place in the world cause we have no sales tax" theme. He should keep in mind though he's coming from a place where Unlike up there a/c isn't considered just a luxury, it's standard and cheap cheap cheap. Not to mention we have no such thing as a "delivery fee" on the electric , which sometimes was as much as the bill itself.
Would u not find it sticker shock to go from $50 a month 12 months a year to $250 for electric and another $400 a month in electric AND heat.. Those are not separate down here in Fla. My electric for my 1 bed room up there was more than my fathers 2500 sqft house in Fla. For one month. We lived on 1 police officer salary in NH.. And are back in florida for a reason. We didn't even have a kid, never ever would attempt that now with one. I'll take my a/c (standard in every home) place where I'm not paying $400 a month in heating for my two bedroom, Not one.. Let em learn themselves. There are plenty of threads on how expensive NH is.
And btw someone on here wanted to do their homework and evidently look up my past bills , and never did. Hmmmm
Last edited by Sweetbottoms; 06-04-2014 at 06:34 AM..
Good info sweetbottoms. I forgot about the officer training up here. I know Nashua goes thru it as well.
Here are my utility numbers...2 story colonial in Nashua...about 2200 square feet.
Water: $35 per month
Waste water: $35 per quarter
Electric: $134 for May, $155 for this past January
Heating oil: I think we spent about $1300 this year...we keep the heat between 64 and 66 degrees. I know we got at least two fill ups at $660 each.
Property taxes: damn thing keeps going up. $7000 for 2014
Good info sweetbottoms. I forgot about the officer training up here. I know Nashua goes thru it as well.
Here are my utility numbers...2 story colonial in Nashua...about 2200 square feet.
Water: $35 per month
Waste water: $35 per quarter
Electric: $134 for May, $155 for this past January
Heating oil: I think we spent about $1300 this year...we keep the heat between 64 and 66 degrees. I know we got at least two fill ups at $660 each.
Property taxes: damn thing keeps going up. $7000 for 2014
I'm pretty sure all new and transferring officers go through it. I know we did coming from Fla. Training down here is a bit of a joke and it's just day classes. NH is notorious for having one of the most rigorous police training in the country. One of the few Paramility police training bases. Funny story while my husband was there the Mayor was stayin in a hotel across the base and came out to stop all training at 5 am because he couldn't sleep with the yelling at the officers and said he found it cruel to be training them in the snow in January that early with only sweats on, they had been going all night because some jackass couldn't make his bed right.. My husband hated the marching and the fact he couldn't look down at his food while eating, it was eat, wipe, eat , wipe and if your feet came out of their required angle ur food was thrown away and you stood through the rest of the meal
Would u not find it sticker shock to go from $50 a month 12 months a year to $250 for electric and another $400 a month in electric AND heat..
Who the heck pays 250 a month up here for just electricity?? what were you running 5 hot tubs, 5 window a/c units and 5 refrigerators at the same time?
2200 sq foot house here with 2 refrigerators, I wont say we leave lights on and run the dryer for the fun of it, but we could be more energy conscious and our electric bill has never been over 125 a month.. typically its below 100..
yeah electric heat is going to cost an arm and a leg, but that's why no one up here uses it. There are many other cheaper options, personally I have the time and energy and the resources to burn wood that I can get for free. so my heating bill is almost non-existent. sure that's not an option for everyone, but there are pellet stoves, coal stoves, passives solar house design, etc etc. What you should be telling people, is do not rent a house/apartment that was built in the 1800s with no insulation and electric heat..
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