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My wife, daughter (2.5 Y/O), and I are thinking about moving somewhere in NH. We are looking for a house potentially in the Portsmouth Area (Not Portsmouth itself), Concord Area, or the Merrimack Valley Area. We are in our early 30s and wanted to ask a few questions.
1. What is it like living in each of these places? Portsmouth or Concord seems to be a really nice cities to have as our go-to while still living out in a more rural area.
2. How is the commute going into each every every morning? Are NH people open to entrepreneurship? What is the job market like in these areas for IT professionals? I would NOT want to commute to Boston for work.
3. Do any of these towns have a good/welcoming community?
4. What are some negatives about the area? Stagnant housing market, job growth, etc.?
5. I know the schools are pretty good in these areas, but what is the school tax like?
6. What are some other family-friendly suburban/rural areas that we should look with reasonable home prices? (Note: Good Schools)
7. Any crime to worry about? What is the diversity like? (my wife is Asian).
8. How are the restaurants and food?
We find people to be very friendly in the area and feel like it would be no issue making friends. We live in the greater Boston area now so we're already used to the cold.
Outside of manchester and maybe nashua, there is virtually no crime in nh. Nobody cares that your wife is Asian, in nh we respect people that respect others but dont expert diversity, nh is one of the whitest states in the country.
NH has the lowest unemployment in the country, there is a major shortage of skilled labor, no shortage of jobs. Real estate prices continue to rise as the built up towns run out of land and the more rural towns enact zoning to block over development.
Living in greater boston, you are close enough to commute to concord/portsmouth for a limited period. I would find the job first, then pick the school, then select the town, then find the house. Do a quick search on one of the real estate websites, people around boston assume Portsmouth is cheap but may be surprised. Also take a hard look at property taxes but remember there is no income or sales tax. Property taxes vary greatly by town; we pay $5k, same house one mile down the road in the next town pays over $10k.
Outside of manchester and maybe nashua, there is virtually no crime in nh. Nobody cares that your wife is Asian, in nh we respect people that respect others but dont expert diversity, nh is one of the whitest states in the country.
NH has the lowest unemployment in the country, there is a major shortage of skilled labor, no shortage of jobs. Real estate prices continue to rise as the built up towns run out of land and the more rural towns enact zoning to block over development.
Living in greater boston, you are close enough to commute to concord/portsmouth for a limited period. I would find the job first, then pick the school, then select the town, then find the house. Do a quick search on one of the real estate websites, people around boston assume Portsmouth is cheap but may be surprised. Also take a hard look at property taxes but remember there is no income or sales tax. Property taxes vary greatly by town; we pay $5k, same house one mile down the road in the next town pays over $10k.
Portsmouth is absolutely not cheap. It's a great town, but cheap it isn't! *lol*
Property taxes are generally quite high, because there is no income or sales tax, though the overall tax burden is still lower than most states. Since you can control where you live, you have a lot of control over the taxes you'll pay. Most of the property tax goes to schools.
There are a couple of areas with lower property tax rates. One is the Portsmouth area, which I believe has lower rates because the property values are generally high (=> houses are expensive). Another is the Lakes region (Meredith, Wolfeboro, and others up in that area). I believe the rates are lower there because there are many vacation homes (people paying property tax, but using very little services - especially schools). A third is the Sunapee region (Sunapee, New London, and others), which I believe has lower rates for the same reason as the Lakes region. There are probably others, you can peruse the tax rates from the link above.
You haven't said what you're looking for in a city that you're living in. Many cities are really just residential, with no restaurants, stores, etc. How important that is to you will have a big influence on where you want to look.
Regarding schools, I'll share my personal experience. Schools are not magic. Teachers present the information. If a student has trouble learning it, it's up to the parents to help them. The difference between a 'good' school and a 'bad' school has very little to do with the school, and a lot to do with the parents of the other students, and how much they value education. There's value in that, but it shouldn't be confused with believing the 'good' schools are doing anything different or better than the 'bad' schools, they aren't.
Thanks so much! We really like the idea of being close to Portsmouth but understand that money does not go as far around there. We were also thinking about Concord but have never been there (is it a decent town for jobs, places to eat, etc?). In terms of what we're looking for in a town, this would be mainly the following:
1. Community
2. Reasonable Home-Prices and Land size
3. Decent Schools
4. Reasonable Commute to Portsmouth, Concord, or Manchester (depending on the area - prefer Portsmouth)
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