Live Free or Die

[Irish]

I'm interested in learning more about New Hampshire as a place to relocate. We're still about 2 years away, so nothing urgent, but I do want to learn more about the area. What are the pros and cons of living there? The Free State Project guys compiled a pretty good list of 101 reasons to move there.

We have 2 little guys, 3yo and 1yo, so schools, community and that type of thing will be important to us. I'd like to have enough property to have a nice garden and a small "hobby farm" if at all possible. Does this sound feasible?

I've spent some time in NY, upstate which is fantastic, and Manhattan, and Boston as well, but I haven't spent any time in NH. My wife's sister lives near Syracuse, NY and her brother lives in Boston so we're definitely gonna be somewhere in the NE. Is there anywhere else we should be considering?

This is mostly a feeler thread and I'd appreciate any input, thoughts or considerations that you might have. Thanks!

Live Free or Die.

[Bearded_Brometheus]

You might find http://freestateproject.org informative. Bunch of info on all your queries. I'm hoping to move over there one of these days myself.

[vandal5]

Any particular area in NH you were looking at? Just like other states there nice places and other places I wouldn't want to live. How many acres of land were you looking at? As long as you don't mind a bit of a drive off the highway you can probably what you are looking for. If you pick the right town you could land in a good school district without high taxes. Guessing you have read already about the no income or sales tax. I have lived in NH my whole life, when the wife and I were looking to buy we had wanted to be in the Derry area but found that we got a little more house for the money and lower property taxes above Concord. From here I am about an hour from Portsmouth area and I can be at the MA border in about 45 min with no traffic.

[Irish]

vandal5 - I've been looking at the City-Data forum and using a map to look at locations thus far. From what I know right now, I would guess somewhere in the triangle of Portsmouth, Concord and Nashua. We'd like to be within an hour'ish of Boston for museums and fun city stuff for the kids, along with the brother-in-law living in Reading. The SIL lives 30 miles east of Syracuse so I'm sure we'll be doing that drive once a month or so too.

Good schools and a nice family kind of area are very important to us, obviously. We'd like to be a little rural, but definitely not in the sticks. Maybe even just in an area with houses on a decent sized property, like an acre.

Out of curiosity what about Derry prompted you to want to live there? What does the Concord area lack in regards to Derry or it's amenities?

As far as land goes, I'd be happy with an acre, but a couple more would be nice as well. Nothing huge, but I'm tired of living on top of people.

[mattg1024]

I live in Southern Maine and work in NH. Worst thing I can think of is property taxes are pretty high, vehicle registrations high. No state taxes though. Very laid back firearm laws. I work 10 mins from Portsmouth. Like Vandal said, a bit north is nice, alot of room, but not much going on. Which isn't always a bad thing.

[Irish]

I live in Southern Maine and work in NH. Worst thing I can think of is property taxes are pretty high, vehicle registrations high. No state taxes though. Very laid back firearm laws. I work 10 mins from Portsmouth. Like Vandal said, a bit north is nice, alot of room, but not much going on. Which isn't always a bad thing.

Any benefits to living in Maine versus NH? We're not stuck on going there, I'm just trying to explore the idea with gun people, since a lot of us tend to have similar ideas on freedoms and such.

ETA - Property taxes aren't terrible here in Vegas but our car registration is about $600 a year per car. Although, as a vet, I get a pretty good discount on that.

[vandal5]

vandal5 - I've been looking at the City-Data forum and using a map to look at locations thus far. From what I know right now, I would guess somewhere in the triangle of Portsmouth, Concord and Nashua. We'd like to be within an hour'ish of Boston for museums and fun city stuff for the kids, along with the brother-in-law living in Reading. The SIL lives 30 miles east of Syracuse so I'm sure we'll be doing that drive once a month or so too.

Good schools and a nice family kind of area are very important to us, obviously. We'd like to be a little rural, but definitely not in the sticks. Maybe even just in an area with houses on a decent sized property, like an acre.

Out of curiosity what about Derry prompted you to want to live there? What does the Concord area lack in regards to Derry or it's amenities?

As far as land goes, I'd be happy with an acre, but a couple more would be nice as well. Nothing huge, but I'm tired of living on top of people.

Derry used to have a good school district from 1-12 when we lived there. I even went to Pinkerton Academy which is in Derry. Just from talking to my wife who grew up in the town we now live in she said it seems like my HS was a bit better than the one she went to. Of course with expensive schools come higher taxes.

As for Concord I live north of the city near NHMS. I like it, it's nice and quite but I am still pretty close to anything would need. The mall in Concord is not the best but Manchester is not too far away and neither are the outlets up in Tilton. You can get down to Boston pretty easily (google maps says 1hr 7 min) and there a quite a few things to do in Manchester, with the Fisher Cats and Monarchs. The ocean is not too far and neither is going up to the mountains for skiing. We mostly moved up here because it was closer to her family and when we were buying (2008ish pretty much the worst time...) we just found we were able to get more for our money a little further up north.

If you are looking for an acre of land you should have no problem finding that as long as you are not looking down town in one of the bigger cities...


for school districts check out:
http://www.zillow.com/derry-nh/schoo...m%2Cmid%2Chigh
Might have some good info for you. You can change the search by typing in the town name and also pick which grades you want.

There are shooting ranges around here and there so you should be able to find one. If you live out in the sticks enough you may even be able to shoot in your own back yard.


As to your question about living/working out of state. When I lived in NH and worked out if MA I still had to pay MA income tax.


Hope that helps

[SOW_0331]

I was in your position about a year ago, difference being I grew up here. I had enough of CA even though I was making a lot...a damn lot. Packed up a UHaul and drove across the country and never looked back.

Northwood is known for great schools. Residents go to Coe Brown for high school, but outsiders pay really well to get their kids in. All the local schools are fairly good. I had my girls in a daycare center in a different town that was on a farm, and every day the kids went on small hikes and took care of the animals in between their little class times. A very different culture for sure.

You'll find really good houses for great prices, and the property taxes are something people tend to bitch about because there's not much else to bitch about. I live in a really old "city" near Portsmouth and it's pretty awesome with local history and such.

Yeah, your idea is entirely feasible. And you'll probably never regret it. There's been rumors of the Mass lib attitude sneaking in, and in some little ways it's true. But lately, and all through my life that I can remember, there's a real sense of community being involved in local politics. All the Bloomberg proposed bullshit was killed recently, by a long shot. Not only was his bill shot down, the state went ahead and made some follow on laws to ensure the continued freedom of everything he was trying to restrict. There's a lot of Democrats, but they're the old school kind that were concerned with the actions of a government that wasn't dictated by the people. In most of NH, democrat and liberal are NOT synonymous.

Also, I just realized there's a New England sub forum...if anyone in the area wants to shoot, really shoot, let me know!

[Ranger86]

I live and work in the seacoast area of nh. I think it is one of the best places in the US to live. I have the ocean about 20 minutes away and the mountains about 60 miles away. One weekend at the beach and the next camping in the middle of the wilderness, It is an expensive area, but we'll worth it. Property taxes are high, my town is $27 per 1k but no income tax or sales tax. Great place to live.

typos courtesy of my smart phone

[WillBrink]

I'm interested in learning more about New Hampshire as a place to relocate. We're still about 2 years away, so nothing urgent, but I do want to learn more about the area. What are the pros and cons of living there? The Free State Project guys compiled a pretty good list of 101 reasons to move there.

We have 2 little guys, 3yo and 1yo, so schools, community and that type of thing will be important to us. I'd like to have enough property to have a nice garden and a small "hobby farm" if at all possible. Does this sound feasible?

I've spent some time in NY, upstate which is fantastic, and Manhattan, and Boston as well, but I haven't spent any time in NH. My wife's sister lives near Syracuse, NY and her brother lives in Boston so we're definitely gonna be somewhere in the NE. Is there anywhere else we should be considering?

This is mostly a feeler thread and I'd appreciate any input, thoughts or considerations that you might have. Thanks!

Live Free or Die.

Lived in NH for some years in the Keene area. My mother lived there for long time. Just depends on what you want from a place. Rural, cold as fu#$ in winter, dark, and snow, was not what I wanted personally. You can find it's culture, laws, etc, at freestate project.