I lived in Durham for a little over a year and spend a lot of time in New Hampshire further north. But my brother still lives in Durham which is not where you want to live as its a college town and all you hear is fart cans, super bikes, and drunk kids all year long. Exeter is a nice area to live still close to the sea coast, not far from Boston, also Phillips Exeter Academy is in the town which is a great boarding/day school. I would try and stay in New Hampshire as the tax aspect is nice. If you are going to look in Mass. Andover is a nice town that I have spent time in. But New Hampshire has plenty to offer if you like to ski and enjoy the outdoors. The Exeter area is great because you are not far from the NH Sea Coast, Portsmouth is a fun town, a hour drive south your in Boston, a hour north your in the mountains, and the NH Lakes Region, where Lake Winnipesaukee, and Squam lake are as well as other. If you need a realtor to help find some places in NH PM me I know some people personally that could help you. If you don't mind being further North in the Lake Region there are some awesome places to buy that you could be on the water, in the Wolfeboro, Tuftonboro, and Alton area. Either way let me know I can help you out.

 

forget ASSMASS. roads are terrible full of pot holes and very high taxes my bet would be on NH/CT/VT or even souther RI.

 

I live in Dover, NH and have been in tech for 15 years. As someone has mentioned Pease Tradeport in Portsmouth is a great place to start a tech company. Many people in this area rode the tech bubble primarily in the networking industry.

 

so true, so true

I love mass though if you can afford it

 

The roads are pretty terrible.

Summers and Fall are nice though.