Hi Everyone,

I currently reside in Washington State in the Seattle Area.

My wife and I would like to move to New England, we have lots of family in eastern Canada and this would keep us in the US but allow us to be close enough (and far enough, hehehe) from our Families.

We have been thinking of Mass. or New Hampshire, I would like to be "close-ish" to Boston, but I read that NH has great taxes.

Here are our intentions:
- Find a nice place in the $1.25-$1.5m range. Have a large yard, a few acres would be great and we need 4 bdrooms.
- Establish a new tech startup.

We are looking to move this fall and have listed our home here and seem to be getting plenty of interest in it. I have a work obligation that I "should" be able to negotiate out of by summer (if not it will have to be next april, but I hope not).

So I guess what I'm asking is what areas would be nice to live in, have good schools, low crime, big lots, nice homes and be situated "Close" to a good place to start a tech company? We will be touring the area at the beginning of July, but I want to do some research first!

Thank-you in advance,
Seth

 

NH is great, forget MA. If you want to be close to Boston, on or near the coast (which has the mildest winter weather) look at Seabrook and Hampton. Rye is very nice but expensive. A little further up the coast is Portsmouth, nice cosmopolitan town with various living options. Good industrial area for a company at the Pease airport trade park. Just inland from the bay behind Portsmouth is Durham where the main University of New Hampshire campus is located, lots of nice housing there and the surrounding towns. The biggest city is Manchester, followed by Nashua but I think you'll find the smaller towns more to your liking. Dartmouth College is located in the north in Hanover, near the VT border and closer to Canada. Very nice up there, and they have the best medical facilities in the state, of course the winters are longer.

Check out www.freestateproject.org for lots of NH info.

 

Very cool, I've got a map up and am looking at where these towns (Seabrook and Hampton) are located! Would these towns be considered like suberbs of bigger towns? I've been to VT a few times, nice, but I want to avoid horribly long winters! hehehe.

Seth

 

I cant help you much about good places to buy a house or start a Tech Co because I have never owned a house and I dont know too much about NH other than it is a beautiful state. Very nice roads and lots to do. I live in Southern Maine and I usually do most of my riding in NH as its only 35 mins away. The only thing that sucks is the horribly long winters up here.
I'd stay out of Boston IMO.
Good luck.

 

Maine is another state that interests me. I read some demographics and it appears to be underpopulated (which is nice), but I'm not sure how the hiring pool for tech would be. Is there a tech scene there?

Are the taxes high? What are peoples opinions about NH taxes? Is it a really good deal or do they molest you with property tax?

 

Regarding taxes, NH is the second or third lowest overall in the nation, Maine is the first or second highest. NH has no personal income tax and no general sales tax, however, the property taxes are fairly high but vary quite a bit depending on the town. Maine has income tax, sales tax and high property tax. We have spent some summers in Maine, but I wouldn't live there year around due to the taxes.

NH doesn't have any really big towns, Manchester is only about 105,000. There are lots of small towns that are close together but not really suburbs in the normal sense- they each have their own downtown, schools and identity. For example, Exeter is inland behind Hampton, close to I-95 and has direct train service to Boston but is the home of Exeter Academy prep school and has a typical New England downtown area. They are only about a 25 min. drive to Manchester and about an hour to Boston but don't consider Exeter to be a suburb of either.

 

Yea, Maine has really high taxes. Everyone up here is always talking about how much better life is in NH. We even had a story about it in our local news talking about the lower taxes and how easier it is to start & run a business But it is a nice place besides that and the looong winters. You dont have to worry about someone car jacking you or anything like that (for the most part). I would like to move south someday myself, to get away from the snow.

Im not too sure about the tech scene. Im not too fimiliar with the industry....I'm a cad drafter at a local engineering firm in Southern Maine.

I wish I could help you out more but I got to be honest... I'm still a young grasshopper working my way up and Im not really sure about where you could buy a nice house for over $1M and start your new business. But if there is anything else I could help you out with just let me know.

 

Ok! Is everyone wearing a gun in NH? I love guns (well I like shooting them anyways), but I'm not to sure how I would feel about people just wearing them while eating cheeseburgers and stuff... looks like a very politically active state.

 

What makes you think everyone wears a gun? lol

 

LOL, no you rarely see people wearing side arms although open carry is legal. CCW permits are easy to obtain from your local PD so there is no real need for open carry. A few activists do, just to make a point. It has always been a politically active state, has a large (400 plus) citizen legislature whose members are only paid $100/year. The governor is only elected to a two year term so there is a lot of activity. Concord is the state capital but has a small town feel. You can walk right in to the capitol building and talk to the officials.

 

YouTube! hehehe.

Seth.

 

Driving distances in NH are quite short compared to the western US. Along the coast it's only 20 miles from Portsmouth to Seabrook. You can get from the coastal area to Manchester on the 101 freeway in less than an hour. However, driving down to Boston can be a pain. There are some real traffic bottlenecks and congested areas, sort of like some parts of the Seattle area. The Amtrak Downeaster train runs about 5 times a day from southern Maine, through southern NH down to Boston. The train makes three stops in NH- Exeter, Durham and Dover. That may be a consideration if you plan to go down there often. Manchester has excellent air service because Southwest has a hub there. There is also some commercial air service to Pease airport in Portsmouth.

 

Regarding your tech company, you have lots of tech savvy people in Massachusetts and southern NH. The entire area (esp Mass) is highly educated in general. NH is great for the no income tax, but the property taxes are very high so that is definately something to consider if your planning on living in a high value house. If you hate long winters, you should definately look to stay south of Manchester, NH. I am about 30 minutes south of Manchester and I think winter is much too long already in Mass. In general, I personally think the education and healh care facilites are much stronger in Mass. I think you should come out for a month or so and take a look around at the different regions firsthand. New England is absolutely gorgeous for 3 seasons (the winter is a killer). Please keep us updated on what you decide to do.

 

Well, you can head out to Nantucket during the summer months... no place better to be healthy and relax!

 

I live in the Boston North suburbs, about 20 miles north of Boston and 20 miles south of the NH border right on Route 95. You could get a decent 4 bedroom house here in your stated range, but you might have to settle for 2 to 3 acres instead of "several." We chose this particular town (Middleton) because I held two jobs at the time, one in Boston and one in southern NH (Stratham/Exeter). I think this distance is a good compromise. It's not too far from the Big City and all it has to offer (culture, Celtics/Bruins/Red Sox, fine dining, etc.) while neighbors aren't piled on top of each other. My house abuts the Ipswich River. All it takes is a couple of minutes of kayaking and I pretty much can leave civilization behind.