New Hampshire: the next level
May 24, 2017 7:39 AM Subscribe
This was me a few months ago. Since then, it seems much more certain that I will, in fact, be moving, so it's time for a follow-up.
You guys had some good suggestions last time, as much as I didn't really want to hear them. I'm still not thrilled about moving, but my wife has gotten a pretty good job offer in New Hampshire, and I would feel like a pretty terrible person if I kept her from taking it. The reason for the follow-up question is that the position is in either Manchester or Nashua, New Hampshire, and aside from some general stuff about Manchester being more affordable than most of New England, there weren't a lot of suggestions for the Merrimack Valley area. Most recommendations were for Massachusetts and the Seacoast. So now I'm looking for more about the Merrimack area. A few questions:
I wasn't terribly impressed by Nashua when I'd been there a few years ago. It seemed pretty soulless compared to the rest of New England - lots of new construction and chain stores. I've also heard that traffic can be lousy because of Massachusetts shoppers crossing the border for no sales tax. So it doesn't sound like Nashua would be a great place to live. Am I right about that?
I've been to Manchester, but only briefly, and it didn't make much of an impression one way or the other. It has a pretty bad reputation on things like the city-data.com forums, but there's also a strong counter-current that the bad reputation is actually the result of racism, since Manchester is really the one part of NH that's not 98+% white. So I'd like a little more information about the various neighborhoods of Manchester. Wikipedia has a list, but it doesn't say much about their respective characters. I'm looking for inner-ring suburban type neighborhoods, if possible.
There are also a few small towns around the two cities that seem somewhat nice from online research: Merrimack, Derry/Londonderry, and maybe Epping/Raymond. What do you know about those? Are they nice? Worth checking out?
Regardless of where we live, we'll be renting at first, probably for a couple of years. But we would like to put down roots, and so when we buy, we're probably going to look to stay in the same area. Our daughter is only six months old, so schools aren't a concern yet, but they will be soon.
Finally, what else do I need to know to make the move? I've heard that car registration is expensive, and my Ohio registration will expire right around the time we'd be moving, so I'm going to have to register in NH pretty much right away. I know it gets cold in the winter; that's actually a feature, not a bug to me. I've heard that not all towns have municipal water/sewer service, so I'd like to know more about well water and septic tanks. And, of course, recommendations for things to do and places to see in the area are always welcome.
We'd already planned a vacation to New Hampshire to visit her mother in June, and so now we're hoping to use that time to scout places to live and find our way around. Then we'd move at the end of July.
You guys had some good suggestions last time, as much as I didn't really want to hear them. I'm still not thrilled about moving, but my wife has gotten a pretty good job offer in New Hampshire, and I would feel like a pretty terrible person if I kept her from taking it. The reason for the follow-up question is that the position is in either Manchester or Nashua, New Hampshire, and aside from some general stuff about Manchester being more affordable than most of New England, there weren't a lot of suggestions for the Merrimack Valley area. Most recommendations were for Massachusetts and the Seacoast. So now I'm looking for more about the Merrimack area. A few questions:
I wasn't terribly impressed by Nashua when I'd been there a few years ago. It seemed pretty soulless compared to the rest of New England - lots of new construction and chain stores. I've also heard that traffic can be lousy because of Massachusetts shoppers crossing the border for no sales tax. So it doesn't sound like Nashua would be a great place to live. Am I right about that?
I've been to Manchester, but only briefly, and it didn't make much of an impression one way or the other. It has a pretty bad reputation on things like the city-data.com forums, but there's also a strong counter-current that the bad reputation is actually the result of racism, since Manchester is really the one part of NH that's not 98+% white. So I'd like a little more information about the various neighborhoods of Manchester. Wikipedia has a list, but it doesn't say much about their respective characters. I'm looking for inner-ring suburban type neighborhoods, if possible.
There are also a few small towns around the two cities that seem somewhat nice from online research: Merrimack, Derry/Londonderry, and maybe Epping/Raymond. What do you know about those? Are they nice? Worth checking out?
Regardless of where we live, we'll be renting at first, probably for a couple of years. But we would like to put down roots, and so when we buy, we're probably going to look to stay in the same area. Our daughter is only six months old, so schools aren't a concern yet, but they will be soon.
Finally, what else do I need to know to make the move? I've heard that car registration is expensive, and my Ohio registration will expire right around the time we'd be moving, so I'm going to have to register in NH pretty much right away. I know it gets cold in the winter; that's actually a feature, not a bug to me. I've heard that not all towns have municipal water/sewer service, so I'd like to know more about well water and septic tanks. And, of course, recommendations for things to do and places to see in the area are always welcome.
We'd already planned a vacation to New Hampshire to visit her mother in June, and so now we're hoping to use that time to scout places to live and find our way around. Then we'd move at the end of July.
My wife is from NH and lived in Milford, Durham and Portsmouth. She currently has family all over southern NH. One of the things that I wasn't used to is how far people drive out there for work. Almost everyone I know who lives in NH either telecommutes or commutes to Boston. Serious distance car travel just seems like a big part of life there (I don't know if that's similar to where you are now or not).
I know a couple who live in Bedford, right outside Manchester, and it seems nice enough. Sleepy, but nice enough. They found a fantastic midcentury house that was ultra cheap, and looks like a goddamn Bond villain lair. There are some really cool houses to be found hidden away in areas around Manchester. I know that Manchester is the most 'diverse' city in NH, but it's still pretty goddamn white. If you're looking to Manchester to avoid racist interactions, I don't think that's going to help. NH on a whole is pretty goddamn racist. I had to double check with my wife to see if it was just my PDX upbringing that makes it seem that way...but no, it's really just a racist place. I would say the seacoast is much less. It's racist compared to Portland, which is pretty fucking racist. On top of that, it's also a really unfriendly place to live. Not actively hostile, but just a grumpy place. Most folks I know who lived there for a little while, but then moved on to Portsmouth/Durham area. The townships surrounding it aren't much better in vibe, and you don't get any sort of city infrastructure to offset that.
Nashua is an okay place to live, and my BIL lives there. It's actually an uncharacteristically big area (where most of NH is smaller townships all smooshed together), and while I've gotten the same overall soulless vibe from huge parts of it (as you pointed out, lots of stripmall action, lots of sprawl compared to the rest of NH), but there are older pockets of it that are somewhat charming. You can find pretty good food there, and there are a couple of ethnic markets if you're into that. But if traffic is your concern, it's kind of shitty everywhere in southern NH. Loads of people commute to Mass for work (generally higher wages, compared with generally lower taxes and cheaper housing in southern NH).
If you're looking at far east as Epping, I would reconsider the seacoast area and some of townships a bit west of there, Portsmouth/Durham/Newmarket in the mix for your search. (Epping to Manchester +/-30 minutes, Newmarket to Manchester +/-40 min, Portsmouth to Manchester is 50min, and Portsmouth to Nashua is only 60min). Those are longer commutes yes, but those communities are (again, IMO only) much nicer, less racist, and just have a better overall quality of life and acces s
I've heard that car registration is expensive, and my Ohio registration will expire right around the time we'd be moving, so I'm going to have to register in NH pretty much right away.
Yeah, the inspection process is fraught at minimum. Find a guy, pay the guy well, tip the guy, pass your inspection. Granted, I'm from the PNW and I've only ever had to deal with smog shit, not overall inspection, but it was a huge shock to me as to how it is handled in NH and other states in the NE. It is very expensive, and if you don't have 'a guy' they will always be finding something to fix to pass inspection. I have known folks who have a car that's less than a year old fresh off the lot, and it has needed things to pass the inspection. It's a shitty system and fraught with corruption in my experience. Damayanti is correct, and sometimes your town will require an excise tax on your car to get the registration too.
The only upside of this system is that the BMV has minimal waits, no lines, and they are incredibly helpful and nice there.
Finally, what else do I need to know to make the move?
We have stayed with my inlaws a couple times bookending Portland-to-Portland moves and back. The one thing that struck us as really odd, is that there's very little for kids to do during the winter. There's not a ton of community centers, indoor play groups or indoor play centers. It made the few months we stayed there during the winter really difficult. Even compared to other places in the NE, NH seems really anti-kid (or at least kid-oblivious). This doesn't seem to bother folks who had their kids in the area, but it was a pretty big adjustment to us being thrown into the situation.
This is true for houses, but especially important for rentals; check on what kind of heating the unit/building uses. Reasonable rent can quickly be blown to all fuck because a house has no insulation and oil heating. Many towns are aggressively installing gas lines, but sometimes there can be a several-season wait for this to take place.
posted by furnace.heart at 12:46 PM on May 24, 2017 [2 favorites]
I know a couple who live in Bedford, right outside Manchester, and it seems nice enough. Sleepy, but nice enough. They found a fantastic midcentury house that was ultra cheap, and looks like a goddamn Bond villain lair. There are some really cool houses to be found hidden away in areas around Manchester. I know that Manchester is the most 'diverse' city in NH, but it's still pretty goddamn white. If you're looking to Manchester to avoid racist interactions, I don't think that's going to help. NH on a whole is pretty goddamn racist. I had to double check with my wife to see if it was just my PDX upbringing that makes it seem that way...but no, it's really just a racist place. I would say the seacoast is much less. It's racist compared to Portland, which is pretty fucking racist. On top of that, it's also a really unfriendly place to live. Not actively hostile, but just a grumpy place. Most folks I know who lived there for a little while, but then moved on to Portsmouth/Durham area. The townships surrounding it aren't much better in vibe, and you don't get any sort of city infrastructure to offset that.
Nashua is an okay place to live, and my BIL lives there. It's actually an uncharacteristically big area (where most of NH is smaller townships all smooshed together), and while I've gotten the same overall soulless vibe from huge parts of it (as you pointed out, lots of stripmall action, lots of sprawl compared to the rest of NH), but there are older pockets of it that are somewhat charming. You can find pretty good food there, and there are a couple of ethnic markets if you're into that. But if traffic is your concern, it's kind of shitty everywhere in southern NH. Loads of people commute to Mass for work (generally higher wages, compared with generally lower taxes and cheaper housing in southern NH).
If you're looking at far east as Epping, I would reconsider the seacoast area and some of townships a bit west of there, Portsmouth/Durham/Newmarket in the mix for your search. (Epping to Manchester +/-30 minutes, Newmarket to Manchester +/-40 min, Portsmouth to Manchester is 50min, and Portsmouth to Nashua is only 60min). Those are longer commutes yes, but those communities are (again, IMO only) much nicer, less racist, and just have a better overall quality of life and acces s
I've heard that car registration is expensive, and my Ohio registration will expire right around the time we'd be moving, so I'm going to have to register in NH pretty much right away.
Yeah, the inspection process is fraught at minimum. Find a guy, pay the guy well, tip the guy, pass your inspection. Granted, I'm from the PNW and I've only ever had to deal with smog shit, not overall inspection, but it was a huge shock to me as to how it is handled in NH and other states in the NE. It is very expensive, and if you don't have 'a guy' they will always be finding something to fix to pass inspection. I have known folks who have a car that's less than a year old fresh off the lot, and it has needed things to pass the inspection. It's a shitty system and fraught with corruption in my experience. Damayanti is correct, and sometimes your town will require an excise tax on your car to get the registration too.
The only upside of this system is that the BMV has minimal waits, no lines, and they are incredibly helpful and nice there.
Finally, what else do I need to know to make the move?
We have stayed with my inlaws a couple times bookending Portland-to-Portland moves and back. The one thing that struck us as really odd, is that there's very little for kids to do during the winter. There's not a ton of community centers, indoor play groups or indoor play centers. It made the few months we stayed there during the winter really difficult. Even compared to other places in the NE, NH seems really anti-kid (or at least kid-oblivious). This doesn't seem to bother folks who had their kids in the area, but it was a pretty big adjustment to us being thrown into the situation.
This is true for houses, but especially important for rentals; check on what kind of heating the unit/building uses. Reasonable rent can quickly be blown to all fuck because a house has no insulation and oil heating. Many towns are aggressively installing gas lines, but sometimes there can be a several-season wait for this to take place.
posted by furnace.heart at 12:46 PM on May 24, 2017 [2 favorites]
This thread is closed to new comments.
You'll also have the cost of a thorough safety inspection on top of the registration fees, as opposed to Ohio where there really isn't one. These are done at licensed mechanics; most shops will do them (they'll have a sign that says OFFICIAL INSPECTION STATION). If there are any major problems, you get a temporary inspection sticker, and will have some amount of time to fix them, but you do need to do them. Do not try to fake your sticker using a slice of cheese.
posted by damayanti at 12:18 PM on May 24, 2017 [1 favorite]