Lebanon area Information

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Real estate

Real estate in the Lebanon area (including Hanover and Enfield) is generally cheaper than the more populated southeast part of the state, however Hanover itself is a little more expensive.  I would estimate the prices in Lebanon at comparable to Keene and in Enfield at slightly less.  While we were in the area we looked at land in Enfield as well as houses in Enfield and Lebanon.  Here's a sampling:

Land:

Enfield - $37,900, 2.25 ac. on Shaker Hill Road.  This plot is near 4A on Shaker Hill Road.  The commute is easy to I-89 (10 minutes or so).  The lot is wooded and not exactly level, but not overly hilly. 

Enfield - $39,900, 13.7 ac. on 4A.  This plot is very near the above plot and is also an easy commute to I-89 (about 10 minutes).  This piece of land has ROW access (it's currently a gravel driveway) off of 4A.  The land is heavily wooded and hilly. 

Homes:

Enfield - $280,000, 4 bed / 3 1/2 bath / 8 room, on Fitzgerald Dr.  This home is on a nice street.  It was built in 1989 and looks reasonably new.  It has a finished basement and is just a few minutes from 4A (near the above land listings).  It is listed for $280,000.

West Lebanon - $229,000, 6 bed / 2 1/2 bath / 11 room, on Dana St.  This appears to be a two family home but could probably be converted back to single family use easily.  It's in a very convenient location (right near the bridge to Vermont) and is in a decent (though certainly not upscale by any means) area with some houses and shopping.  It has a detached three-car garage (or so it appeared).  It looks to be fairly large, and was probably built in the early 1900's.

Commerce and Restaurants

One of the big advantages of the Lebanon area is the shopping available.  While Lebanon itself is lower in population than Keene, the combination of Lebanon, Hanover, Enfield and the people on the Vermont side of the river (as well as other surrounding communities) gives it a larger commercial base than Keene.  As a result, we saw a couple of things there that we didn't find in Keene.  Most notable was a Best Buy, a discount-club warehouse type place (ala Sam's Club / Costco / etc.), and a Denny's. 

The Dartmouth area (Hanover) also features a nifty downtown area that has a distinctive college feel to it.  There is also a fantastic medical facility in the area (the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center).  There is a movie theater in Lebanon, though it looked smallish like Keene's. 

Specific shopping places we saw:  Wal-Mart, JCPenny, Sears, Shaw's (grocery store), Best Buy, Staples, Borders, Payless Shoes, and the UPS store.  In other words, with the addition of Best Buy (and the warehouse place), Lebanon and Keene are nearly identical.  There is also the Powerhouse Mall (or maybe it was Powerhouse Mill Mall).  We didn't go in, but it appears to be similar to the Colony Mill Marketplace in Keene, though maybe not as upscale.

Tmobile cellular service ends northeast of Concord on I-89 and does not ever pick up again.  There is no Tmobile service in the Lebanon area, however we did see several stores offering cellular service there so I presume some other carriers have service there.  I do not know if high speed Internet access is available but I assume it is.

Other

In many ways Lebanon reminded us of Keene, though a little more spread out.  The areas we looked at were really broken into 4 parts: Lebanon, West Lebanon, Hanover, and Enfield.  West Lebanon is predominantly shopping oriented with all the new store near the Vermont border (presumably to pick up business from Vermont's tax evaders).  Lebanon seems like a larger but fairly typical small town in Western New Hampshire.  Hanover is an upscale college town and it shows.  And finally Enfield is basically a big Shaker area around a lake which is nice but country feeling.  Of all the country 'towns' we visited, it was one of the nicer ones.  It also has relatively easy access to I-89, and the Lebanon area (10-15 minutes depending on where you're going). 

Drive times are listed on the statewide page.  We didn't experience any traffic or weather from Lebanon to Concord and I tend to drive a little on the fast side so the time listed from Lebanon to Manchester is less than from Keene to Concord, however, the mileage is more.  The road is all 4-lane or better which is an advantage over Keene, but I don't know how that affects winter driving.  On one hand, 4-lanes would appear to be a benefit from the 2-lane road from Keene to Manchester.  On the other hand, the mileage is more so unless there is a significant difference in speed, it may well be quicker from Keene to Manchester.  Also, for airport service, Keene also offers the option of Hartford, CT and Lebanon also offers the option of Burlington, VT.  Both are accessible primarily via interstate. 

While driving around Lebanon, we noticed several help-wanted signs.  We didn't notice a lot of them in other areas of the state.  This led me to believe that there may be more jobs available in the Lebanon area than elsewhere in the state.  The signs, however, were at establishments that may not pay stellar wages.  I didn't find out what the wage rates were, but if working a job or two for low wages is an option, I would recommend further investigating the Lebanon area.

While we were there the weather was absolutely beautiful (keep in mind, this was in November).  I understand, though, that the weather generally is not as nice in the Lebanon area as it is further south in the state, and particularly near the seacoast.

Copyright 2003 Varrin Swearingen - to reproduce in any way (in whole or in part), please contact the author at: varrin at varrin dot com.