Western Information
Real estate
We looked at a lot of towns and real estate in the western portion of
the state. Generally speaking the areas west of the 3 corridor and
south of I-89 are somewhat less expensive than the areas around the
bigger cities and in the southeast part of the state. With the
exception of Keene, that area of the state is made up of scattered small
towns.
Land:
Milford - $99,900, 2.13 ac on
Maple Street. This lot is in Milford but reportedly has Wilton
water (and sewer?). It is near the border. The area it is in
is near a factory and is not overly attractive, though not overly
ugly. It is on a hill which overlooks the factory and the
river. The high prices is presumably because of it's proximity to
Nashua (drive time roughly 30 minutes).
Hillsborough - $8000 ~ $25000,
.25 - 1 ac lots in Emerald Lake Development. These lots are
numerous and listed at inexpensive sale prices. They are in a
community with an association, private dirt roads, a private water
system, and lake access (with some facilities). The lots are
smallish and the houses are a mix ranging from reasonably nice but not
large to rather trashy (in our opinion anyway). I suspect the
people are perfectly nice and you could have an inexpensive home there
but it's not the kind of place I would choose to live.
Hillsborough ~$40,000+, 2+ acre
lots on Mary Rowe. These lots are near but outside the Emerald
Lake District on paved public roads. The surrounding houses are
much nicer (several brand new colonials) and the lots are substantially
bigger.
Hillsborough ~ $40,000+,
2± acre lots on Sawmill. These lots are heavily wooded and
(according to MLS) back up to a river (stream, whatever). The
neighborhood has a slightly rural feeling to it (lot sizes in the 2-5
acre range I'd guess) but it is near town.
Tilton - $65,000, 5-7 acre lots
on Calef Hill. These lots are just a few minutes from town on a
nice street with primarily nice newer houses. These are the kind
of lots that an upper middle class family with a larger (2200-2500 sq.
ft.) house would be very comfortable on. They are near a middle
school and relatively close to shopping (I'd say 10 minutes or so from
Wal-Mart, outlet mall, fast food, etc.).
We didn't have time to look at houses in the western part of the
state. We also essentially didn't do any actually 'shopping' in
Concord. Other lots are available in other towns and that
information is readily available from the MLS. General information
about the areas is below.
Commerce and Restaurants
Concord is the capital city of
New Hampshire (population 41,000) and is home to pretty much every kind
of store and restaurant you would need or want. The downtown area
has small boutique type shops and restaurants and there are department
stores, malls, etc. Concord has high speed Internet access and
cell phone service.
Tilton is a small town (3,500
people) but has remarkably good shopping and eating for a town its
size. It is home to the outlet mall which features 50
manufacturers outlet stores with all kinds of goods. There is also
a super Wal-Mart, Staples, Shaw's (grocery store), an Applebees, KFC,
Wendy's, McDonald's, Burger King, the Tilton Diner, Subway, and several
other things I've probably forgotten by now. There is also a
'downtown' area in Tilton that has some smaller shops but it's not as
large as Keene's or certainly Concord's. I don't know if there is
high speed Internet access in Tilton but my T-Mobile cell phone works
there.
Hillsborough is a town of 5100
people in a somewhat less accessible area of western New
Hampshire. There aren't many things there now but there is a
shopping center under construction which, I believe, will feature a
grocery store (probably a chain). There's a McDonalds there but
otherwise it's all local eating establishments. There is a Ford
dealership there and there is a Sylvania plant of some sort there
(probably the big employer in the area). I saw a Verizon Wireless
store in Hillsborough but my T-Mobile phone did not work there.
Henniker is a small town and
there's really not much there. It's closer to Concord than
Hillsborough so if you like small town life (no chain stores, etc.),
that's probably a nice place for you to go.
Hopkinton is close to 89 and is
a very cute looking town. I don't recall there being much there in
the way of shopping or eating but the town itself has nice homes and is
attractive.
Franklin is west of Tilton and
is decidedly more run down. There are gas stations and what not
but I didn't find any major stores or restaurants.
Weare and Goffstown are closer
to Manchester (see drive times at the end of this page) and, I believe,
are growing as a result of their proximity. Unfortunately we
didn't get to see either one of them in the light so I'm not exactly
sure what's there.
101 (and 101A) between Manchester and/or Nashua and Keene features many
smaller towns (Milford, Wilton, Dublin, Peterborough, Marlboro,
etc.). None of them are very big. Once you get a ways away
from Nashua and/or Manchester the level of commercial creature comforts
decreases considerably. Cell service (at least T-mobile) on that
route is spotty to non-existent west of Milford (or so) all the way
until fairly close to Keene.
Churches
There are plenty of Churches around western New Hampshire. Every
town has at least one and larger towns may have several. We didn't
actually visit (i.e. get out of the car and/or actually go to a service)
any except one in Peterborough.
Monadnock Congregational Church was recommended to us by Thom Simmons
after we described generally what we normally look for in a
church. It is in Peterborough with is roughly half way (time wise)
between Nashua and Keene on Highway 101. We visited there on
Sunday, November 9, for their 10:00 coffee and 10:30 service. We
drove that morning from Nashua and arrived right around 10:00.
Having driven by the day before we thought the church was fairly large
(I estimated maybe between 200 and 300). However, the whole
building the church is in is not occupied solely by the church.
Part of it that looked like classrooms is actually other businesses (a
hair salon, for example).
The parking in the front is deceivingly small. Most of the people
park in the back of the building and there's a back door there. I
would estimate the main sanctuary seats as many as 200 and I'm guessing
there might have been 125 to 150 there that morning. We began by
going downstairs where they have coffee and socialize prior to the
service. We were warmly greeted and the people there introduced
themselves and then to the others around them.
There demographics were a bit spotty. It didn't look like there
were many 20's singles and couples there or many late 40's to late 50's
people. There seemed to be a split mostly between 30's-40's
couples with children (and, hence, their young through teenage
children), and roughly retirement plus people.
The service began with music which was a combination of songs from a
hymnal and a couple of contemporary choruses. The singing was only
accompanied by a piano (one song later in the service they traded the
piano for a guitar). There was a small choir and one soloist who
was quite good. There was also a drama near the beginning of the
service. It was well done and one of the actors in particular was
quite funny.
The church is going through the 40 Days of Purpose series put together
by Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in southern California (a somewhat
larger church ;). A couple of people in the church mentioned that
the church has been going through 'a time of transition' which we
deduced (from other comments) meant growth. There was some
implication that the growth was caused partly by doing the 40 Days of
Purpose series but I didn't press for statistics (it'd be a small sample
anyhow). The message was delivered by Pastor Tim Jantos who did a
fine job. It was well presented, good material, and nothing stuck
out that would raise any big red flags for either of us.
The church had what I would call a small church feel. I suspect
the people there might consider it a larger church feel but it seemed as
though everyone knew each other and would be happy to accept more people
into their group.
Based on our two church attending experiences, we believe it'd be
possible for us to find an environment to fit into in New Hampshire but
it will not be what we're used to. I didn't get enough of a feel
from this experience (or our time at Grace Fellowship in Nashua) to know
if the people there in New Hampshire would be open to significant
'outside' influence in their churches. For those of us desiring a
strong arts program, we may have a more difficult time finding the right
fit.
Other
Drive times for some of the towns in Western NH are listed on the
statewide page. The roads in the
western portion of NH are mostly good but mostly 2-lane.
Navigating with a good map was not particularly difficult as most of
the 2-lane roads do have some sort of signs indicating what they are
(as opposed to some streets in towns which are not marked well).
We visited a lot of towns, some of which were simply drive-by's.
Probably the best I can do is just summarize the 'look and feel' of each
one here.
Concord
Concord is a short drive (15 minutes or so) north of Manchester on I-93
which is a toll road between Manchester and Concord. At the south
end of town, I-89 splits off and goes northwest. I-93 continue
through town and to point north. The town is larger (over 40,000
people) and, as a result, has most any creature comfort a person could
need. The downtown area has shops and is near the capital.
We ate in Concord a couple of times at fast food restaurants and a
Chinese Buffet. We didn't spend a lot of time there but it seems
as though that would be a nice town to live in, particularly if you
wanted to be near the government center of New Hampshire for some reason.
Tilton
Tilton is a small town right on I-93 about 20 minutes north of
Concord. It is in the lakes region tourist area and, as a result,
is home to the outlet mall. As mentioned elsewhere, it is also
home to a seemingly disproportionate amount of creature comfort for its
size (Wal-Mart, every kind of fast food imaginable, etc.). The new
commercial 'area' (Wal-Mart, etc.) is right at exit 20 and the town of
Tilton itself is a bit west of there. The 'town' has its own feel
which is more similar to the other small towns in western New
Hampshire. Housing is somewhat less expensive than in Manchester
(or certainly Nashua) but there are some places that are less
expensive yet. We drove around Tilton on a couple of occasions and
it seemed like the kind of place we could enjoy living, though it's on
the small side for our taste.
Franklin
Franklin is the next town west of Tilton and is not nearly as
nice. The main street is older and many of the homes are not well
kept at all. Housing prices are somewhat less expensive than
Tilton though it's not that far away (maybe 10 minutes). We drove
around a couple neighborhoods and they seemed 'spotty' where some houses
would be nicer but mixed in with very unkept places.
Hopkinton
We only drove through Hopkinton briefly but out impression was that it
was a very nice, probably somewhat upscale town. We didn't check
real estate prices but my observation of the housing there would lead me
to believe it would be a little more expensive than Tilton, maybe even
closer to Concord though somewhat more remote. If I recall
correctly, there may have been a McDonald's there but mostly it seemed
like a quiet residential town with well kept nicer homes.
Henniker
We only saw Henniker in the dark (unfortunately). The town is
south of highway 202 a bit and is home to a college (whose name I can't
recall now). There is a river that runs through town and a few
shops but no significant commercial area. There's not even a
McDonalds that we could find, though there is a nice new gas station /
convenience store right at the highway, along with what appeared to be a
newer shopping center of some sort with (I think) a hardware
store. We weren't able to really figure out the atmosphere but it
didn't seem like the typical college town to me.
Hillsborough
We spent a little bit of time in Hillsborough mainly because of the
attractive land prices there. The highway has been moved within
the last year or so and, as a result, our map was incorrect. The
highway is two lane all the way to I-89, however, it is wide and nice
and the traffic moved right along. What I believe to be the main
exit spits you out right at the McDonalds. There is a brand new
shopping center under construction which I think will probably feature a
supermarket of some sort.
The look and feel of the town seems like a 'mix' to me, but I didn't
find any decidedly upper middle class area. The closest I found
would be near (but not in) the
Emerald Lake development on Mary Rowe and surrounding roads. There
were several brand new homes there, some of which are for sale and there
are lots available for under $50,000. There's nothing right around
there, though, in the way of shopping. It's probably a 10 minute
drive from there to the McDonalds. Overall, we felt that
Hillsborough could be a consideration at that price if it were closer to
better shopping and other amenities.
Weare and Goffstown
Unfortunately, we didn't get a good look at Weare or Goffstown while we
were there as it was dark the only time we drove through. We
weren't taking notes at the time but based on my recollection, they were
both normal (average?) western New Hampshire towns, though somewhat
closer (time wise) to Manchester than those listed above. If we
hadn't toured Keene and the Lebanon area, we may have gone back for a
second look, but we simply didn't have time.
Milford and Wilton
Milford and Wilton are both west of Nashua on 101A/101. Neither
one of them stuck out as particularly nice though their proximity to
Nashua would be a plus, particularly for Milford. They did seem to
have more creature comforts than some of the smaller towns to the north
(Henniker, or Hopkinton, for example), but I didn't see any 'big' chain
stores in either town. Because of their proximity to Nashua,
property is a bit more expensive there than we thought it should be.
Peterborough, Dublin and other
towns on 101 between Keene and Manchester
There are a number of other small towns between Keene and Manchester
and I won't list them all by name. A couple that stuck out as
nicer were Peterborough and Dublin which are near an area with several
lakes and some nice hills (you couldn't get away with calling them
mountains in California). Generally speaking, though, they are
typical New England small towns and don't have the kinds of larger town
features a place like Keene or Nashua would have. If you enjoy
small town living and want something nicer and within commuting distance
of Nashua or Manchester, the towns between Wilton and Keene might be of
interest. The closer to Keene, the more time it would take to
commute (of course), but Keene, itself, is only about 1 hour 15 minutes
in good weather from Manchester so if that commute time is acceptable, I
could recommend looking there also (
Keene has its
own page here).
Copyright 2003 Varrin Swearingen - to reproduce in any way (in whole or
in part), please contact the author at: varrin at varrin dot com.
Lebanon area Information
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.
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