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Lebanon area Information

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.

Manchester Information

Manchester Information

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Real estate

Real estate in Manchester is generally a little cheaper than Nashua or Salem.  We were unable to find lower cost new construction (under $300,000) so I don't have anything to report there.  We did drive around the central Manchester neighborhoods some and were pleasantly surprised.  We looked closely at the exterior of one house in particular:

Homes:

Manchester - $265,000, 5 bed / 2 + 1/2 + 3/4 bath / 2900 sq. ft, on Belmont St.  This victorian home is in a nice but old neighborhood.  It estimate the age of the homes at 100 - 150 years.  The lots are small and as a result of new setback regulations it's not possible to add anything to the homes (i.e. a garage).  This house did not come with a garage.  It looked nice and obviously had major updates along the way (windows and siding were apparent externally). 

Commerce and Restaurants

Though we didn't do much shopping in Manchester, there are plenty of places to shop there.  According to my research, there is at least one of every major retail chain store there (i.e. Wal-mart, K-mart, etc.).  There is no CompUSA there (Nashua or Salem both have CompUSA).   There is at least one mall there that we saw.  I used to fly in there regularly and remember seeing several places to shop.  There are also lots of restaurants to eat at.  In addition to all the chains we found in other parts of the state, I specifically remember seeing an Outback Steakhouse. 

The Libertarian Party hosted their annual convention at the Highlander Inn in Manchester.  We went there to have dinner with some of the FSP related attendees.  Their facility is right by the Manchester airport (more on that below) and appeared suitable for many types of gathering occasions.  The restaurant had good food though it was stereotypically priced for a fancier convention hotel restaurant. 

Other

Drive times can be found on the statewide page.  The drive times for Manchester are of particular interest as the only commercial airport in New Hampshire is located there.  It is near the intersection of 101/293 which is where most of our drive times were taken from.  The exit for the airport is one exit east of that intersection and the airport is just a few minutes south of there.  That interchange is currently under construction so the drive times may be slightly longer, but under normal circumstances it shouldn't take any more than about five minutes to get from 101/293 to the airport.

The Manchester airport is one of the bright spots of the state.  It has excellent air service for a town of its size.  Many people in the northern Boston area use it instead of Logan because the prices are lower and it's more convenient.  I used to fly in there regularly and we were always full.  I did a comprehensive air service report previously for each of the FSP candidate states, but since some time has passed I'll include below the updated information for Manchester.  Below is a table that includes each city with non-stop air service along with the airlines serving them, the number of flights, and the type of equipment.

City
 # of flights
 Airline
 Equipment
Albany
 2
 Continental Express/Connection
 19-seat Turboprop
Atlanta
 3
 Delta (2), Delta Connection (1)
 Mainline Jet (2), RJ (1)
Baltimore 11
 Southwest
 Mainline Jet
Bangor
 1
 Ensor Air Ltd. (PanAm Connection)
 19-seat Turboprop
Charlotte
 3
 USAirways
 Mainline Jet
Chicago Midway
 2
 Southwest
 Mainline Jet
Chicago O'Hare
 5
 United (4), United Express (1)
 Mainline Jet (4), RJ (1)
Cincinnati
 4
 Delta (2), Delta Connection (2)
 Mainline Jet (2), RJ (2)
Cleveland
 4
 Continental Express
 RJ
Detroit
 4
 Northwest
 Mainline Jet
Halifax
 1
 Ensor Air Ltd. (PanAm Connection)
 19-seat Turboprop
Kansas City
 1
 Southwest
 Mainline Jet
Las Vegas
 1
 Southwest
 Mainline Jet
Minneapolis
 2
 Northwest (1), Northwest Airlink (1)
 Mainline Jet (1), RJ (1)
Nashville
 2
 Southwest
 Mainline Jet
New London, CT
 1
 Ensor Air Ltd. (PanAm Connection)
 19-seat Turboprop
New York La Guardia
 11
 USAirways Express (8), Delta Connection (3)
 30-seat Turboprop (8), RJ (3)
Newark
 4
 Continental (1), Continental Express (3)
 Mainline Jet (1), RJ (3)
Orlando
 3
 Southwest
 Mainline Jet
Philadelphia
 5
 USAirways (4), USAirways Express (1)
 Mainline Jet (4), RJ (1)
Pittsburgh
 3
 USAirways (2), USAirways Express (1)
 Mainline Jet (2), RJ (1)
Tampa
 2
 Southwest
 Mainline Jet
Toronto
 4
 Air Canada - regional partner(s)
 19-seat Turboprop (3), 30-seat Turboprop (1)
Washington Dulles
 4
 United Express
 RJ
Washington National
 3
 USAirways Express
 RJ (2), 30-seat Turboprop (1)

In addition to the above, there are a handful of non-stop flights that do not operate at least 5 days per week (i.e. Pan Am to Portsmouth and Sanford).  25 destinations are served, 21 of which have at least 30-seat Turboprop service.  There are 6 US Major airlines with service to Manchester, plus Air Canada's regional partner, Pan Am, and Pan Am Connection (note: this is Pan Am #3, not to be confused with Pan Am #1 or Pan Am #2). 

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

Nashua area Information

Nashua area Information

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Real estate

Generally speaking, real estate in the Nashua / Hudson area is fairly expensive.  We spent some time looking at both land and homes in Nashua and Hudson, focusing our efforts on newer construction.  Here is a sampling of what we found:

Land:

Hudson -  $110,000, .79 ac. on Bush Hill Rd. This lot that is down the street from house below on Bush Hill Rd.  According to MLS, it has city water and sewer but required hookup fees and some site work totaling $9500 or thereabouts.  Bush Hill Road exits near a convenience store and Burger King and is in what appears to me to be a nice part of Hudson.

Nashua -   $130,000 each, .92 ac. each on Colonial Ave.  These are two building lots in a convenient location about 5 minutes from the turnpike off (if I recall correctly) Exit 5.  The neighborhood itself is a mix of older homes (a few split levels, some ranches, some colonials) and brand new homes.  The house between the two available lots looks nice and fairly new (I'd guess in the 3-8 year old range, maybe even less).  The lots are at the end of a street on a culdisac. 

Homes:

Hudson -  $399,900, 4 bed / 2 1/2 bath / 8 room / 2800 sq. ft., on Bush Hill Rd. - This brand new home is in an area of Hudson that is recently developed.  I would guess that the oldest homes in the area (with few exceptions) are just a few years old.  It has 2 car garage and I do not know the lot size.

Hudson -  $379,900, 3 bed / 2 1/2 bath on Flying Rock Road - This home is on a side street from Bush Hill road.  It is a colonial with a third floor loft and 2 car garage.  It is still under construction and I do not know the square footage.

Nashua -  $330,000, 3 bed / 2 1/2 bath / 2000-2200 sq. ft, unknown address near lots at Colonial Ave.  There is a colonial style home under construction for sale in the same neighborhood, but on a different street, as the lots above on Colonial Ave..  It is on a smaller lot (I think it may have been 1/4 acre or so) and the houses immediately surrounding it are not quite as nice as the Colonial at the end of Colonial Ave (pun coincidental).  It had a 2 car garage and the specs are the best of my recollection based on talking to the realtor.

We also visited Value Homes of New England which is a modular manufactured home builder located in Nashua.  More information about Value Homes and modular housing in general can be found on the statewide page.

Commerce and Restaurants

Nashua features the best of New Hampshire when it comes to shopping, living, restaurants, etc.  There is just about every type of chain store imaginable, including several grocery store chains, a Super Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy, CompUSA, Home Depot, etc. etc.  There were also many specialty stores which I won't list off, though the Christmas store sticks out in my mind.

Nashua also offers more variety in restaurants than we saw anyplace else.  In addition to the standard fast food chains (including a McDonalds with a 24-hour drive through), there were several less common chains and single-location restaurants.  We ate at Ruby Tuesday's one night which is in the same general area as the Ground Round, Applebees, and what appeared to be an upscale Pizza restaurant (not sure if it was a chain or a one-off place).  Nashua also has a Denny's for those of you who can't get enough Grand Slams.

I think it would be pointless to try and go into further detail about shopping and eating in Nashua since it has pretty much everything.  Any general purpose shopping need could be met there and for specific or highly specialized needs you can probably find out what's available from other resources.

An additional comment I'll make is regarding the hotel we stayed at (some of this is repeated on the main index page).  Nashua has the only low-cost extended stay type chain hotel we could find in the entire state of New Hampshire.  It is an Extended Stay America and is located off Exit 8.  Other extended stay and/or all suite hotels in New Hampshire seemed to be prohibitively expensive for our purposes (more than $10 per night additional over what we paid at ESA).  Contrary to what their website indicates, they do have rooms with king size beds which are larger than the standard rooms.  I believe you'd have to call to reserve one.  Their staff was friendly and the location was good for our purposes.  One exit south is a major shopping and eating street (101A, which ultimately goes to Keene).  There is a K-mart, Target, Wal-Mart, at least two grocery stores, Pizza Hut, McDonalds, Burger King, Papa Gino's Pizza, Applebees, and lots and lots more all within about a 5 minute drive.  Though the location is good, the accommodations are not full service.  Maids don't come daily, they don't stock some basic items such as paper towels, and the room isn't really suite sized - there's no couch. 

Churches

Trinity Baptist: I stopped in to Trinity Church to collect some information.  Some of their materials say Trinity Church and some say Trinity Baptist Church, which would lead me to believe they are attempting to establish their own identity, though they are, in fact, a Baptist Church.  They have two services, a 9:00 a.m. service billed "Worship with a Blend" and a 10:45 a.m. service billed "The River" which is a more contemporary styled service.  A note on their Sunday bulletin indicates parents with children worshiping with them can take them to class at 9:25 or 11:10 which suggests about 25 minutes of music in each service.  The have a monthly newsletter which I obtained a copy of (the November issue) which has a calendar of events in it.  Between the information in the newsletter (with calendar) and the bulletin, it appears they have a reasonable amount of 'stuff' going on given the size of the church (if I recall correctly, about 300 on an average weekend).  They also have a school but I did not get details about it.

Grace Fellowship:  On November 2, we attended Grace Fellowship Church in downtown Nashua.  I don't know if there are any larger churches (measured by attendance) in New Hampshire, but I suspect none significantly larger.  Grace averages 800-900 people per Sunday in three services: 8:00, 9:45, and 11:30.  Their downtown building is not new but the inside has obviously been renovated for their purposes.  The main sanctuary is actually on the second floor. 

The style of worship at Grace is contemporary.  Their music featured a 'praise band' made up of drums, percussion, keyboards, electric guitar, bass, and a worship leader who plays acoustic guitar as well as an additional vocalist.  I don't recall them doing any 'older' worship music and/or hymns.  They did some songs we were familiar with and their renditions were pleasant.  They started the set with Open the Eyes of my Heart, then Rock of Ages (the contemporary one, not the Hymn) and continued on with a total of about 45 minutes of music.  I don't know if they do communion every Sunday but they did on that Sunday which may have extended the worship time somewhat.  After the first 'set' they did several songs we weren't familiar with, however we really enjoyed them both in style and 'content' (i.e. lyrics).  Some charismatic churchs offer extremely wordy songs which are difficult to sing.  Generally, that wasn't the case here.

I happened to observe that the church is remarkably balanced, both generationally and racially.  There was a strong representation of all ages as well as many races present and the environment seemed perfectly suited to that balance.  It's difficult to know, but I suspect that is intentional.  The nursery takes children through 36 months, however they will not take your children to the potty and/or change diapers.  Instead, they page you to do that.  I only say that here because that is different than what we are accustomed to.  They do have a 'family church' room downstairs which is suitable for families with young children to attend together.  They broadcast the service as it's happening down there so they can participate in the same service without the children disrupting it.

Based on the bulletin and promotional material, it appears they have more things going on than a person could possibly participate in.  On their first time visitor form they list several programs they offer including Growing Kids God's Way, Crown Ministries (financial guidance), Divorce Care, and several others.  The weekly calendar lists several Bible studies as well as Northeast Bible Institute which is apparently a seminary type class they offer (for credit if I recall correctly) which is somehow associated with the church (I think the pastor teaches it).  They had a Thanksgiving food drive coming up as well as a mens retreat.

The sermon for the morning was a part of a series from the book of Acts and was about bitterness.  Generally, I was satisfied with the sermon.  As with anything, some elements impressed me, some didn't, and some were just different.  For starters, his sermon was very closely scripted and utilized outline material projected on the screen.  I've seen that type of arrangement before (in fact, it's common these days) but not quite at such a detailed level (I had to look around to see if there was a teleprompter somewhere ;).  I also had one little red flag about his outlook on prayer and how prayer works (his view of prayer and mine are different).  However, there were several things I was impressed with.  In particular, he does know his geography, which I appreciate, and he spent a little time communicating that to us.  Most pastors don't do that and the congregation is geographically lost with respect to the correlation between Biblical places and our world today.  Also, he regularly referred to the Bible (as he should) but also used other quotes and references where applicable for his sermon.  Overall (aside from his prayer theology) I enjoyed the sermon and didn't have any real problems with his style.  The church was generally casually dressed but the pastor did wear a tie. 

Overall, it seems as though that church is generally Biblically based, active, diverse, and large by New Hampshire standards.  Based on our experience there, I would recommend visiting if you're in the area.

Events

We wound up with an unexpected event which led to a hospital visit.  Edison got his finger caught in the front door of our van and hurt it very badly.  The details of the injury are found on the main index page.  He was treated at the Emergency Room at St. Joseph hospital in Nashua.   The staff there was helpful and friendly.  There were at least a couple of people there who identified themselves as students.  They, too, were friendly and helpful.  The ER seemed busy for that time of night (we didn't get out until close to midnight) but I don't recall seeing any severe trauma (i.e. serious car accidents, gun shot, etc.) arriving while we were there.  We haven't been billed yet so I don't know what the cost of that visit was or what the insurance consequences are.

Other

Drive times are on the statewide page.  Nashua is the biggest city in New Hampshire and appears to me to be a very nice place to live.  I think we could enjoy it there, however, it's very expensive.  As a result of the real estate prices there, we're having to look elsewhere for our housing needs.  On the bright side, both Nashua and Hudson have relatively low property tax rates, partly due to the high assessed values of the property there. 



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

2003-11 Varrin Swearingen's NH Trip Report

Many of the links in this needs fixing... mostly minor ones.

NOTE: The opinions and commentary expressed in this essay are those of the author and are an exercise of free speech. They do not necessarily represent the views of Free State Project Inc., its Directors, its Officers, or its Participants.

Trip Report:  New Hampshire

November 1 - 12, 2003

Written by:  Varrin Swearingen

Experiences by:  Varrin, Edi, Edison, and Erin Swearingen


Contents

Contents - This table of contents

Introduction - Introduction section which includes these topics

  • Purpose - A short description of why I wrote this
  • Background - Background / biographical information
  • Organization - How this report is organized

Chronology - The chronological report of events

Location detail pages - details for each location listed below

  • Statewide - info that applies to the whole state or areas not covered below
  • Southeast - includes seacoast - from east of Nashua along the border to the coast to Portsmouth and back towards Manchester.
  • Nashua - includes Hudson
  • Manchester - just the Manchester and immediately surrounding area
  • Western - Does not include Keene or Lebanon but the other towns west of I-93 and I-89.  Does include Concord and Tilton
  • Keene - just the city of Keene
  • Lebanon - includes West Lebanon, Hanover, and Enfield

Introduction

Purpose

I am writing this report with the hope that it will help others out who are exploring a move to New Hampshire.  It is a detailed account of our trip there in early November, 2003.  On that trip we learned more than we could have possibly learned without a report like this.  As far as I am aware, nobody has yet written this detailed of a report about their New Hampshire exploration.  We would have found this useful and it is my hope that you will too.

Background

In order to better understand the perspective of this report, I'll relay some important background information about myself and my family.  Edi (my wife) and I were both born in 1974 and at the moment we have two children, a son, Edison, born in 2001 and a daughter, Erin, born in 2002.  We would consider ourselves Christian and regularly attend church, however we are not particularly closely tied to any specific denomination.  We normally find ourselves most comfortable in Baptist, Evangelical Free or non-denominational churches.  Our circle of family and close friends includes protestant Christians, Catholics, Orthodox, Muslims, and a variety of 'other' religious backgrounds. 

I work as an airline pilot for World Airways.  I also play the drums and percussion professionally part time (mostly jazz and Latin jazz) and enjoy working with computers (we use Linux in our house).  Edi is a homeschooling mother, currently serves as the coordinator for two MOPS (Mothers Of PreSchoolers) groups, and is a Mary Kay Independent Beauty Consultant.  Edi also sings, most recently with the Choir at our church and two different opera companies in Fresno.

I was born in Hayward, California and moved to Fresno at age 3.  Edi was born in Maryland and moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in grade school and to Fresno in High School.  We met in High School and were married in 1993 at age 19.  We moved to Florida (I had actually moved there a year earlier to go to flight school) and lived there between 1992 and 1996.  We moved to the Cincinnati, Ohio area (we actually lived in Northern Kentucky) in 1996 and lived there through mid-1999.  We moved back to Fresno, California in 1999 after deliberating much like we are now as to where to relocate to.  Edi and I have both lived in several different states.  She has visited many of the states and I have visited almost all of them (45 of the 50).  We have been to Canada, Mexico and the Bahamas together, and I have traveled to over 30 different countries around the world while playing music and flying for a living.

Our personal living preferences lean towards newer suburban living with creature comforts (shopping, etc.) relatively nearby.  We gravitate towards larger more utilitarian housing and don't necessarily prefer to have a lot of land (we prefer indoor square footage to land).  I enjoy the outdoors (I like to backpack) but, honestly, we spend most of our time inside.  Edi enjoys movies (much more than I do) and we both enjoy live music and eating out.  As a result of having kids, much of our free time activities lately revolves around them.  When they're asleep, we enjoy playing games (I enjoy online gaming occasionally but we both enjoy board games), cards, and good conversation. 

We first heard of the Free State Project in mid-2002.  At the time I first visited the website, there were 400 or so people signed up.  After researching and discussing the project, Edi and I decided to join.  By the time we signed up, the project had grown to over 1600 members.  We opted out of 7 states including New Hampshire.  Some time before the vote, we decided that we would at least go look at the winning state.  The vote results were announced October 1 and we began our visit to New Hampshire on November 1.  The information in this report is one of the results of that visit. 

Organization

Because of the complexity of providing this information in a most usable format, I will organize it in two ways:  First, chronologically on this page as an overview, and Second, by geographic area.  Providing a third level of organization (topical, for example) is more than I have time to do right now.  If you want to know about real estate (for example), you'll have to search for that by location.  I'll use the same topical format on each area page to make finding the information topically easier.  Some information will be statewide and will be included in the statewide information page.

Each detail page will contain all the details we discovered about each location.  They will not include details about 'events' unless those events were associated with characteristics of the area.  An example of details that would not be included would be details about dinner conversation with various FSP people or the details about my son's finger injury.  Those details (if included at all) will only be on the chronology page below.  Examples of details that would be included would be details about the places we ate at with the FSP people or the emergency room experience as a result of my son's finger injury.  Some pages will be dramatically more detailed than others, since we learned more and/or spent more time in some places than others.  Generally speaking, I'll include all the detail I have.  If you have questions, please feel free to ask, but I probably don't have any more detail than you can find here.

The detail pages will have the following headings (assuming information is available):

  1. Real estate - information about land, new homes, and pre-owned homes
  2. Commerce and Restaurants - information about stores, restaurants, and other places of business
  3. Churches - information about churches
  4. Events - information about or related to events
  5. Other - other information that doesn't fit the above (look and feel, etc.)
Conspicuously missing is climate and job information.  On the chronology page I'll include weather information about our trip, but because our trip isn't necessarily representative, I'd urge you to do your own climate research.  With few exceptions (Lebanon, for example), I don't have any job information, and in those cases that I do, it's very general.  I am not looking for a job so I didn't do any research about the job market at all. 

Chronology

Saturday, November 1 -  location details here:  Statewide, Nashua

We flew America West from Fresno through Phoenix to Boston.  We arrived in Boston around 11:00 p.m.  We rented a Chevy Venture minivan from Alamo.  The rate was reasonable and we liked the van.  I have now driven all of the 'big-3' minivans (Ford, GM, and Chrysler).  This was the best of those I've driven yet.  I still prefer the Honda to all 3 of them.

We drove from the Boston airport to our hotel in Nashua.  The drive took roughly an hour.  We didn't time it exactly.  There was construction on a bridge on 3 south of Nashua which required us to exit and re-enter the highway.  The weather was cool but not terribly cold.  Upon arrival in Nashua we found a 24 hour McDonalds drive through and a 7-11 to get supplies for the evening and morning.

We checked into our hotel around 12:30 a.m. that night.  We stayed at the Extended Stay America hotel in Nashua.  That location turned out to be perfect for our entire trip.  The hotel is in a business area right off exit #8 (101A bypass) which is near the north end of Nashua.  We could not find a better rate for a newer chain hotel with 'kitchen' facilities, hence our choice.  We booked a Queen room because that's the best room the website showed.  Upon arrival we discovered that the room was a little bit too small for us.  There is no couch, just a recliner.  The kitchen facility is small but functional.  We all went to bed knowing we had all had a long day and needed to get up the next morning for church.

Sunday, November 2 - location details here:  Statewide, Nashua, Manchester

We got up in the morning and got ourselves ready to go to church.  We attended Grace Fellowship Church in Nashua.  We went to the Burger King drive through, Market Basket (for 'supplies') and then returned to the hotel.  When we began to do our paperwork we found out that there were King rooms available.  We switched rooms which gave us a bigger room with a bigger bed.  That wound up being just what we needed for the rest of the trip.  We all napped, then got up and headed to Manchester for dinner.

We had been emailing with several people who were going to be in NH while we were there.  We had Alan Weiss's cell phone number so we coordinated what ultimately turned into dinner with Alan and some others.  We drove up to the Highlander Inn near the Manchester airport.  We met with Alan, Amanda Phillips, Tony Lekas and another gentleman whose name I didn't catch enough to remember (pleeeease forgive me... and because of the seating arrangement I didn't get a chance to talk much with him - rats.).  I sat between Tony and Edison and across from Edi and Alan.  The dinner conversation covered all kinds of topics.  Probably my most important observation is that, though email is a spectacular tool for meeting people and coordinating activities, there's no substitute for meeting in person.  I really enjoyed the dinner and feel as though I've made some friends that would be great to live near.

Among other things, we talked quite a bit about education.  Amanda mentioned the Sudbury Valley School which struck a chord with me.  Tony is a homeschooler so we had plenty to talk about with respect to the practicalities of homeschooling in New Hampshire.  It sounds to me from our conversations that New Hampshire does not have the best homeschooling environment in the nation (compared to, say, Idaho), but it's good enough to get started and, of course, we can improve it (I believe easily).

At the end of the dinner we exchanged some contact information.  Tony invited us over to his place for dinner which.  Unfortunately, due to our ridiculous schedule we ultimately had to pass on that generous offer.  We headed out and drove back to Nashua and went to bed.

Monday, November 3 - location details here: Statewide,Nashua, Southeast, Manchester

We hadn't set up any meetings so we decided to use Monday to make phone calls and then tour the southeast part of the state.  We had also contacted Kelton who was staying until Tuesday.  We did have a Monday evening meeting set up with Eric Knight in East Derry and Kelton also wanted to meet Eric.  Ultimately we devised a plan where we would meet up with Kelton in the evening, go to Eric's, and visit for a while.  Since Kelton was going west that day we didn't attempt to spend more of the day together.

We left late morning and headed on a church drive-by trip that would ultimately take us on a substantial driving trip through much of the southeast part of the state.  We headed east from Nashua first to Pelham, then Salem, then to the coast, up 1A from the MA border to the ME border, up to Dover, then Durham, then back to Manchester for dinner.  After dinner we went down to Derry to visit Eric.  As you can see we covered a lot of ground.

Among the things we did while we drove: looked at a church in Pelham, looked at a church in Salem, got some info about a house in South Seabrook, drove the entire NH coastline (save a few feet between 286 and the MA border), drove around New Castle, drove into Maine, drove by a church in Dover, drove by a church in Durham, took 101 back to Manchester.  Details about all that are on the respective detail pages.

We ate dinner at McDonalds near the airport in Manchester and at the end of dinner Kelton showed up.  He grabbed a bite and we headed to Eric's house in Derry.  We were a little bit late for our 7:00 appointment.  Kelton had gone all the way to Keene and back and we had gone all the way to Portsmouth and back (with plenty of stops along the way), so we were simply running late after packed full days.  We arrived at Eric's around 7:30.  Unfortunately it was dark while we drove through Derry.

We spent, if I recall correctly, a little over an hour at Eric's house and visited with Eric and his family.  He told us some things about the Derry and Londonderry area as well as some general NH things which were helpful.  We also got a tour of his house which, if things went on schedule, he has likely now moved out of.  Among other things, we discussed towns, zoning, property taxes, and education with Eric.  We headed out sometime shortly before 9:00 p.m.  Kelton had an early flight home the next day so he went his way and we went back to the hotel in Nashua.

Tuesday, November 4 - location details here:  Statewide, Nashua, Western

Some of the days flow together but I believe we started Tuesday out with Denny's for breakfast in Nashua.  We spent a lot of time that morning figuring out where we wanted to go and made some more phone calls.  We didn't get on the road until 2:30 p.m.  We had planned out a road trip for that day to look at land.  Most of the day was simply spent driving.  By that time we had set up a Wednesday appointment to tour a manufactured home factory and wanted to have some insight on land prices and locations. 

We drove north from Nashua, through Manchester, through Concord up to Tilton.  We had seen some lower price land listings in Franklin which appeared to be closer to I-93 than some other less expensive places.  Franklin, however, was not a very attractive town.  We looked at a couple of pieces of land and then drove south on U.S. 3 back to Concord, checking out the towns along the way. 

Tilton was a nicer looking town, though small, and had some important stores (Wal-Mart, for example).  Franklin (as I mentioned above) wasn't so attractive.  Going south from Franklin, we saw Boscawen (or some of it anyway), then parts of Concord, some of which were nicer.  We took 202 west from Concord through Hopkinton to Henniker.  Hopkinton was very nice looking to me.  For some reason, Henniker just seemed small and isolated to me.  From there we went south on 114 to Weare.  Weare was what I might call 'average'.  Decent town, not much there though.  From there, we went through Goffstown to Manchester.  Goffstown was larger and had a few more 'things' there as I recall.  By the time we got to Henniker, it was dark, so we didn't have a great look at Weare or Goffstown.

Wednesday, November 5 - location details here:  Statewide, Nashua, Western

We set up a meeting with Bob Lebel of RML General Contractor who builds Epoch manufactured homes.  Our meeting was to take a tour of the Epoch factory in Pembroke, near Concord.  The previous day we had ruled out Franklin as a town to live in so we decided to investigate another area that has low land cost: Hillsborough.  Details of our findings are on the 'Western' page.  After touring Hillsborough, we returned to Pembroke for our meeting.  The tour went well.  The factory looked like a suitable place to build manufactured homes and it appears to me (I'm no expert) that they build great homes there.  We also toured their model.  Their model was set up with lots of fancy upgrades in the downstairs to showcase what they can do and basic trip for part of the upstairs to show what a base house looks like.  Both looked great, though some of the nice touches in the kitchen and dining room were really nice.

After we finished our tour, we headed back to the hotel.  That evening, after doing some research, we decided to tour a couple of more expensive lots in the Nashua and Hudson areas.  Because of the land prices and locations, we figured it would be worth taking a look just to see if it would somehow be 'worth it' to pay more money and be closer to a bigger city.  We looked at several lots and called it a day.

Just as an aside, pretty much every day (or, more accurately, night), we spent a considerable amount of time researching our next moves based on what we found during the day.  That meant pretty much a short night of sleep every night.  I was typically up until at least midnight or 1:00 a.m. every night and we were out of bed by roughly 8:00 a.m. every morning (sometimes a little earlier).  With all the driving, looking, thinking, eating, diapering, talking, meeting, and so on, it was a pretty tiring trip.  But it was well worth the time and money.  There's no way we could have learned everything we did just over the Internet or looking at pictures from a real estate agent.  Now, on with the show!

Thursday, November 6 - location details here:  Statewide, Nashua, Western

Thursday brought us 'more of the same'.  Having seen a couple of lots in Nashua, we decided to look both at lots and at houses in Nashua as well as a few in the surrounding area.  After a 'relaxing' (read me doing research while we all get ready) morning, we headed west towards Wilton and Milford.  We looked at a piece of land there and then a couple more in Nashua. 

When it got to be nap time, I took the family back to the hotel for a nap and then went to visit another builder.  I went to the Value Homes.  Value Homes is a builder for Excel modular homes of PA.  Their model was nice and I was able to get more specific pricing information than I was from RML/Epoch.  It appears to me that Excel and Epoch are fairly direct competitors.  I haven't examined the spec sheets to the finest detail, but it appears both are very nice, well built homes which rival or exceed the quality you'd get in a site built house. 

I returned to the hotel, picked up the family and we toured a little bit more, this time heading over towards Hudson.  I don't recall now where we ate, but it may have been Denny's again.  Throughout the course of the week we ate at Denny's probably 3 times, Pizza Hut once, a local pizza place once (Papa Gino's, I think it was called), and several fast food establishments.  Overall, we were happy with the food. 

Friday, November 7 - location details here:  Statewide, Nashua, Western, Manchester

Friday we got a late start on our day.  We decided to go back up to Tilton to look around in a little more detail.  There were a couple of lots for sale that were less than what was available in Hudson or Nashua.  Nearby is Wal-Mart and the outlet mall and Concord is just 20 minutes away.  Tilton is right off I-93 and is at the 'base' of the lakes region.  We looked at some lots there and then headed back towards Nashua. 

We did make an addional quick trip up to Manchester later in the day to look at a house in town there.  We drove around the neighborhoods in the center of town and found them very pleasant, though older.  In the evening on the 7th, I started working on putting together our trip for the next day.  We decided to go to Keene for a tour and a visit with a friend.

Saturday, November 8 - location details here:  Statewide, Nashua, Keene

We got a late start (I don't recall why now, other than doing more research) and were under way to Keene in the early afternoon.  We went by way of Manchester so that we could time the Manchester - Keene drive.  That added about 15 minutes to the trip which was almost 1 1/2 hours (including the detour).  On the way, I spoke with our friend (amidst losing cell service off and on).  I got some church information from him and we looked as we drove by at the church we wound up going to the next day (Monadnock Congregational Church).  When we arrived in Keene, we got right into looking at land and homes.  We had mapped out about a half dozen places to look and drove fairly quickly around town checking them out (with a stop at the UPS store downtown along the way).  Keene has much more to offer than Tilton (details in the Keene page) and the property prices are a little lower, I presume because of the 'perceived' distance from the metro areas.  There are several brand new stores in Keene and they're building more by the minute.  The Borders is brand new and the Wal-Mart opened within the last year. 

After we had toured the town, we arranged to meet our friend at Uno's (yes, there's an Uno's in Keene).  We enjoyed a great dinner there together and he was able to tell us a few more things about the town and we talked about several other things.  Among them were the Acton Institute, Keene State College, Economics, the relationship between liberty and Christianity, and churches.  After a great dinner we headed back to Nashua.  On the way back we were able to observe a full eclipse of the moon.  We were right on the outside of the area where it was actually totally eclipsed but it went from totally full to totally eclipsed in such a way that it was just a tiny sliver of 'halo' around the bottom part of the moon.  The kids particularly enjoyed the eclipse.

This brings to mined one important facet of our trip: weather.  The first several days it was rainy and cloudy.  By late in the week it had cleared up and was a little bit cooler (lows in the 30's v.s. 40's).  That particular night it was crystal clear.  It stayed clear until the day before we left when it started raining again.

Sunday, November 9 - location details here:  Statewide, Nashua, Western, Keene

Sunday, we went to Monadnock Congregational Church in Peterborough.  We arrived around 10:00 a.m. for their 'coffee' time and then attended the 10:30 service.  Details about the church are on the 'Western' page.  On Saturday, I had observed a sign at the Colony Mill Marketplace indicating that Sunday, the 9th, was going to be the Taste of Keene event.  I assume that event happens annually so I'll include the details about the event in the Keene section.  We enjoyed our lunch and shopping time there.  The Colony Mill Marketplace is a nice mall and the feel of the event reminded us of a smaller, indoor version of the Taste of Cincinnati.  We were particularly pleased with our experience that day.  The food was outstanding, the atmosphere was wonderful and the people were friendly.

After the Taste, we headed back to Nashua to do some more research and get another big night of sleep.

Monday, November 10 - location details here:  Statewide, Nashua, Lebanon

We planned our Monday around the idea that we would do our last big 'tour' and save Tuesday for any last minute visits we needed to do and/or just relaxation.  That turned out to be a good plan since we had a little accident on Monday night.  We put together a list of properties in and near Lebanon and hit the road in the morning.  After a stop for breakfast (Denny's again), we got a late morning start up I-93.  It took just over an hour from Manchester to Lebanon.  We decided to drive beyond Lebanon (across the river) to Vermont since Edi had never been there before.  We came back into Lebanon (what they call West Lebanon) and drove around the 'commercial' area.  Lebanon has pretty much everything Keene has plus a Denny's and a Best Buy.  The town itself probably isn't quite as nice, but it's not bad.  We went up to Hanover which is much nicer (and much more expensive) and is home to Dartmouth. 

We looked at a couple of houses in Lebanon and West Lebanon and went to Enfield to look at both houses and land.  Enfield is about 15 minutes from the shopping (depending on where you are in Enfield) and land prices there are very reasonable.  It's primarily a Shaker community.  Details about the land and area are included with the Lebanon section.  We had attempted to make some phone calls on the way to Lebanon but discovered that T-Mobile's service ends shortly after leaving Concord on I-89 and doesn't pick up again... ever. 

After we finished our Lebanon and area tour we headed back to Nashua.  The drive was easy and quick.  We went briefly to the hotel and then went out to dinner at Bickfords.  This was our second trip to Bickfords and though the food was generally decent, both times what we got wasn't exactly what we expected.  I guess they just do things a little differently there than we anticipated.  After dinner we headed back to the hotel.

When we arrived at the hotel we had an unfortunate accident.  As Edi and Edison were getting out of the car, Edison got his finger (the middle one on his right hand) caught in the car door as Edi was closing it.  He apparently reached in quickly at the last second, probably not realizing the door was closing.  Fortunately, only the tip of his finger was caught in the door.  Unfortunately, the small area of his finger tip that was injured was injured very badly.  We quickly went in, got paper towels from the very helpful and nice lady at the desk and I got directions to the Emergency Room.  We got back in the car and rushed to the ER at St. Joseph Hospital in Nashua.  I took Edison in while Edi parked and got Erin out.  Because he was screaming and there was blood all over his hand (and mine), the staff figured out there was a pretty serious problem.  After a very brief wait (it seemed like 10 minutes so it must have only been one or two), we were taken in to a room.  I'll spare all of the details of the care, but we're extremely pleased with the quality of the care we got.  They re-wrapped his injury after a doctor examined it.  They gave him some Tylenol with Codine, took and x-ray, determined that the bone at the tip of his finger was broken (and the nail was missing), and ultimately came and gave him four stitches. 

Edison had calmed down substantially prior to the local, but that made him very unhappy again.  Then, a few minutes later, the doctor and a nurse came back to stitch up his fingertip (what was left of it, which I think was most of it).  Edison was a trooper but he screamed quite a bit throughout that procedure.  I'm not 100% sure the local completely numbed the pain, though I'm confident the Tylenol/Codine was helping substantially by that time.  They wrapped it up with tube gauze, gave us some instructions and we headed out.  I think we were there something like 3 1/2 hours.  The whole time, Erin was as well behaved as I've ever seen her.  It was obvious she knew something was wrong and she did just exactly what we told her the whole time.  That was particularly amazing considering we didn't get out of there until after 11:00 p.m.

Having gone through that experience, we knew we would want to just take the next day off.

Tuesday, November 11 - location details here:  Statewide, Nashua

We slept later on Tuesday than we did any other day of the trip, mainly because Edison wasn't interested in getting up before 8 a.m. as he had been every other morning.  He was obviously feeling substantially better but was very tired and occasionally still in a little bit of pain (we'd have to ask him about it to find that out though).  We mostly slept, did research, and got ready to go home the next day.  We took advantage of kids-eat-free-night at Denny's and called it a day.

Wednesday, November 12 - location details here:  Statewide, Nashua


We got up early Wednesday and checked out of the hotel.  There's lots of construction on 3 between Nashua and I-95.  As a result, the drive time from the hotel to the Boston airport was about an hour and a half instead of the hour we planned.  Fortunately we had left enough time to make our flight.  We returned our rental car (loved it) and headed to the America West ticket counter.  We discovered upon check in that there would be a tech stop for fuel on the way back in Denver.  That caused us to miss our connection in Phoenix, but they were able to accommodate us on a flight three hours later. 


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

Keene Information

Keene Information

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Real estate

Land and homes in Keene are generally cheaper than in the larger cities (along 3 and I-93).  The town is mostly nice with a less nice area north and northeast of downtown. 

Land:

Keene - $46,900, .94ac on Base Hill Road.  This lot is near highway 9 and is just two or three minutes to all of the new shopping (Wal-Mart, Borders, etc.).  It would probably not be as good for a family as it's on a busier road.  It's wooded and slopes up from the road.  There are newer colonial style houses on each side of it.

Keene - $55,000, 5.97 ac on Darling Road.  This lot is in a development that spans Darling road.  We didn't actually locate the lot but when driving around we noticed an extraordinary number of homes listed for sale on that road.  The development has very nice homes and larger lots.  I believe there's an association.  I'm not sure why so many homes are for sale there but the homes and development looks nice and upscale to me.

Keene - $59,900, 5.17 ac on Hurricane Road.  We aren't sure we found this lot, though we think we did (there wasn't a sign).  It is down a road leaving town but it is not a main highway.  The lot (if it's the one we think it was) slopes down from the road and would potentially have views of the mountains in the background.

Homes:

Keene - $240,000 - $250,000, Starlight drive (multiple homes).  We looked on Starlight drive which is a new housing development with primarily colonial style houses on smaller lots.  There were two for sale signs posted on homes that were already built, one of which was a bi-level (split entry) and one of which was a colonial (it indicated sale pending).  There were two MLS listings for, I believe, other houses for sale yet to be built.  The neighborhood is right across the street from Keene High School.  These prices are for a 4 bed / 2 1/2 bath colonial in the 2200-2400 sq. ft. range in that neighborhood.

Keene - $250,000, 4 bed / 2 bath / 2224 sq. ft on Meeting House Lane.  This house is in a development called Drummer Hill.  The first phase of the development (which you must drive through to get to this home) is extremely cookie-cutterish.  The houses in phase two are nicer, newer, and less similar to each other.  This house looked attractive from the outside.  It's still close to Downtown (maybe 5-8 minutes) but is up in 'the hills' a little bit. 

Keene - $250,000 4 bed / 2 bath / 2000 sq. ft. on Gilsum Street.  This is a 1900 Victorian style house that appears to be very well kept.  However, it is just northeast of downtown and not in a very nice neighborhood.  I suspect in a nicer neighborhood it would be worth substantially more money.  The MLS indicates several attractive features and the location, though not as nice, is convenient.

Overall real estate impressions:

It looks to me like Keene is a nicer but not upscale/snooty/fancy town.  It's seems nicer than many others with the exception of the area northeast of downtown which is a little run down and not very attractive to me.  The pricing of real estate in Keene is attractive especially considering the proximity to all the comforts of home.  There is no major airport nearby (Manchester is closest at roughly 1:15 away), and there are just a few stores / conveniences missing, but essentially there's everything you need right there in town. 

Commerce and Restaurants

Keene has most everything a person would need on a regular basis.  There is an area south of downtown that is being developed with many new stores.  There is a fairly new Wal-Mart, and a brand new shopping center (still under construction) which has Home Depot, Borders, Pier 1, and more stores coming (including a Target).  There is also a K-mart in town as well as Sears and JCPennys.  The only notable thing missing is a big electronics retailer like Best Buy or Circuit City. 

Keene also features a mall called the Colony Mill Marketplace.  We went there for the Taste of Keene (more on that below) and walked around most of the mall.  It isn't a large mall and doesn't have chain stores.  It's more of a boutique type mall which appears to be in an old renovated industrial building (maybe the Colony Mill?).  It is in outstanding shape and is a pleasant place to shop and hang out.  I would guess there are 20 to 40 stores give or take in the mall.

The downtown area of Keene is nice and quaint.  At the center of it is a 'circle' with shops all around and the city 'stuff' on the north side of it (there's a little park in the middle).  The streets surrounding downtown (particularly Main St. to the south) are lined with little shops and restaurants.  It appears to be the kind of place where someone with a bent for a small business could do well. 

Here is a list of some stores (mainly chains) I recall seeing in Keene:  Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Staples (office supplies), Shaw's (grocery), Home Depot, Borders, Sears, JCPennys, Pier 1 imports, Dollar Tree (or some kind of dollar store), Payless Shoes, Midas Mufflers, The UPS Store, A Movie Theater (didn't catch which variety - I think it was 6 or 8 screens), auto dealerships for the Big 3 plus several popular imports, and Walgreens.  Coming soon is a Bed Bath and Beyond (I believe already under construction) and a Target (I don't think it's under construction quite yet). 

Keene features pretty much all of the fast food chain restaurants as well as a handful of sit-down chains.  There are also numerous local eating establishments, some of which we were able to sample at the taste of Keene (details below).  There is no Denny's and I don't believe any other nationwide 'generic' low end sit down restaurant (like Bob Evans, Perkins, etc.) in Keene either.  There is a Bickfords, which is a New England sit down restaurant chain.  I happened to stumble upon Rynborn Restaurant as a result of the Taste of Keene.  They have live blues regularly.  I saw a schedule while I was at the taste and it appears as though they offer live music more than just the standard Saturday / Sunday.

Here is a list of some restaurants I recall seeing:  McDonalds, Burger King, Wendy's, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, KFC, Subway, Applebee's, Bickfords, Pizzeria Uno.

Events

On Sunday, November 9th, we attended the Taste of Keene event at the Colony Mill Marketplace.  18 local restaurants participated in the event which went from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.  Each restaurant is given a table to present their food which is offered in small portions.  Tokens are used to pay for the food.  The tokens cost $.50 each and portion prices were between 2 and 6 tokens ($1 to $3).  Many different kinds of food were available.  We sampled 6 items for a total of $16.00 (31 tokens for food plus one extra to take home with us). 

EF Lane Hotel / Salmon Chase American Bistro offered a Lobster Bisque with Bay Scallops which was absolutely outstanding for 6 tokens.  That may well have been the tastiest treat of the day.  House Afire offered 6 Jumbo Wings with a choice of two different sauces for 4 tokens.  We got the 'Spicy Gold Sauce' which was similar but slightly different than a standard Buffalo wing sauce.  The portion size of the wings was the biggest of all.  Luca's Mediterranean Cafe had a Tiramisu for 4 tokens.  It was different from other Tiramisu we've had and we didn't enjoy it quite as much, though I personally though it was okay.  Rynborn Restaurant offered Baby Back Ribs for 6 tokens that were wonderful.  They were Bar-b-q with a pleasant sauce and the kids even enjoyed them.  Fritz Belgian Fries had a Smoked Gouda & Proscuitto Panini for 5 tokens that was very tasty.  I noticed they also had a Stella glass on their table which would lead a person to believe they may have good quality beer at their location.  We also enjoyed the Pad Thai and Spring Roll from Thai Garden for 6 tokens.  It was very authentic (I've been to Thailand many times) and tasted great.

In addition to the food, the stores were all open for business and they had a lady playing Christmas music on the piano near the food court where we sat to eat.  She was a very good piano player and we enjoyed the music and atmosphere, though I don't recall her name now.  The event was well attended.  Because the mall isn't very large, there was a small amount of 'crowding' but I didn't feel claustrophobic at all.  In fact, for me it was a comforting feeling to be around all of the local people enjoying the local cuisine in the local mall. 

Other

Drive times can be found on the statewide page.  There are no Interstate Highways in Keene however there are several good highways that go through town and provide access to and through the town.

Property taxes in Keene are higher than some other areas in the state (around $29 / $1000 assessed value).  I didn't look closely at all of the schools but we got to see the high school several times and it looks nice and new (and/or well maintained).  We didn't visit or get information about any churches but we saw some in the course of driving around town. 

Keene has a bit of a college town feel to it.  Keene State College accounts for a significant percentage of the town's population which (due to the students and professors) keeps the demographic a bit younger.

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