Any Retirees in New Hampshire or New England Area?

[shotgunner]

I live in Dover. I have a 986 sq ft ranch on 150 x 150 lot, carport and unfinished basement. My property taxes are about $6000 annually.

Along with taxes it's important to remember energy costs, NH has one of the highest rates for per Kilowatt for electricity.

I have lived here most of my life. Traffic has become terrible in town and property taxes have increased far faster than inflation, some 35% over a five year period as the City Council passed five consecutive budgets with a tax cap override. Water and Sewer bills are very high and in the seacoast poised to go much higher due to EPA limits on things like nitrogen entering Great Bay. Development has been fast paced and open lands disappearing fast. If you are going to leave your house for an extended time and have a sump pump you will need an automatic standby generator even in the winter.

Small homes like mine in Dover are selling for $300K plus and usually sell in few days often above asking price.

 

[LastOfTheBoomers]

Take a look at the taxes by town:

https://www.revenue.nh.gov/mun-prop/municipal/documents/20-tax-rates.pdf


You will see anomalies- why are taxes low - Seabrook has a nuclear power plant. Newington has a big mall. New Castle only has a elementary school with not many kids and lots of big expensive houses. Wolfeboro on the big lake has a low tax rate and enough tax income to have a town ski slope because of all he summer cottages and low school enrollment.

I ran into someone traveling years ago that bought a nice slope side condo in Vermont - but he only lived there in the summer - he spent his winters down south. He did rent it in the winter - not sure for how long. Plenty of ski slopes in NH

 

[Calico]

The microcosm of living here in NH is that the politics and taxes vary by the inch. There are towns that are red, others that are blue. With about about 500 jurisdictions, every 5-10 minutes of drive time you cross into a different tribe of elites. Choose your town/tribe carefully or you will be shunned forever.

Restaurant taxes finally got cut this session, and Interest and Dividend tax will be phased out! Most importantly, education freedom accounts passed. Property taxes are ruinous here because spending on government K12 went to the moon. My apartment rent is more than half property tax.

Most New Englanders hate people moving here and make permits and new construction difficult to impossible. Very broadly speaking, about a quarter of buildable lots have been permanently removed from the market over the past 40 years. With a continuous decline in supply, existing lot prices go up regardless of condition or location.

An example from nearby South Burlington VT perfectly captures natives attitudes: They passed a law to prevent the water department from ever adding another water or sewer connection, and made well/septic in-town illegal. GO AWAY might be the new town motto!

I call NH the best house in a really bad neighborhood. Competing with boomers for the last lakefront house on the east coast is the road to ruin. Further north you go, the better your odds.

Ticks and black flies are a bloody nuisance. I am at 60 ticks so far this season. I got Lyme disease within 2 months of moving.

There are property tax exemptions for fixed income pensioners, so government folks will have an easier time here than the IRA/401k/annuity folks like me.

What are the positives keeping you in NH, which outweigh all the negatives you listed?