I can't think of many bad spots in seacoast New Hampshire except Rochester. Stratham is nice.

I sent you a dm!

It personally like Lee and madbury area

Wanted to add, alot will depend on what you want in particular with a home/land. Portsmouth in that budget isn't nonexistant, but the home and land will be significantly less than compared to like, northwood

What’s the issue with Rochester?

Thank you for the context!

Check out the dm I shot you!

its the dumps :p

I’m not the above commenter, but am familiar with the Rochester area. There are a lot of unsavory areas in Rochester where buildings are rundown. I’m sure, like most places, they also have their fair share of drug/crime issues. It’s not the worst place in the state, and a lot of people see it as up and coming, but I personally wouldn’t want to live there. Schools are probably on par, if not worse, than Dover, but I can’t say I’m an expert on that.

Exeter for sure. Close to Portsmouth and cool little downtown of its own.

Exeter, Stratham, Hampton are very good. Hampton has the lowest property taxes between all of them. The schools are high rated, and the towns are safe.

Issue? Uh....yeah...there's more than one 'issue', but the poverty you can go and see for yourself most days. One time the guy who worked at the Walgreen's there said to me, 'Buddy, at night this place is like the Star Wars bar."

I grew up in Rye and went to PHS. Nice place if you can afford it. Your kid will love the ocean

Epping

So the Dover schools are THAT bad?

Is Epping fairly rural?

https://www.google.com/search?q=epping%20nh&tbm=

Absolutely love it here

Thank you for putting it on my radar!

Hey OP. I lived in Epping for 8 years. I loved it. I lived in town, and it's a very townie kind of town; people got to recognize us out walking every day and say hi, chat a bit, we made some friends, etc but it took a while. It's a small place but it's got everything you need and it's pretty convenient. The one downside is the schools are pretty lacking. For your budget you could do a whole lot better in Durham, Madbury, Exeter, etc.

I only have anecdotal evidence but have heard terrible things about the Dover school system.

There’s a housing shortage for sure so it’s good to look in a few towns. Lee and Madbury are great. Rollinsford is worth a look, it’s definitely underrated. Dover is a wonderful city, the issue is years of mismanagement. The teachers are some of the lowest paid in the state despite fairly high taxes. There’s a ton of development happening, which gets tax breaks. Hopefully the City sees its worth and sticks up for the residents more. Epping has a lot there and is very convenient. Greenland, Stratham are sort of like Epping. I’d stay away from towns closer to the Coast just due to prices and traffic.

I live in Lee purposefully for the school (we are in a co-op with Madbury and Durham). Housing is very competitive, although the top of your budget might be less competitive (if any houses in that range come on the market). Houses in my neighborhood are going for just over $500k, I had mine appraised 3 years ago during my divorce for $350k (and I bought it for $265k in 2013). It's a relatively easy jaunt to go to portsmouth, although you'll curse loudly during the commute home over the rt 4 bridge in Newington.

I cannot say enough good things about the Oyster River school district. I've known people that worked in both the Exeter and Portsmouth districts, and while those are pretty good, there are some institutional problems that make me doubly happy about Oyster River.

I used to live in Newmarket, and I think the school there is pretty good, it was lacking a bit for what we needed. so we decided to move about 9 years ago. I still live a 7 minute drive to downtown newmarket and can get my vanilla latte at crackskulls with a smile. Oddly enough, when I moved back to NH in the mid 2000's... there was a house for sale in Lee that we would have bought (this was pre-child) but we balked at the taxes. Now I'm glad to be here and can stomach paying a premium tax rate... wish I really thought that through then. would have saved a lot of headache.

Edit to add: Barrington has a tuition agreement with Oyster River where students can tuition into the high school. I think though it is competitive to get a spot, but I'm not 100% sure.

I am temporarily driving for Uber for some extra cash... and found myself in Rochester after midnight. It's a veritable Zombieland.

Do you know anything about Hampton in the context of Hampton Beach? Can one live in Hampton without experiencing the glamor of the beach clientele?

I live in Hampton and also lived on Hampton beach. Tourists don’t mingle in town they go directly to the beach, the town is always quiet even on the busiest days on the beach. We locals know back roads that are never busy with almost no traffic. If you stay out of downtown Hampton beach you are going to be alright. We usually stay close to north beach (the wall) away from the crowds of the restaurants and bars. I live in town right now, but really close to the beach, 2min drive, and you never can tell that the ocean is so close, my backyard is wooded and I have 18 turkeys living there. Even the weather is different.

I don’t know if you are interested, but the schools are amazing.

Compared to the towns around us there are very few houses for sale, even before Covid. I’ve never seen more than 10 houses for sale at once ( I don’t think I’ve seen 10 actually). We also pay less property taxes thanks to the beach.

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Exeter/Stratham/Newfields/Newmarket...any one of those towns will get you space but you'll be fairly close to the highway for access to Portsmouth and the beach. Personally I would look closely at Newmarket. Good downtown restaurants and young-ish vibe.

Also it’s been a few years but If I remember correctly there’s special parking lots for residents at Hampton beach. I never lived there but the ex’s friends did and they would park somewhere right next to the beach for free (was crowded but not as bad as trying to get regular parking at the beach during summer) so that’s a nice lil perk.

Really helpful, thank you!

I saw a mobile on .92 acres on a tree street in Northwood for 325. They’ve gone mental too.

No

It's probably a bad time to buy a home right now. Housing prices are really high and are just starting to fall.

I loved Dover when I lived there. Moved out about 4-5 years ago.

Look at the school rankings and pick any town around the good ones. Everywhere in NH is nice.

"Hampton beach" and north hampton are night and day.

Exeter! (Or Stratham, Kensington, East Kingston, South Hampton). Exeter school district is good and the town is super cute. 20 minutes to Portsmouth and theres a train stop right in town to get down to Boston in just over an hour. Not a ton on the market, though. I'm from Kingston which is right nearby and while there are some nice homes and it is nicer than some abutting towns, it might only be something to consider if you want to maximize square footage and acreage. It's kind of rural in the sense that there isn't much of a downtown and the school is very okay.

Durham is nice but UNH kind of rules the town. Newmarket is coming up but very small school. Rye is gorgeous if you can afford it. Greenland is also a great option, right outside of Portsmouth.

It's white trash land. Always has been.

Dover schools are the best in the area.

That's total bullshit. They just tore down the old high school a few years ago and built a brand new one and it's Voc school, so Dover gets taxpayer dollars from Barrington, too. Also, Durham sends their kids there for voc trades, Nottingham and Northwood kids got there, too, because Coe-Brown is so bad.

And of course, all of the rich kids at Phillips Exeter help boost the tax rate.

Northwood is way too far from Portsmouth. Rt. 4 in the morning is a nightmare, especially at the Lee traffic circle, particularly when UNH is in session.

Is a shithole.

Epping sucks, especially on Rt. 125. It's a non-stop traffic jam until 9 pm.

OP, it’s tough to leave Providence, we are similar to you. We were in PVD but left last year. 2 young kids under 2, in North Conway NH now and love it.

As someone who went to Dover high but lived in a neighboring community, the best part about going to Dover high was being right at the school and having the career technical education classes right on site. So I didn't have to spend a large chunk of my day on the bus traveling from my "home" school to Dover high to take classes and taking time away from the other general ed classes for travel time. I had "area" kids in my class from as far away as Milton and marshwood high school in Maine and those kids spent quite a chunk of time on the busses traveling to my school for classes

Coe brown has their own voc programs. I know for a fact they have agriculture programs and have for years but that their agriculture programs aren't as strong as the one at dover. I went to Dover high and the animal science teacher who heads up the dover high program graduated from coe brown

With that kind of budget you can afford to live in Hampton, Rye, Portsmouth, North Hampton, anywhere along the sea coast, basically.

Haha this is incredible. OP, based on this comment alone, you should move to Rochester.

Yes all the streets that have free parking are for residents only.

Rollingsford !

Well, to honest, I got out of high school in 1983, so I'm sure there's been some improvements since then, lol.

If I worked in Portsmouth and had that much cash I'd live in Portsmouth. Traffic sucks. The less time you spend in it per day that happier you'll be.

Hampton Beach is great. It can get really busy during the summer and there have been some issues with some people in recent years, but I've been going up there for over 10 years and I've never encountered a single issue.