Thank you sir! Extremely liberty minded here as well. I believe in TOTAL freedom btw. As long as I don’t hurt another individual, I should be able to do what the fuck I want.
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Hi, I’m from the Keene area and I’d 2nd the suggestion at looking at Alstead if you want to be around other principled libertarians and voluntaryists and get some cheap land to live off for farming (I’m not a farmer mind you). There are lots of people up in Alstead and south of Alstead (20-25 min or so) is Keene, NH. Keene is the biggest “city” nearby with lots of shops and things. Alstead has a gun shop and a BBQ place and a laundry matte. I think there is one other bigger employer in Alstead. There is also Concord and Manchester semi-nearby. Concord is like an hour 10 min from Alstead and Manchester an hour 20 min. Keene has some employment opportunities. There are insurance jobs in Keene and a company that does something with managing groceries for the north east. This is not a grocery store in Keene- but like headquarters or something. There are lots of grocery store jobs, a walmart, etc too. There is PC connection. Apparently they do something with manufacturing motherboards (? having a hard time understanding what they do cause nothing is really manufactured in the US and apparently they send the motherboards away to China to be finished). There are also a number of restaurants in Keene. We have a bunch of technical people living in Keene. Three are working directly in tech (one software developer, another does a help desk sort of job, I’m CEO of a tech company, another is a data scientist or something like that at the grocery- and I think there is another person doing something similar at that company), and we had another person who was technical whose doing help desk, and another whose done some other stuff, we have had a handful of other technical people, one technical person is running a store now, etc.
Cost of housing now… hmm I think that depends on what you plan to rent or buy. It’s probably going to be cheaper in Alstead or anywhere outside (but near) Keene. The place I bought was a 3 bedroom ranch /w two car garage. That was around $200,000 USD which basically would have gone for $350,000 in New Jersey where I’m from. With a mortgage and insurance you’d be looking at about $2,000 / month for my place. If you’re looking to rent a bedroom I think people are paying in the $400-700 range possibly with all utilities included, etc. And up to $1,200 for 4 bedroom apartment/house. 1 bedroom apartment might go for $700-1000 range. 2-4 bedroom $1,000-$1,200. This is Keene mind you. I would imagine Alstead is cheaper. Keene has higher property taxes than the surrounding areas. It’s the one down side to Keene. Though the up side is living in New Hampshire and around here is pretty cheap compared to many parts of the country and there are good jobs available. We have people living in Keene making $12 / hour no problem. So unlike places out in say California/New Jersey/New York/Boston/etc you don’t need six figures to survive here even if we have at least some people making six figures or close to six figures.
Probably the most successful people here financially speaking have jobs they work remotely or are otherwise in business for themselves. So for instance we have a security researcher here who does well for himself, I have a company I run, I know some people who have remote jobs (helpdesk, etc), another person does computer repair (this can actually be quite lucrative and bring in $65,000 / yr which is more than adequate to live well here in NH).
I think the real question is what skills do you and your partner have? That’s probably going to dictate employment opportunities. But even if you don’t have much in the way of skills/education you’ll probably still be able to do decently here. There are jobs that pay adequately for people who don’t have much in the way of skills or education.
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I’d suggest checking out Somalia Fest and Porcfest. Somalia Fest is June 16th-20th and Porcfest is back to back with it June 21st-25th. Both events are held at the same camp ground (hotels nearby too) in Lancaster, NH. Best time to come up as there are thousands of people that merge together in one place from around the world/country/New Hampshire. Mind you that not everybody is as liberty-friendly so don’t let the few infiltrators discourage you (95% are pretty darn liberty-minded, but you can catch a few republicans in attendance for political purposes that when questioned want to utilize violence against peaceful people, I always ask “do you want a closed board or an open boarder?” cause a closed boarder means a dependence on violence against peaceful people to keep some people out). There is a reason Somalia Fest got started by a different group of people. We liked the old Porcfest better (more freedom/liberty and ‘family friendly’ didn’t mean catering to statists or religious zealots).
If you come up outside of this time period I’d suggest checking out Concord, Manchester, and Keene. And maybe Alstead if you come up on the last Thursday of the month. You’ll see the different styles of living up here. From city conditions to towns to villages. All these places are within an hour 1/2 and nearly all of the population is centred in the southern part of New Hampshire. Outside of Porcfest/Somalia Fest there are very few people up north. There are some- but it seems most don’t even know the few liberty-minded neighbours that they have and I know that at least some regret having gone so far north that they have few if anybody to interact with. In comparison there is a lot going on in the south. Particularly Alstead, Keene, Concord, and Manchester. Keene is probably the most active in terms of activism (we’re frequently got more people from Keene at the state house for instance than anywhere else for instance, we have people who cop chase near every weekend, etc), but there are more people in Manchester. Manchester and Concord have social clubs that we’re lacking at the moment in Keene, but we have more events and stuff going on near us. Like for instance Social Sunday, Taco Tuesday, weekly Bitcoin meetups/activism, Bacon Breakfist Wensday, and nearby there is Thirsty Thursday. Those are just social gatherings mostly with one focused a bit on activism. We have also had a cop chaser/ cop block meet up or two. There is also a Western NH Libertarian party meetup once a month. Then there are other events and things going on like protests, rallies, carpools to the state house to testify on proposed legislation, etc.
That’s pretty much what my partner and I are hoping: good-paying jobs fairly quickly. We’re both hard-workers with rigid work ethics. A working man’s PhD? If those kinds of jobs are easy to get then we’ll struggle financially for a few weeks until we find a home rental or trailer.
What’s funny, is that Kentucky statists we’re surrounded by say New Hampshire is expensive to live (but then gasp in disbelief about the lack of most taxes other states have, such as the income and sales taxes).
What sort of work r y’all doing? And you said “trailer”. You mean like a mobile home? Unless you want to love the oil company then avoid mobile home living in NH. At least any older ones. Winters here ain’t no joke. I lived in trailers in NC and can say first hand you DO NOT want to live in one here unless its a necessity. That said they are around.
Cost of living here is higher in my experience. That said so are the wages. Property taxes are far higher than what you’d expect to pay down south. We have a $90K property and the yearly ransom is $2400. That’s cheap by comparison.
The average “cheap” rental cost in Alstead is $600 - $800 and that’s sort of slumming it. We found to get what we were used to in NC we needed to spend $1200 per month.
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Work-wise we’ll do pretty much anything. Right now, she’s a nurse aid (CNA) and I’m a housekeeper and dietary aid at a health center that is like a five-star hotel to the residents. We’ve both worked in plenty of factories both through temp agencies and hire-ons, she’s done a lot of CNA work and some construction, and I’ve done a lot of work in fast food, customer service, and industrial cleaning.
Skills worth mentioning: we both cook well (she specialized in Hawaiian food and I specialize in chili and burgers), she knows cars/mechanics and driving (she’s been a bus driver), among other skills, and I write and don’t think I’m “too good” for any work.
For the heating thing I hope not to do mobile homes, but if that’s what we can do we’ll do it. We have no doubt we’ll find work, it’s just finding a place at first that is the issue. Personally, I’d live in the car if I have to. Yeah, property is more expensive in New England - but that’s to be expected - but in the long run it’d be worth it.
We’ve found good deals, but we have a house-broken lapdog we can’t and won’t give up. Sadly, most landlords have a “no pets allowed” policy for the good deals.
When do you anticipate arrival? Sorry if you’ve said this somewhere already.
Porcfest. We’re camping out there and looking for a place in Cheshire County during that time.
Sweet. We’ll be there! Do you know what you can afford per month in rent? That way we can help look between now and then.
Thank you. Right now, no. We’re going to save up about $1,000. We had to nix a U-Haul and just pack as much as we can in our car. We have good resumes and hard-working, so we’re perfect for areas with lots of good-paying jobs.
Welcome from Porcupine Real Estate! If you have questions about buying or renting, or the property market in general, you can email us at info@porcupinerealestate.com. You may also find our NH Relocation Guide helpful - http://www.nhrelocationguide.com.
Amy
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I also kept hearing that housing was more expensive in NH. From what I’m seeing though it really isnt.
If you want to live in the woods, it’s cheap. City costs more. Seacoast/Lakefront costs more. There’s a big range, which is good.
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On the website there really isn’t much on rentals. I’ve emailed Porcupine Real Estate, and Mark Warden pretty much told me most landlords don’t advertise online. So I’m contacting the few inquiries I could find online and if that doesn’t work, we’ll be actively looking during Porcfest.
Thanks for the link, that guide has been one of the few that’s been pretty helpful.
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Depends on where you are moving from if housing seems more expensive to you. We moved from rural NC where $800 got you a couple acres and a 3 bedroom house. Here we needed to spend $1500 for that.
What Mark Warden said is right in my experience. We found our “choice” rentals through word of mouth and driving around. To get a landlord who will do what they say I’d recommend budgeting $800 per month to start at least.
Once you find a place that you might want to buy now that is a different story. USDA loans are easy to come by if you jump through their hoops. $100K property will cost a little less than $700 per month.
If you choose close to Alstead you can also look in Bellows Falls or Westminster VT. Yes its not NH but its very close and doesn’t have to be permanent.
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Have you been in touch with our rental researcher? You can email her at porcupinekatie@gmail.com. You can also check out PorcManor.com
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Yes I have done both. PorcManor either doesn’t have a lot of listings are isn’t updated. Not much was on there the dozen times I’ve checked over the year. Thank you for the email.
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Finally, another person that appreciates Ayn Rand’s ideas! Might you be an Objectivist? There aren’t many of us here yet. I would definitely like to connect if you are. I’m trying to get more copies of The Objectivist Standard into this state. I’m also starting an Objectivist book exchange, so contact me if you have some material to donate.
Proteus_liberty@protonmail.com
Steven R
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Depends on what you are used to now.