Hello. My name is Sophie (duh) and I'm 22. My dad and I are looking to move to NH, and are looking at Keene in particular. He's a retired computer programmer and I am a recent college graduate who will be going to graduate school in Sports Psychology starting in the fall of 2010.
We're currently in Maryland, and for those who don't know, surrounded by democrats. We are both Libertarian so you can see why Maryland is a bad fit for us.
One reason we're looking at Keene is because it has a gym. (Long story short, my dad and I both love lifting weights so a gym is a MUST for us). After reading the 111 reasons to move to Keene, I noticed it says an all female gym, a men's gym, and a YMCA. Is the men's gym a male only gym? A female gym wouldn't work for me, unless you have some heavy lifting females up there.
Hope to get to "know" you all and will hopefully be moving up there some time in the near future though we may wait until after Ifinish grad school.
The non-YMCA gym is called Nitro Fitness.
http://www.keenenitrofitness.com/index.shtml
Didn't see anything about it being male only.
And it looks to be about 6 gyms in Keene according to Google maps.
http://maps.google.com/maps?oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=gym+keene+nh&fb=1&split=1&gl=us&view=text&ei=d_57Sv73GZeRtgef67HvAQ&sa=X&oi=local_group&ct=more-results&resnum=1
Hope you and your father are happy with wherever you land and look forward to seeing yet another new face.
Welcome Home!
I didn't even think to use Google to look at gyms in the area. That's what I get for staying up so late I guess.
I was on the beangroup.com site last night looking at property taxes in NH. Now my dad not so sure we're going to move. :( Since he's retired, we're on a fixed income and he's not sure we can afford property taxes.
Does anyone live in one of these "parks" that all the mobile/manufactured homes seem to be in, some of the houses too? What kind of rules and restrictions do they have and what's the monthly fee I can't find any information about? Neither of us are thrilled with the "park" or "association" fee or concept. He made the comment last night that it doesn't sound very free to him.
ETA: We spoke to a realitor. I doubt we'll be moving. I don't understand how it's expected for people to buy a house, pay "rent" (park/association fees) AND property taxes.
Sorry for the intrusion. Would have been nice though.
Property taxes are not bad in NH if you live in one of the low property tax towns, or have a small house or trailer. You could always rent. I highly recommend renting when you first get here, anyway.
You are in school to get a master's degree or something similar so as long as there is a decent need for the degree in NH, you should make plenty of money. It costs far less to live in NH than MD. Almost everything is less expensive (except heat and property taxes). Overall taxes should be MUCH less in NH.
Seems like a hasty decision! I suggest looking into what Keith is saying. I don't see rents as being out of control here, so I agree that cost of living is lower. Definitely rent before you buy. Surrounding towns' property taxes are lower than Keene.
That said there are 1.4 million people living in NH and they all indirectly are likely paying property taxes, so it's doable.
Stuph and Such - The trailers we were looking at were all under $50K and property taxes were over $2K. The house we live in right now is appraised somewhere between $260K and we paid less than $300 last year in property taxes. That's a VERY big difference.
Also, since the only thing we by is food (for the most part) which isn't taxed, saving on sales tax isn't a big item of concern. He also has no real income, just SS, so neither in no income tax. The move was mainly for political reasons but we can't move if we can't afford it. Even the Realtor we talked to said NH is probably not best for what we are looking for given our situation.
I don't think renting is an option for us. Again, he has no income and I'm looking for a job and will be saving everything for grad school. Not to mention he wants to own a house that I can inherit so I don't have to just jump in and buy something and go in to debt like he had to.
FTL_Ian - Property taxes are much higher than what we currently paying. Looking at Coos County, property taxes are stil at least twice as much but since we'd pay so much more to heat than we currently do, it's probably not a wise move either.
Haven't given up completely, but it is doubtful we'll be coming to NH.
Sorry to hear that. Perhaps you should consider a multifamily and having the renters pay your property taxes for you. I own a duplex in Keene, and that works well for me.
I'm not really sure of all the details of your situation, like you are, but I have some additional thoughts :D
I thought you were planning on finishing grad school and then getting a job in NH.
MD has sales tax, just not on food at stores.
In 2000, property taxes in NH were not even twice as high as in MD.
City-data.com
Median real estate property taxes paid for housing units in 2000:
Bethesda: 1.0% ($3,870)
Maryland: 1.2% b[/b]
http://www.city-data.com/city/Bethesda-Maryland.html
Median real estate property taxes paid for housing units in 2000:
Keene: 3.4% ($3,419)
New Hampshire: 2.3% b[/b]
BTW, have you seen this?
101 Reason to Move to NH http://www.freestateproject.org/101Reasons
You know best about your life. I'm sure you will make the best choices. However, if your degree ends up being in demand, you should be able to find a good job in NH. Then you should have no problem living in NH.
Stuph and Such - My dad wants out on Maryland and we hadn't decided on before or after I finish grad school. There are no strong feelings either way. Sports Psychology doesn't seem to be a well known field, or one in high demand at the moment, so finding a job in NH might be difficult. I'd probably have better luck finding a job as a personal trainer than a Sports Psychologist.
I know MD has sales tax. We just don't buy a lot other than food. The last thing we bought that wasn't food was probably a new blazer for me, and that was middle of July or so. No sales tax isn't as attractive to us as it might be to others with more dispsposable income. The budget is budgeted down to the dollar with little wiggle room.
While average property taxes may not be as high in NH as MD, what we would pay would be twice as high, at the least, it seems. Less than $300 a year in property taxes to $2K+ a year (plus association/park fees) isn't financial doable for us. While the property taxes in Coos county are a lot less, $500 for one place I found, the cost of heating would be higher.
I have seen the 101 Reasons to Move to NH. That's what got us looking into in the first place.
Like I said, still looking. He'd prefer NH over WY, but property taxes in WY are less than what we are paying here and that's a big plus.
FTL_Ian - We've looked at a couple multifamily homes, haven't really discussed it though. He's been a landlord in the past but doesn't seem to like the idea.
[quote author=Sophie link=topic=1378.msg14794#msg14794 date=1249703204]
While average property taxes may not be as high in NH as MD, what we would pay would be twice as high, at the least, it seems. Less than $300 a year in property taxes to $2K+ a year (plus association/park fees) isn't financial doable for us. While the property taxes in Coos county are a lot less, $500 for one place I found, the cost of heating would be higher.
[/quote]
I know people that have a condo in NH that is worth over $100,000 and they pay like $1500 a year in property taxes, and they live in one of the most expensive towns in the state. There's no reason to pay $2000 in property taxes on trailer.
About college, if you are going to be a personal trainer, you might not want to go to grad school. Just spend a month studying and pass a couple tests. Much of personal training is marketing. If you are going to study anything is school, maybe marketing. But then, you don't need to go to college to study exercise or marketing. There are a lot less jobs in WY than NH and the pay is even less. I wouldn't move to Coos County either if I wanted to be a personal trainer; although, it does have the least expensive heating costs for those that use wood heaters.
Whenever you go to school, it may be more than you would pay in MD, especially if you plan on going to a government college.
Stuph and Such - The career plan is to become a Sports Psychologist and use exercise as a therapy for people with mental disorder instead of/in conjunction with drugs. Personal training is how I plan to pay my way through grad school. Not to mention I love lifting weights and think I could help people with their goals.
What areas have lower property taxes? I must be missing them in my search.
Grad school is in CA, unfortunately. They have one of the few programs in the country in Sports Psychology. I'm already accepted, just deferred admission for a year to save up money. Tuition will cost about $44K total, which is about one year of what my undergrad was. Thankfully undergrad was almost paid for completely by grants. Grad school won't be like that.
many places in nh pay 1.5% property taxes
Kat's trailer in keene is like 800 a year
she might be in the market to sell it for $1 again
The problem with trailers is the monthly park fee. 1.5% is pretty high if we get a house to avoid park fees. We'll just keep looking around I guess.
[quote author=russellkanning link=topic=1378.msg14829#msg14829 date=1249814534]
many places in nh pay 1.5% property taxes
Kat's trailer in keene is like 800 a year
she might be in the market to sell it for $1 again
[/quote]
Hey, I thought I was next in line if it went for sale again! BTW, what is the monthly park fee?
Don't know if you were asking me Mike, but the realtor we spoke to was saying in the $300 range.
I was asking what the monthly park fee is for Kat's trailer, but your info gives me a ballpark. Thanks.
[quote author=Mike Barskey link=topic=1378.msg14875#msg14875 date=1249923335]
I was asking what the monthly park fee is for Kat's trailer, but your info gives me a ballpark. Thanks.
[/quote]
It's quite expensive. Go to a park outside of town and it will likely be less. I noticed a sedond park in Keene that seemed less nice, I'd be shocked if it wasn't $100 or so less per month than the one where Kat's trailer is located.
If you move to NH then Keith will buy you a cookie.
[quote author=evil muppet link=topic=1378.msg14957#msg14957 date=1250034456]
If you move to NH then Keith will buy you a cookie.
[/quote]
Beware. That's a euphemism.