<p>My husband and I have been on a quest to find a spot we can move to semi retirement in a few years, (waiting for college daughter to graduate and get situated). We are not interested in the South at all. We were looking into Delaware, but we really like the Northeast. Some places that we have considered are Cape Cod in the more populated area and we thought about Vermont. Recently, New Hampshire has come to the forefront. We like access to the beach, cultural offerings, an intellectual environment that is found in college towns, we likea younger crowd as well. We like country but we like activiies and proximity to an urban area. We are in our mid 50’s, young at heart, active and look much younger than our age. We plan on still working or possibly starting a specialy food business.<br>
I’ve been researching Manchester and Nashua.<br>
Does anybody have any insight to these areas or suggestions to other places that would be of interest.
We plan on making a trip to the area in September. Any suggestions or wisdom?</p>
<p>I’ll just put this out there, but if you move to Burlington, Vermont…you’d have a bit of an “urban” area (very small city), a college town (UVM is right there), the beach on Lake Champlain right there, cultural offerings, and then all the country stuff at your doorstep…mountains, resort areas, etc. True, no major city, though Montreal is less than two hours from Burlington.</p>
<p>Friends retired (early, in their 50s) to the Maine coast near Portsmouth. They absolutely love it. She is from New Hampshire originally. PM me if you want to know more.</p>
<p>Peterborough is a beautiful town – a number of people retire there after having spent summers in the area.</p>
<p>You mention starting a specialty food business. I forgot to mention but that is very big in Vermont. There is even a Vermont Specialty Food Association. Products with “Vermont” on the label are quite popular, particularly with food.</p>
<p>My husband and I have been on a quest to find a spot we can move to
semi retirement in a few years, (waiting for college daughter to
graduate and get situated). We are not interested in the South at
all. We were looking into Delaware, but we really like the
Northeast. Some places that we have considered are Cape Cod in the
more populated area and we thought about Vermont. Recently, New
Hampshire has come to the forefront. We like access to the beach,
cultural offerings, an intellectual environment that is found in
college towns, we likea younger crowd as well. We like country but we
like activiies and proximity to an urban area. We are in our mid 50’s,
young at heart, active and look much younger than our age. We plan on
still working or possibly starting a specialy food business.</p>
<p>I’ve been researching Manchester and Nashua.</p>
<p>Does anybody have any insight to these areas or suggestions to other
places that would be of interest.</p>
<p>We plan on making a trip to the area in September. Any suggestions or
wisdom?</p>
<hr>
<p>Nashua and Manchester are both old mill cities. Nashua has enjoyed an
economic boom from high-tech and defense industries while Manchester
has struggled a bit more. Nashua has been named Money Magazine’s #1
city to live in two times. Manchester has been in their top ten at
least once.</p>
<p>Nashua is about an hour from Hampton Beach while Manchester is about
forty-five minutes. The beaches in Maine are easily accesible too.
Nashua and Manchester are somewhat in decline as the area is losing
population of people in their 20s to high home prices. Given what you
said you’re looking for (young, intellectual), I think that you would
be better off looking in college towns. Nashua and Manchester do have
colleges but there isn’t the college feel in the cities themselves.</p>
<p>Portsmouth NH has the young and intellectual feel and easy access to
beaches. Not too much in the way of college students though. The
Boston area has these three things but it can be an expensive place
to live in and there tend to be more crime issues. You might like
the Amherst, MA area. Northampton is a very nice town with a very
big downtown area adjacent to Smith. You have a ton of students and
professors in the area.</p>
<p>One other issue is finances. NH has no general state sales or income
taxes (there is a meals tax and an income tax on interest and
dividends), and depends heavily on property taxes to find the state,
cities and towns. If you have a large or expensive home, then you will
pay a lot in property taxes. This may be good or bad depending on your
circumstances. There are other positive attributes to NH, and Manchester
and Nashua in particular but I feel that they wouldn’t be your ideal
places based on your criteria. Cultural events, young people, the
college environment, etc. are all available in Boston but you would
have to be willing to spend an hour driving to get to those things.</p>
<p>Feel free to ask additional questions. We’ve lived in the Nashua
area for over twenty years and we have spent many an hour driving
to Boston for things in the big city.</p>
<p>If you want to do specialty food, consider Portland, Maine, which is becoming a food-lovers paradise.</p>
<p>My parents retired to Peterborough. It’s a nice small town. The local merchants will get to know you. There’s a very nice art center in town, a clothing store I love, one movie theater. The MacDowell colony is in the outskirts. If you are in good shape, nice hiking, skiing and winter skating on the local ponds all not too far away.</p>
<p>Look into Newburyport, Mass. I think that is where we will end up for the northern part of our retirement. It is a great town with old New England charm. The downtown would be great for your store. It is located near a river and the ocean. Plum Island, which is a beautiful beach, is just minutes away. Newburyport is located north of Boston with a train station that will take you right into the city. My husband is always checking the real estate listings and, according to him, now, or sometime in the next couple of years will be the time to buy. Good-Luck.</p>
<p>A cousin recently did this kind of nationwide search and chose Northampton MA for his “young” retirement. He had no previous connection to the area at all, except for spending seven years at Harvard in the 60s, and having a cousin live there for 10 years ending over a decade ago. So far (18 months in) he and his wife are still loving it. They are not start-a-business types, though – a psychologist and a lawyer.</p>
<p>I know other people who have retired to coastal Maine while relatively young and vigorous. They all love it deeply (and all had previous ties there, sometimes only during the summer). None of them has had an easy time with economic activity, though, and all have had to scale back their expectations on that dimension.</p>
<p>NH: don’t know so much, except that if your loved ones live in places served by Southwest Airlines, the ability to fly into Manchester cheaply is a huge plus.</p>
<p>Thanks all for the insight and suggestions. We have considered Portland, ME. We will look into Portsmouth, NH. I know we are looking for Utopia which is impossible. But we just want a place that has some diversity, I know many places don’t. Burlington, VT I understand is beautiful. My daughter was accepted to UVM but we never visited. My cousin will be going to a college there this fall. maybe we will visit him during the year.</p>
<p>milkandsugar, If you like access to the beach for swimming, you need to know the ocean water in Maine is incredibly cold. We summered at Hampton Beach in NH when I was a kid and it’s pretty cold there too. It keeps getting a little warmer as you do down the coast. Just something to keep in mind if you like to swim.</p>
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<p>Given those requirements–avoid the Cape. It’s overpopulated with retirees–there isn’t much of a younger crowd. Not a whole lot of cultural activities either. My son-in-law’s best friend is from the Cape and moved back there to work in the family business after college. The poor guy is desperate to meet people his own age. He spend lots of time visiting friends in Boston–which is 60-some miles away. While it isn’t really far, it’s a not an easy commute (bad traffic quite often). In my experience, the folks who have retired to the Cape and had good experiences were those who spent summers there and knew the area and had a social network of some sort.</p>
<p>second the suggestions to check out Portland, Portsmouth, Burlington, and Northampton. Personally neither Nashua or Manchester sound like what you are looking for (or Salem either).</p>
<p>If you want diversity, I don’t recommend NH.</p>
<p>Have you looked at Rhode Island at all? The beaches there are very nice and it’s much more affordable than southern NH or Massachusetts.</p>
<p>Ocean temp at Hampton Beach, NH is 63 today!</p>
<p>We live right between Nashua and Manchester and my first thought after reading your post was Portsmouth. I also really like the ideas of Portland, Burlington and Northampton. Just beware, the main difference in the winter weather moving north will not necessarily be the severity, but the duration. Winter here lasts a very, very long time.:(</p>
<p>Newburyport, and many of the towns along the North Shore/Cape Ann, are lovely, historic, upscale, and pretty pricey. There’s good public transport into Boston.</p>
<p>You might consider Providence, RI, a beautiful historic city. There are a number of schools there–Brown University, Providence College–but it’s bigger than a college town. Trains between Boston and Providence are plentiful and quick; one of my friends commuted for years after Harvard hired her away from Brown.</p>
<p>New Hampshire is wonderful. Diversity, though, not our strong point, but there’s a lot to offer here. I’m originally from Massachusetts but my family moved to NH when I was little and I’ve lived here since (although I go to school in NY now, but am home for the summer!). I live very close to both Nashua and Manchester and was actually at Hampton Beach today! There are lots of little towns around here that could fit what you’re looking for. I second looking into Portsmouth and Peterborough as well. If you have any questions at all feel free to PM me.</p>
<p>Thank you for all the suggestions. We have visited Rhode Island in the past for quick get away weekends when we were newlyweds. Visited Brown 2 years ago. it is a nice looking town. We will have to explore that furthur.</p>
<p>As far as the beaches in Maine and NH, the most I like to do at the beach is lay on the sand with a book and taking strolls along the shoreline. We used to go to Kennebunkport back in the 80’s and wow, the water was always freezing cold.</p>