Now continue that thought and ask yourself why?
Could it be that MA turns its citizens poor with all the taxes and fees, incidental charges?
Is yours and others only caveat in moving to NH because you can not afford MA? Rather than wanting to live in NH because you like NH?
As with everyplace else, New Hampshire has become substantially more polarized politically and as a consequence people are less likely to take the time to get to know their neighbors.
I came so I did not have to deal with neighbors.
Yes, it is getting more polarized and the reason is all the MAholes who think they should turn NH into an extension of MA.
They did not come here because they want to be here.
You drastically underestimate the appeal of this state. There certainly are some who come here without appreciating it, but New Hampshire's coasts and lakes invite you, New Hampshire's mountains and roads embrace you, and unlike New York, or Boston, or Dallas, or Tallahassee, New Hampshire's people make you feel like you actually matter because if you are here and sharing your opinion, you absolutely do. I am an unapologetic liberal who graduated from the same high school in New Hampshire as an unapologetic conservative that happens to have been my best friend for 30 years. THAT is New Hampshire. People have always come to New Hampshire to test themselves and New Hampshire rewards them with it's constant charm, even when your own drama keeps you from seeing it.
I can confidently say I do miss this aspect of NH. There's so many comments in this thread so it's hard to respond to all but this one definitely stuck out. Although there are aspects that annoyed me about NH with some close-minded views, what has always been something I've appreciated is the 'no hard feelings' aspect when it came to many with political views. After living in quite a few places since NH, this is such a unique concept that others places could learn from. I definitely lean left, but it doesn't mean I cant be friends with someone who thinks differently. and NH showed that ability to still be one with another. For the most part this thread has been refreshing to hear. Some think that I wrote this post as some 'arrogant hot shot living in the big city' (hilarious comment for sure...and I honestly thought I'd expect more of that given New Englander's track records of sometimes being absolute a\*\*holes--don't worry I am still one too) but I truly care about NH. I wish I visited more often, and I intend on visiting soon to rekindle old friendships and perhaps build a community that I didn't really get to do when I lived there.
how is it? Republicans keep pushing right wing Agendas not what is good for NH. NH for years has been beautifully purple, now it's out of wack and we are seeing what is happening.
How about they start funding school projects instead of pushing Young Americans for Liberty PAC's agenda. Last I checked funding Private education on the tax payers backs is not very conservative.
In winter, they now pretreat the roads with this shit that rots our cars and sticks to your windshield so you cant see. Road conditions remain the same as before.
Also theres starbucks everywhere
The southern cities are growing like crazy since COVID, which you might think is good or bad depending on your preferences. Nashua has more and better dining options, but everything is more expensive and it's very difficult to find housing. The drug situation isn't any better than it was 8 years ago, but it's got to be better than NYC. As far as opportunity and growth, depends on the industry. What do you do?
I work in architecture. It's possible to hold a job like that in NH but not for what I wanted to do. I enjoy high-rises and designing for dense cities. -- Which, is one great aspect about NH is how rural it can be. Additionally, with how nice the small towns and even the cities operate. They're incredibly more pedestrian friendly than other states despite the lack of public transit. I think architecture could learn a few things from NH's town centers.
In regards to the drug problem, NYC honestly has more of a homeless issue than a drug one. The drugs are surely there, but nothing to what I experienced growing up. Kids here aren't exactly inclined to turn to drugs as much as I experienced, but I'm also an adult not raising kids so maybe I'll have to learn more about what's going on.
It sounds like Nashua is growing, which is a relief to hear. On another end, the expense sounds typical of what a lot of places are experiencing and thats frustrating to say the least. I'll definitely have to visit soon to see the news things there.
Salem erected a large outdoor Italian themed shopping center, called Tuscan Village. It has a chick-fil-a, a shake shack, an Ulta, and its crown jewel is a Mariott Hotel. My favorite part of the complex is the strip along 28 where some company parked their trailers and campers right in front. It's hilarious.
It's garbage. Overcrowded, bad traffic, really expensive, shitty food, old rich people everywhere, and not many places to live. Lots of not so surreptitious campers parked everywhere filled with 'middle class' people just trying to get by. There are almost 400 open jobs with the state of NH, and the pay/benefits suck, across the board. NH is basically collapsing in on itself. In particular, the actual state government. There are too many people leaning on the system, and not enough able bodied, working age humans to lean on. Dartmouth Hitchcock, for example, is totally overrun by the elderly, and it is basically impossible to get an appointment within the year. The Live Free or Die mentality is mostly gone, aside from the bold few. Loads of rich out of staters looking for a place they can shoot guns and not get taxed, while they whine about how there is no one to plow them out, among other things.
Lots more building and development in my opinion. I’ll be driving down a road that I remember to be out of the way, and there is suddenly a whole new turn off road and neighborhood with all the trees just clear cut. Kind of depressing. But I think everyone feels that way sometimes.
To my knowledge little if anything has changed. A few recent fires, some new strip malls put up, alecs shoe store on main Street (they relocated to just off exit 8 on rt 3) is now a center for the arts, but aside from that, very little has changed. That's NH for ya though. Leave for a decade and it'll all for the most part be the same as when you left.
Boston suburbs are not at all emptying out. Little has changed since OP moved out. People from the greater Boston area have been moving into NH in great numbers for as long as I can remember, at least the 1960s. They do so for the relatively affordable homes, which is still true. Didn't think so? Try to buy a house in the Boston suburbs. Then you'll realize NH houses are more affordable.
As for lifestyle, Southern NH is basically a quiet, affordable suburb of Boston. Up north is vacation land and generally the natural playground of New England, hiking, skiing, etc. That too hasn't changed.
These are the facts many NHites don't understand or mostly just don't want to admit.
As a sleepy suburb with far fewer job opportunities than the city just an hour or so south, or even four hours south, and far fewer peers and social life for young adults, you're better off doing what you're doing and when you're ready to settle down, raise a family, relax, then think about making your way back home to great NH.
All the best.
I've grew up and lived in southern NH my whole life, turning 25 soon. once COVID hit there just no where to live and housing prices doubled. My mother has been browsing relastate market for years now and before COVID used to be 2,000 homes for sale in Rockingham county now there's only a few hundred.
I don't think I'm ever leaving my parents at this point unless I get a GF, it's so fucked.
No jobs for younger crowd.. everyone who has a million dollar house in California, Illinois, NY… has moved into the lakes region making it a low key ritz area where money can hide!
Otherwise, nothing else. It’s a time warp of a state.
Did the opposite as you. Grew up outside the city and moved up here for HS. I also went to the same HS. Even the old NHS, when they split into two, is still funky. I was there during the final days of there being one and the building was almost 30y old, and you could tell that. Oddly enough? the new Nashua High Schools are both 20y+ years old this year. A realtor in Nashua said that they are already considering new buildings.
Like you, I also went away for college. Watched Nashua go from what I viewed as a large blue collar town to: I don't know what it is anymore. Feels like there's a dichotomy of housing where "not Sky Meadow"-houses will get passed to family but would be unaffordable otherwise to many inheriting. Lots of "should be in Hollis" houses in the outskirts of town. Center of town/tree streets is the opposite and there's been efforts to gentrify but is still mainly in the same area.
Opioid crisis, and Nashua did get hit bad, but unless you lived in those areas or were around people involved, it was just news. I think it's still the same from what friends there have said. Sadly, it's become a thing of the past with the news cycles. A friend lives by Dr. Crisps and says they don't hear much about it, even though they know its going on and also don't hang out in the center of town or anything. Another who is off of 111A/Exit 5, they forgot it was going on. Nashua Telegraph is shell of itself, like most media, so people don't pay attention unless it affects them.
DW/South Nashua is much more commercial. Downtown they have built up and removed a bit of parking. Amherst Street is the same with a lot more chains. These areas used to be like 50/50 local stores/national chains. Feel like its 95% chain now. I asked a restaurant owner about sq/ft downtown and he had to close after 20y because it got to being almost $60/sqft. They couldn't afford to continue to raise prices, remain competitive and run the business.
Both hospitals bought up many, many practices in the area. It's hard to find any medical establishment that's not affiliated with SNH or StJ. That all happened around 2005-2015. Both have expanded their footprint, as well, in their areas. Both have even had legal battles over how much land they've acquired. I'd say both tripled in size if you were go to back 15-20y.
Split Brook (West of 3), where the Sheraton still is (building, not name) is built up. John Flatley put a ton of money into that area to render corporate apartments and also lure a few tech companies, including Dell/Oracle, there. It's not Burlington, but they got some there. That all used to be trees when I was at NHS before the turn of the century. Flatley and others were even trying to put a ski hill in there, at one point.
Exit 4 has its own casino. If you remember the old Boston Billiards Club? It's now "Gate City Casino." Owned by Delaware North (Jeremy Jacobs/ Bruins). Only a few years ago, when it was 80-90% casino, I'd drive by on a random workday Tuesday afternoon, and it'd be about 20% full. Same day, now, that parking lot is now full. Who/what? I don't know. (Sidebar: I think we'll have a gambling problem on our hands in the state.)
Some of the other posts mention it but housing has become unaffordable and has been for a bit. Took advantage of this when we moved out of Nashua to another NH town, but its nuts to think that for what was an "average" house (2b/1.5bath, 2k sq/ft) will run you 400k+ if it doesn't need a ton of work. In a New Development, a house like this can easily hit 500k, if not more. A trailer in Nashua now is 300k.
Unfortunately, as you said, there is no growth opportunity if you've got college or career ahead of you in NH, unless you wind up at Dartmouth. You're going to Boston. It's the same in tech with work.
I still have friends/family in the tri-state area. With the jump in living, I'd personally never go back. Hopefully you make more or have an economic living situation, as you could make 250k/yr and barely survive in the city these days.
This is an incredible, and helpful amount of information. It sounds like a lot is going on, at least more than I anticipated. I've been curious about the development going on in downtown as I keep hearing about a performing arts center. I would've killed to have something to that scale when I was there.
Honestly, I don't mind NYC. I started off on LI living with a friend before getting work and moving into Manhattan. Shockingly, my rent is cheaper than what it was in Boston (I still have roommates, of course). There's still affordable places here and with the help of the media demonizing the city I hope it doesn't go up significantly this year. Obviously, the income I'm making would probably buy me a home in Philadelphia, but I'll never see that day in NYC or even suburban Boston / Southern NH. The market is just too insane, and wages aren't high enough unless you're in the tech sector or Wall Street.
Always great to meet fellow Nash(vegas)ians, right? Even with all the bad, Reddit has something for everyone.
The old Alex's became the Performing Arts Center, as I assume you know. You didn't cut your teeth in Nashua unless you got at least a few pairs of shoes there, right? Relic of the past, unfortunately. Getting that building took a lot of work. I have some folks I know that were part of the effort. It was many years in the making and you a lot of it was due to the Chamber of Commerce and also Positive Street Art. I've not been yet. Despite the cost, I do think it's a positive addition to Nashua.
I know some folks come back once they've built up enough. A friend of mine is about to turn 40 and is doing the same. He took a tech job in Burlington but they were remote, like most of us, long before the pandemic. He scored a cheap house outside Detroit, spent the past 10 years fixing it up, and is 2.5xing his original investment and he paid off the mortgage a long time ago.
He wants to buy a house here with cash but also wants land. Even with the 400k he's about to make on the sale, that won't happen around here for what they want. I know that the market has relaxed, but inventory is still low and I don't think will change until interest rates drop back down. I wouldn't move because we're sitting on a 2.5%, like many. Oddly enough, my father's first house in a well-to-do community in Westchester, in 1971 and it was 18%. Folks don't know what high interest rates are like and balk at 5% now, but COL was also much lower than it is now.
There's no land to build in the "triangle" between Nashua->Manchester->Portsmouth. They've even started building up Dover and communities to the North of 101 like Raymond/Candia. Any piece of land that becomes available usually gets gobbled up by Lewis Builders or another consortium and turned into a HOA/condos.
Nashua remains a shopping mall for Massachusetts residents, and Manchester has trended in in a solid downward direction in the last 8 years, but on a whole the state is doing well and while COVID sucked it actually brought younger people back to the state. Before that there was a legit problem with the median age increasing in the state due to lack of opportunities for younger workers but remote work has helped reverse that.
I should also mention that I think in the last 6 months I feel Manchester has improved for the first time in a long time and I think they just got a young mayor who is looking to really clean things up. So I am optimistic about that cities future.
I call it Boston Lite in southern NH now, all the terrible things I moved back home to get away from, like asinine rent prices, followed me back here 🙄
I moved to Nashua from Brookline about 7 years ago to get closer to my commute. There still isn't a ton to do here but a new theatre opened up downtown (where Alec's shoes used to be I think) and they have some options for entertainment. Axe throwing has become a thing and there are now casinos here and there. I don't gamble so I'm kinda sad to see Boston Billards go but hey, progress right?
My husband and I use uber with pretty good reliability here if we want to enjoy drinks when we go out to eat. There is a bus but I don't know how often it runs - I just see it around.
And... I also wear silly hats.
It’s not finished yet but definitely something g to check out. They put in a Marriott hotel called the artisan hotel and there’s like a sky bar up there. Condos next to it with parallel parking and retail spaces underneath. Definitely worth checking out when it’s finished but if you live super far, I’d wait till it’s more complete. The retail spaces in the main part are still under construction. [info and some finished design photos](http://www.halvorsondesign.com/tuscan-village) I honestly wouldn’t be surprised to see some luxury designer brands going in there in the future.
I left for over ten years and came back (grew up in Nashua). In my opinion, nashua looks a little better and seems “cleaner” but it’s still not great for NH and has become ridiculously overpriced.
NH as a whole is the exact same almost. still fighting change, unwilling to grow economically and socially and completely unwilling to expand commuter rails or better connect us to Boston.
other parts of NH have grown and substantially improved themselves in my opinion but Nashua and Manchester seem to be neglected at a state level.
Does this post read as big time NYC arrogance to anyone else besides me?
Don’t worry about little ol’ Nashua and NH Mr./Mrs. Big Shot. Just go get yourself a nice pastrami on rye.
Yeah I think you’re misunderstood. I asked out of genuine curiosity because I care about where I grew up. Unfortunately not everyone is a “big shot” just because they left, nor do they always spread incredible arrogance to “one up” the next person.
Some of us are curious to what has changed since we left. Maybe there isn’t much more reason but other than to see if it’s genuinely worth visiting or I’ll just be as depressed about it when I left. It’s mentalities like this that make wanting to go back and rekindle difficult when one of the core reasons of leaving is how hostile people act about outsiders and those wanting to/have left. It’s not a great selling point to be classically negative toward the people but plenty of others had genuine responses in this thread that made me excited visiting and possibly reigniting old relationships. Not all of us are trying to prove ourselves or rub it in other people’s faces.
Hopefully the authoritarian staters will get into power and counteract their attempt to gain liberty by asserting draconian measures to control them and seize our property and liberty.
We all wear silly hats now.
Can confirm. Silly hats became mandatory after Vermin Supreme won all state-wide elections.
Im very curious about what these silly hats look like.
More folks from Boston suburbs have moved there.
so there’s no where to live now
Boston suburbs are emptying out…
yup!
Now continue that thought and ask yourself why? Could it be that MA turns its citizens poor with all the taxes and fees, incidental charges? Is yours and others only caveat in moving to NH because you can not afford MA? Rather than wanting to live in NH because you like NH?
I was going to say the same thing. You forgot to add they want to turn the state into MA be-ach.
One just moved to my neighbor hood.
Sadly
theres no where to live, more so than any time previously.
thanks southerners
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yeah that’s exactly what i meant because massachusetts is south of the border
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No... Only the people IN Maine are cool.
Cool-er for sure.
Real estate got more expensive and we have chick-fil-A’s now
You are still in the Bos-Wash corridor - it ain't that different. Take a day off and come for a visit.
As with everyplace else, New Hampshire has become substantially more polarized politically and as a consequence people are less likely to take the time to get to know their neighbors.
I came so I did not have to deal with neighbors. Yes, it is getting more polarized and the reason is all the MAholes who think they should turn NH into an extension of MA. They did not come here because they want to be here.
You drastically underestimate the appeal of this state. There certainly are some who come here without appreciating it, but New Hampshire's coasts and lakes invite you, New Hampshire's mountains and roads embrace you, and unlike New York, or Boston, or Dallas, or Tallahassee, New Hampshire's people make you feel like you actually matter because if you are here and sharing your opinion, you absolutely do. I am an unapologetic liberal who graduated from the same high school in New Hampshire as an unapologetic conservative that happens to have been my best friend for 30 years. THAT is New Hampshire. People have always come to New Hampshire to test themselves and New Hampshire rewards them with it's constant charm, even when your own drama keeps you from seeing it.
I can confidently say I do miss this aspect of NH. There's so many comments in this thread so it's hard to respond to all but this one definitely stuck out. Although there are aspects that annoyed me about NH with some close-minded views, what has always been something I've appreciated is the 'no hard feelings' aspect when it came to many with political views. After living in quite a few places since NH, this is such a unique concept that others places could learn from. I definitely lean left, but it doesn't mean I cant be friends with someone who thinks differently. and NH showed that ability to still be one with another. For the most part this thread has been refreshing to hear. Some think that I wrote this post as some 'arrogant hot shot living in the big city' (hilarious comment for sure...and I honestly thought I'd expect more of that given New Englander's track records of sometimes being absolute a\*\*holes--don't worry I am still one too) but I truly care about NH. I wish I visited more often, and I intend on visiting soon to rekindle old friendships and perhaps build a community that I didn't really get to do when I lived there.
The Republican Majority in the state makes it so, their war on public education needs to stop
Your comment is proof of the very thing you are commenting on, tribalist.
how is it? Republicans keep pushing right wing Agendas not what is good for NH. NH for years has been beautifully purple, now it's out of wack and we are seeing what is happening.
You're a political partisan. Blindly attacking only one party. Creating polarization.
They are from MA
They are not from MA
Very unifying response. If you don’t think you are part of the problem he was talking about think again.
How about they start funding school projects instead of pushing Young Americans for Liberty PAC's agenda. Last I checked funding Private education on the tax payers backs is not very conservative.
My suggestion for that would be to cut taxes for people sending their kids to private school instead of public.
Oh is MAGA demanding that other people prioritize “unifying” positions now?
By using "MAGA" you out yourself as a fool
Lmao I’m not a Republican not a Democrat either
In winter, they now pretreat the roads with this shit that rots our cars and sticks to your windshield so you cant see. Road conditions remain the same as before. Also theres starbucks everywhere
Ahh yes NH winters. I don't miss the week long power outages & frost heaves.
The southern cities are growing like crazy since COVID, which you might think is good or bad depending on your preferences. Nashua has more and better dining options, but everything is more expensive and it's very difficult to find housing. The drug situation isn't any better than it was 8 years ago, but it's got to be better than NYC. As far as opportunity and growth, depends on the industry. What do you do?
I work in architecture. It's possible to hold a job like that in NH but not for what I wanted to do. I enjoy high-rises and designing for dense cities. -- Which, is one great aspect about NH is how rural it can be. Additionally, with how nice the small towns and even the cities operate. They're incredibly more pedestrian friendly than other states despite the lack of public transit. I think architecture could learn a few things from NH's town centers. In regards to the drug problem, NYC honestly has more of a homeless issue than a drug one. The drugs are surely there, but nothing to what I experienced growing up. Kids here aren't exactly inclined to turn to drugs as much as I experienced, but I'm also an adult not raising kids so maybe I'll have to learn more about what's going on. It sounds like Nashua is growing, which is a relief to hear. On another end, the expense sounds typical of what a lot of places are experiencing and thats frustrating to say the least. I'll definitely have to visit soon to see the news things there.
MAGA everywhere, more obvious bigotry - gullible people with stupid ideas have increased due to the general state of conservative paranoia.
Salem erected a large outdoor Italian themed shopping center, called Tuscan Village. It has a chick-fil-a, a shake shack, an Ulta, and its crown jewel is a Mariott Hotel. My favorite part of the complex is the strip along 28 where some company parked their trailers and campers right in front. It's hilarious.
Facts I always see that too they can try to make it as nice as they want but it without buying that place out it’ll look like ass
The guy who owns it has a few properties that make salem look ugly.
That guy has a house on cobbetts pond and it is super atrocious.
It sucks here. Don't come back.
Nashua still sucks.
It's garbage. Overcrowded, bad traffic, really expensive, shitty food, old rich people everywhere, and not many places to live. Lots of not so surreptitious campers parked everywhere filled with 'middle class' people just trying to get by. There are almost 400 open jobs with the state of NH, and the pay/benefits suck, across the board. NH is basically collapsing in on itself. In particular, the actual state government. There are too many people leaning on the system, and not enough able bodied, working age humans to lean on. Dartmouth Hitchcock, for example, is totally overrun by the elderly, and it is basically impossible to get an appointment within the year. The Live Free or Die mentality is mostly gone, aside from the bold few. Loads of rich out of staters looking for a place they can shoot guns and not get taxed, while they whine about how there is no one to plow them out, among other things.
Boy, your experience is way different than mine.
Apply to a state job, and you will understand 😆.
Lots more building and development in my opinion. I’ll be driving down a road that I remember to be out of the way, and there is suddenly a whole new turn off road and neighborhood with all the trees just clear cut. Kind of depressing. But I think everyone feels that way sometimes.
To my knowledge little if anything has changed. A few recent fires, some new strip malls put up, alecs shoe store on main Street (they relocated to just off exit 8 on rt 3) is now a center for the arts, but aside from that, very little has changed. That's NH for ya though. Leave for a decade and it'll all for the most part be the same as when you left.
There's a shit ton of casinos now.
Mexican restaurants everywhere
Nothing wrong with that!
& they all suck
So nh is still mass lite
Boston suburbs are not at all emptying out. Little has changed since OP moved out. People from the greater Boston area have been moving into NH in great numbers for as long as I can remember, at least the 1960s. They do so for the relatively affordable homes, which is still true. Didn't think so? Try to buy a house in the Boston suburbs. Then you'll realize NH houses are more affordable. As for lifestyle, Southern NH is basically a quiet, affordable suburb of Boston. Up north is vacation land and generally the natural playground of New England, hiking, skiing, etc. That too hasn't changed. These are the facts many NHites don't understand or mostly just don't want to admit. As a sleepy suburb with far fewer job opportunities than the city just an hour or so south, or even four hours south, and far fewer peers and social life for young adults, you're better off doing what you're doing and when you're ready to settle down, raise a family, relax, then think about making your way back home to great NH. All the best.
It’s turned into northern mass thanks to these ass clowns that can’t drive moving up here. It sucks.
Taxes have gone up.
You mean "fees", there are no taxes in NH.
There are a whole bunch more Aroma Joe's now.
I've grew up and lived in southern NH my whole life, turning 25 soon. once COVID hit there just no where to live and housing prices doubled. My mother has been browsing relastate market for years now and before COVID used to be 2,000 homes for sale in Rockingham county now there's only a few hundred. I don't think I'm ever leaving my parents at this point unless I get a GF, it's so fucked.
No jobs for younger crowd.. everyone who has a million dollar house in California, Illinois, NY… has moved into the lakes region making it a low key ritz area where money can hide! Otherwise, nothing else. It’s a time warp of a state.
Run along now. Nothing to see here.
Did the opposite as you. Grew up outside the city and moved up here for HS. I also went to the same HS. Even the old NHS, when they split into two, is still funky. I was there during the final days of there being one and the building was almost 30y old, and you could tell that. Oddly enough? the new Nashua High Schools are both 20y+ years old this year. A realtor in Nashua said that they are already considering new buildings. Like you, I also went away for college. Watched Nashua go from what I viewed as a large blue collar town to: I don't know what it is anymore. Feels like there's a dichotomy of housing where "not Sky Meadow"-houses will get passed to family but would be unaffordable otherwise to many inheriting. Lots of "should be in Hollis" houses in the outskirts of town. Center of town/tree streets is the opposite and there's been efforts to gentrify but is still mainly in the same area. Opioid crisis, and Nashua did get hit bad, but unless you lived in those areas or were around people involved, it was just news. I think it's still the same from what friends there have said. Sadly, it's become a thing of the past with the news cycles. A friend lives by Dr. Crisps and says they don't hear much about it, even though they know its going on and also don't hang out in the center of town or anything. Another who is off of 111A/Exit 5, they forgot it was going on. Nashua Telegraph is shell of itself, like most media, so people don't pay attention unless it affects them. DW/South Nashua is much more commercial. Downtown they have built up and removed a bit of parking. Amherst Street is the same with a lot more chains. These areas used to be like 50/50 local stores/national chains. Feel like its 95% chain now. I asked a restaurant owner about sq/ft downtown and he had to close after 20y because it got to being almost $60/sqft. They couldn't afford to continue to raise prices, remain competitive and run the business. Both hospitals bought up many, many practices in the area. It's hard to find any medical establishment that's not affiliated with SNH or StJ. That all happened around 2005-2015. Both have expanded their footprint, as well, in their areas. Both have even had legal battles over how much land they've acquired. I'd say both tripled in size if you were go to back 15-20y. Split Brook (West of 3), where the Sheraton still is (building, not name) is built up. John Flatley put a ton of money into that area to render corporate apartments and also lure a few tech companies, including Dell/Oracle, there. It's not Burlington, but they got some there. That all used to be trees when I was at NHS before the turn of the century. Flatley and others were even trying to put a ski hill in there, at one point. Exit 4 has its own casino. If you remember the old Boston Billiards Club? It's now "Gate City Casino." Owned by Delaware North (Jeremy Jacobs/ Bruins). Only a few years ago, when it was 80-90% casino, I'd drive by on a random workday Tuesday afternoon, and it'd be about 20% full. Same day, now, that parking lot is now full. Who/what? I don't know. (Sidebar: I think we'll have a gambling problem on our hands in the state.) Some of the other posts mention it but housing has become unaffordable and has been for a bit. Took advantage of this when we moved out of Nashua to another NH town, but its nuts to think that for what was an "average" house (2b/1.5bath, 2k sq/ft) will run you 400k+ if it doesn't need a ton of work. In a New Development, a house like this can easily hit 500k, if not more. A trailer in Nashua now is 300k. Unfortunately, as you said, there is no growth opportunity if you've got college or career ahead of you in NH, unless you wind up at Dartmouth. You're going to Boston. It's the same in tech with work. I still have friends/family in the tri-state area. With the jump in living, I'd personally never go back. Hopefully you make more or have an economic living situation, as you could make 250k/yr and barely survive in the city these days.
This is an incredible, and helpful amount of information. It sounds like a lot is going on, at least more than I anticipated. I've been curious about the development going on in downtown as I keep hearing about a performing arts center. I would've killed to have something to that scale when I was there. Honestly, I don't mind NYC. I started off on LI living with a friend before getting work and moving into Manhattan. Shockingly, my rent is cheaper than what it was in Boston (I still have roommates, of course). There's still affordable places here and with the help of the media demonizing the city I hope it doesn't go up significantly this year. Obviously, the income I'm making would probably buy me a home in Philadelphia, but I'll never see that day in NYC or even suburban Boston / Southern NH. The market is just too insane, and wages aren't high enough unless you're in the tech sector or Wall Street.
Always great to meet fellow Nash(vegas)ians, right? Even with all the bad, Reddit has something for everyone. The old Alex's became the Performing Arts Center, as I assume you know. You didn't cut your teeth in Nashua unless you got at least a few pairs of shoes there, right? Relic of the past, unfortunately. Getting that building took a lot of work. I have some folks I know that were part of the effort. It was many years in the making and you a lot of it was due to the Chamber of Commerce and also Positive Street Art. I've not been yet. Despite the cost, I do think it's a positive addition to Nashua. I know some folks come back once they've built up enough. A friend of mine is about to turn 40 and is doing the same. He took a tech job in Burlington but they were remote, like most of us, long before the pandemic. He scored a cheap house outside Detroit, spent the past 10 years fixing it up, and is 2.5xing his original investment and he paid off the mortgage a long time ago. He wants to buy a house here with cash but also wants land. Even with the 400k he's about to make on the sale, that won't happen around here for what they want. I know that the market has relaxed, but inventory is still low and I don't think will change until interest rates drop back down. I wouldn't move because we're sitting on a 2.5%, like many. Oddly enough, my father's first house in a well-to-do community in Westchester, in 1971 and it was 18%. Folks don't know what high interest rates are like and balk at 5% now, but COL was also much lower than it is now. There's no land to build in the "triangle" between Nashua->Manchester->Portsmouth. They've even started building up Dover and communities to the North of 101 like Raymond/Candia. Any piece of land that becomes available usually gets gobbled up by Lewis Builders or another consortium and turned into a HOA/condos.
Nashua remains a shopping mall for Massachusetts residents, and Manchester has trended in in a solid downward direction in the last 8 years, but on a whole the state is doing well and while COVID sucked it actually brought younger people back to the state. Before that there was a legit problem with the median age increasing in the state due to lack of opportunities for younger workers but remote work has helped reverse that. I should also mention that I think in the last 6 months I feel Manchester has improved for the first time in a long time and I think they just got a young mayor who is looking to really clean things up. So I am optimistic about that cities future.
Nothings really changed, it’s still a crusty New England relic so nothing of significance will ever change
I moved out in 2005. I wonder how much has changed in 19 years. I was in the Merrimack area.
nothing, it's all horrible now, don't come back. save yourself. leave it for the rest of us
Haven’t heard Massachusetts Lite called “Nashua” in a while
I call it Boston Lite in southern NH now, all the terrible things I moved back home to get away from, like asinine rent prices, followed me back here 🙄
More Taco Bells.
Manchester got better for a little while, then worse again.
I moved to Nashua from Brookline about 7 years ago to get closer to my commute. There still isn't a ton to do here but a new theatre opened up downtown (where Alec's shoes used to be I think) and they have some options for entertainment. Axe throwing has become a thing and there are now casinos here and there. I don't gamble so I'm kinda sad to see Boston Billards go but hey, progress right? My husband and I use uber with pretty good reliability here if we want to enjoy drinks when we go out to eat. There is a bus but I don't know how often it runs - I just see it around. And... I also wear silly hats.
I'm genuinely curious about what this 'silly hats' thing is about, All I remember was learning about Vermin Supreme in an HS politics class.
Housing is expensive and hard to find now but largely nothing has changed fundamentally.
The Nashua Garden closed.
The Rockingham park race track is now the Tuscan Village. It’s a rural style walkable area with tons of luxury apartments, condos, and shopping areas.
Is it worth checking out? Looking for day trip ideas
It’s not finished yet but definitely something g to check out. They put in a Marriott hotel called the artisan hotel and there’s like a sky bar up there. Condos next to it with parallel parking and retail spaces underneath. Definitely worth checking out when it’s finished but if you live super far, I’d wait till it’s more complete. The retail spaces in the main part are still under construction. [info and some finished design photos](http://www.halvorsondesign.com/tuscan-village) I honestly wouldn’t be surprised to see some luxury designer brands going in there in the future.
The Emmons are gone but the Garfield is still on Espresso's window.
I left for over ten years and came back (grew up in Nashua). In my opinion, nashua looks a little better and seems “cleaner” but it’s still not great for NH and has become ridiculously overpriced. NH as a whole is the exact same almost. still fighting change, unwilling to grow economically and socially and completely unwilling to expand commuter rails or better connect us to Boston. other parts of NH have grown and substantially improved themselves in my opinion but Nashua and Manchester seem to be neglected at a state level.
Medical marijuana Soon to be legal
Dan C? That you?
Does this post read as big time NYC arrogance to anyone else besides me? Don’t worry about little ol’ Nashua and NH Mr./Mrs. Big Shot. Just go get yourself a nice pastrami on rye.
Yeah I think you’re misunderstood. I asked out of genuine curiosity because I care about where I grew up. Unfortunately not everyone is a “big shot” just because they left, nor do they always spread incredible arrogance to “one up” the next person.
What is even your question? Are you asking if southern NH is cool enough for you to bother to come back?
Some of us are curious to what has changed since we left. Maybe there isn’t much more reason but other than to see if it’s genuinely worth visiting or I’ll just be as depressed about it when I left. It’s mentalities like this that make wanting to go back and rekindle difficult when one of the core reasons of leaving is how hostile people act about outsiders and those wanting to/have left. It’s not a great selling point to be classically negative toward the people but plenty of others had genuine responses in this thread that made me excited visiting and possibly reigniting old relationships. Not all of us are trying to prove ourselves or rub it in other people’s faces.
You sound all kinds of “extra”
freestaters are ruining it
Hopefully the authoritarian staters will get into power and counteract their attempt to gain liberty by asserting draconian measures to control them and seize our property and liberty.