Hello folks,

My name is Sammy, 49 years old and I am looking for my forever home. My family and I are working very hard for our retirement and are looking to buy a retirement home in a free state. I have lived in California  for a long time and feel like I am drowning here. The crazy laws, crazy people, selective law enforcement and homelessness makes my skin crawl. My wife and I are very conservative liberty loving people looking to live around like minded people.

My main hobby is firearms, reloading and competing in IDPA and similar sports. We are lucky enough to have several great ranges here where I spend most of my free time. I shoot a minimum of twice a week. If it wasn't for the great people at these ranges I wouldn't shoot nearly as much as I do. It is much more a social thing rather than training.

We are considering West Virginia as well but something draws me to your state. Watching that CNN town hall with Trump and the questions the people asked was great. Exactly what I am looking for.

We are coming to look at the first week of August and get the lay of the land. I completely understand the repulsion of people from blue states moving in. I see it all over the country and am sympathetic. What I am trying to say is I am an ally and will embrace the same values you all do.

We don't have any areas in particular to look at. Just going to get together with a realtor and look at houses. I am going to look at any public ranges that are on our path. From what I gather they are few and far between which worries me.

Any recommendations on areas with decent ranges? Any other input is welcome.

Thanks for listening,

Sammy

I just moved to Texas from NH last year. I was only in NH two years, but loved it.  This is my personal experience.

Part of why I am so fond of NH is that it’s a purple little-l libertarian state. Yes, you see radicals on both sides, but the majority is centrist and gets along. Even most of the people on the left support shooting rights which is nice.  I would like to move back at some point.

If you want an echo chamber of only people who think like you, WV may be a better choice.

Great state, lots to do, but you might have to drive a bit to do it. Gonna have to pick your sacrifices.

There's ranges sprinkled about. Pemigewasset in Holderness is the nicest on I've been to. That's near Lake Winnipesaukee and Squam. A couple small ranges near me in the Mt. Washington Valley area, about an hour north of there.

Depending on what and where you buy you can shoot on your own property. Need to be 100 yards
from your neighbors.  
Property values are high, and inflated, but they seem to only go up. Plenty of construction and retail work, ok wages for those fields I guess. Not much for professional work or manufacturing.
In my area most folks are friendly enough, plenty of dimwits though. Lots of massholes, but some of them hate there own too.

Great state for hiking or MTBing, kayaking, swimming.

I chose NH to retire to after living all over the country/world for work.  I'm not from here and a majority of folks living in the state were born elsewhere.

Lots of advantages here.  No income tax, no sales tax, no bottle tax.  There is an interest and dividend tax that goes away completely after the 2025 tax year.

The government is not made of professional politicians.  400 state reps and 24 state senators get paid $200 plus mileage for a two year term.  It is quite likely you'll run into your rep at the transfer station, the post office, or the local bar.  I'm in a business relationship with the brothers of the state senator to the part of the state I'm moving to.  For the most part, these are all quite normal people.  It does occasionally bring some interesting characters into the legislature though.  It is a purple state as highlighted above, but the current four bodies(House/Senate/EC/Gov) are red.

For the most part, there are no gun laws.  Many other gun friendly states mimic federal laws by having state laws on their books.  This is often not the case in NH.  You can't carry in a courthouse and FTF pistol/revolver sales require a PRL($10 for 5 years from your town) unless you know the guy.  *Even though we do have permits, the state is full up constitutional carry.

Everything is hyper localized here.  Vehicle reg is done at your town hall.  Need a new fire truck or a dump truck for the DPW?  Hash out the budget at the town meeting.  Get a road paved-same thing.  School wants to hire a couple new teachers, and similar.  The state only requires two permits for new home builds-driveway permit(approved locally if on a town road) and septic.  There are quite a few towns with no other permits or inspectors-I'm building in one.

With everything being hyper localized and having no state taxes, every in town improvement boils down to one thing-property taxes.  Things you often won't see in NH because of this are street lights or lines on town owned roads.  Be the guy who suggests a culvert gets replaced and you'll have 80% of the town saying it can last another 15 years.

Tradeoffs:
Property taxes are high and highly variable town to town.  You can't look at just the tax rate though-some of the high tax towns tend to assess low, and the low tax town tend to assess high.  At the end of the day, your overall tax burden will be lower than in other states.

We have a nanny state vehicle inspection which is an ~$50 hidden tax.  Another hidden tax comes up annually with vehicle registrations.  On top of the $95 reg fee, it will be an extra $458 to register my 21 Ram this year-other states would call this an excise tax.

There are overall not a town of services here.  Lots of towns have pawned off policing onto the state police.  Don't expect a fast response in an emergency as some of the areas are so short staffed, the nearest SP Trooper is at home asleep.  Without digging too far into it, our demographics allow this-I included demographics for my preferred counties in the link.  Not a ton of welfare type amenities, so the homeless folks are just kind of hanging out in the woods.  There aren't a ton of them, but they will create white trash type crime in the dozen or so towns they hang in.

Hospitals vary from, damn I hope they have someone working who can give me stitches to I'm happy to have open heart surgery here.  Dartmouth-Hitchock would be something I would want to be near if I had weekly heart attacks.  DHMC also runs an air ambulance service to back up the lesser hospitals.

The cost of entry is high, but depending on your situation in CA you may be OK financially to jump.

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Shooting scene:  IMO it kind of stinks here as it is mostly private clubs.  Some of the clubs are great though.  There is a thread in here about a Littleton club which goes out to 1100 yards.  I shoot on my own property, but if I didn't do that i would just find some public land to shoot on.

IDPA:  Not my thing, don't know.  Several matches come up with a search.  I also believe that leftist states such as MA have carve outs in their state laws so you can attend matches there.

edit:  Politely corrected by Len below.  I swear I've seen the topic discussed elsewhere, but I'll leave it alone.

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Where to live:  Personal preference and needs based thing.

No health care concerns and want to live off the land?  We've got it.  Go north young man.

IMO the western and northern portion of the state is best.  Also IMO, the Lakes region centered around Winni is trashy, but other lakes such as Squam, Newfound, etc are OK but still full of second/third home folks from out of state.  Again IMO, Southeast NH and the 30 seconds worth of 'Seacoast' region is soulless and essentially Mass.  Eff the cities with maybe the exception of Concord.

I chose a little nothing no tourist attraction town in SW Coos County to build in that gives me very convenient reach to shopping amenities in Littleton.  Getting my fix of Walmartian people watching helps me feel better about myself.

There are some quirks depending on what type of land you want-if you want acreage, check Wobblin-Goblin's thread in this sub as it has some tips from other members on how to save money and get land.

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General:

I personally think it is difficult to buy well from a distance.  I chose to rent in the Lakes Region and then find what I felt was an ideal place to buy.  Even though I came here with Alaska plates and nobody would give me grief, it also allowed me to do my real estate search with New Hampshire plates.  "I'm living down in [insert name of a town by a NH lake]" and not "I'm here from NYC".  This is obviously the more expensive option.

Also, the northern New England region tends to be cold personality wise.  Some people find that unfriendly.  Just the opposite-these are about the friendliest give your neighbor the shirt off your back regardless of politics folks you'll ever run into.

Pro tip-know that New England is only six states.  Don't lump NY or PA in.

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I guess being retired tends to make me long winded.  I'm sure there are 757 typos in here.

Check out anything surrounding route 16 from Wakefield to Errol, best NH in my opinion and where I'd retire if I didn't have the family lakehouse in Tuftonboro on Winnipesauke.

What do you want most mountains, ocean, lake, toothless meth rural, land and privacy, driving distance to Boston, access to quality medical care?

Down south the Londonderry Fish and Game Club is great, but wait list opens in March and takes years to get in and the Pelham club seems to accept everyone, but busier.

-P

Coos County FTW, everything South of Franconia Notch may as well be Northern Mass  

Wow,

Thats quite a writeup FDC and thank you everyone else for responding.

It looks like an amazing place.

The remoteness and slower pace of life is exactly what I am looking for. California is so bizarre. My next door neighbors moved in 4 years ago, a youngish late 20's early 30s couple. My wife and I work for a small family business making vegetable based soap and left them a box and note welcoming them to the neighborhood. We just couldn't seem to catch them at home. Turns out they were there the whole time but just didn't answer the door. I figured they were shy and left it alone. One day I am wrenching on the car and the girl approaches me in a very submissive way. Looking at the ground she whispers "they didn't pick up my trash because your car was parked too close". and walks off. I apologies but she keeps walking. It is my time to shine so I go to the door and offer to let them use my can for the week and I will bring my own to work. Everyones happy I figured. After knocking int he door the male is screaming at the woman, "fucking this and fucking that", very unhinged. I left my can in front if their house with a note explaining and apologizing again. The note was taken but the can never used. After that I kept my distance.

Most other neighbor are Chinese nationals who want very little with anyone other than the occasional wave. An older couple that has caregivers taking care of them. We are in a packed neighborhood but it is lonely as hell. Not one house I would knock on for help of any kind.

That said, I am done.

Thanks again everyone. Looking forward to sanity one day. Will keep this updated as it goes.

Gorham is Nice, it can be in many ways, be like stepping back in time 30 years...

I have to interject here.  Much of what another poster here has said is true but his feelings on the seacoast region are total crap.  I have lived all over the state and a couple other states and countries as well.  I like the White Mountain region and SW NH  quite a bit but there is nowhere else in the world I would rather live than seacoast NH.  I find that a lot of the people who move here from other states have a preconceived notion about certain towns and will often refuse to even check out  areas that are known to be more “artsy” or cultured because they figure it must be too liberal and progressive.  If you are a free thinker that isn’t threatened by people with opposing views yo will be just fine anywhere in NH or Maine.

My advice is this; do your own exploring and research.

1000% agree.

Also, opinions are like what and we all have them.  I'm an opinionated asshole, but not trying to offend.  

I prefer the ratio of jet's spray us to virtue signalling yard signs to lean more towards the jets spray us side.  That's just me.  The uber liberal old dude down the road from where I'm building is fun to BS with though.


Your point also highlights the rent before you buy or buy small before you buy concept.  It takes more than just a couple of visits to get a good feel for an area.

As someone with considerable expertise in Mass gun laws, I teach a lengthy seminar on the subject. I must correct a mis-statement above and explain it.

This is untrue and if one is caught they could face a felony and PP thru-out the US. Yes, many take that risk almost weekly and don't get caught. This is due to the peculiar wording in the law that has been mis-interpreted by most for many years. This correction was made clear to me by a firearms attorney who used to work for the state. Bringing any handgun or large-capacity long gun into Mass without a Mass NR LTC is a felony.

Now a little insight to consider, based on personal experiences in SE NH hospitals.

DMC (far away) is the only Level 1 trauma center in NH. Most serious medical problems/accidents get air transported to Boston trauma centers (there are multiple Level 1s in Boston itself).

We retired to a SE NH town from South of Boston, after my Wife retired from 22 yrs working in human research studies administration for Mass General-Brigham (MGB) in Boston. Her Boston doctor ordered an MRI and we went to Southern NH Medical Center . . . it took 7 weeks (and several phone calls) to get the resulting CD sent to her doctor in Boston. Sadly in January MGB and Dana Farber Cancer Institute (Boston) discovered that my Wife's breast cancer from 20 yrs ago had metastisized in her liver and was terminal. One day she had an infection and we had to get her transported to the hospital (St. Joseph's in Nashua). They had computer access  to all her records and couldn't figure out what to do, so they sent her back to MGB/DFCI. It turns out that she was very close to death from that infection. She got great care at MGB/DFCI in Boston, but chemo didn't work this time and she spent 2 months in an in-patient hospice in Haverhill, MA. She passed away 2 days ago.

Had she continued medical care in the Nashua/Manchester area, she would have died many months ago.

So the message is: As we age, serious medical issues may occur and we want the best medical care available. That is what drove us to search the SE NH area, typically an hour from the major Boston hospital which are some of the best in the world. Something to consider!

Many of our neighbors grew up in Mass, but they all seem to be live and let live type of people. I don't see BLM/rainbow flags around, I do see lots of American flags and a fair amount of Gadsden flags however. All my state reps/sens are republican. I personally know and talk with 3 of our state reps. Nashua, which is very close, is staunch democrat. It seems that the major cities and college towns are democrat whereas most of the suburban towns are republican.

I find people are very friendly but not intrusive.