NH may not have income/sales tax but they get you in other ways. My sis lives there. Higher property tax, tax to register their vehicles, and so on.

Housing is expensive everywhere in the Northeast, and the closer to the big cities, the more expensive it is.

I'd say check the areas that interest you, check the job situation and housing costs to see if a move is worth it at all.

 

How about Vermont? Plenty of nice roads and cows.

 

One tip from my recent house buying experience. When you are looking at property taxes don't forget to factor in auto insurance rates. I have found that lower auto insurce makes up for higher property taxes.

 

I think you may have to look farther than 4 hours from here to really find more bang for the buck. I wanted to move to the Raleigh/Durham area years ago when I completed my Bachelors and recently I wanted to go down to Charlotte but Tracie likes New England. Of course now those places above are pricey as well. But outside of those areas are very cheap.

I think the cheapest places to live in the US is the midwest. IMHO.

Did you consider eastern connecticut? Colechester and surrounding towns are affordable. You can get a nice house for 300s.

 

Now that you got me thinking more about this. Desireable places in CT aren't affordable for the average family looking to buy anymore.

It seems like the quiet, nice, affordable towns (i.e. a decent amount of housing stock $275K and under) people are flocking to these days to get away from Fairfield County and shoreline prices are east of the CT River. Areas like Marlborough, Hebron, Colchester, Bolton, Willington, Columbia, Coventry and that general area. You aren't too far out since Hartford is still in decent commuting distance, but the prices are much more favorable than other places in the state.

The "Quiet Corner" in northeastern CT is affordable, but the jobs aren't there. You would have to likely commute a ways to get yourself back to Hartford. My 2 cents.

 

i've lived in several towns in NH (Keene, Hillsborough, Brookline, Nashua, Manchester and now Portsmouth), and Portsmouth takes the cake. I plan on putting roots down here, and purchased a property about 13 months ago.

Downtown location is great, and if you already have family here, then even better. They've been doing alot of work downtown as well as of late building additional storefronts, high-end townhouses, etc.

 

I just read this again. I think Northampton, MA, or the surrounding towns will be perfect for you. Check out:

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/bp...hots/45881.html

Property values might have gone up a bit due to all the awards:
http://www.northamptonma.gov/aboutNorthamp...hampton_Awards/

The area has tons of schools/colleges and hospitals, etc, so you guys should be able to find jobs easily. The city is my favorite in the state and if I could find a job there I would move there without thinking twice. If you have never been there, you should go check it out!