Thanks! lot of info there. Sounds like it is on a good trajectory with the tech companies choosing a base there.

Yeah, the housing shortage is a downside. There is a similar problem in Manchester UK. It really is hard to get the deposit large enough and qualify for a mortgage to buy somewhere here on an average salary or even above average salary. Then, if you have to rent somewhere you end up paying considerably more in rent than what you would pay on a mortgage which makes it even harder to save for somewhere to buy. Seems unfair since it wasn't so hard for our parents generation where house prices were 3 or 4 times average salary - now it's more like 10 times!

During the pandemic there were many people in London that chose to relocate to manchester as working from home became more widely permitted. Typically, they kept their London salaries though and this inflated the housing market here. Plenty of homelessness here too. A lot, but not all, of that is connected to addiction sadly.

Don't worry about the Geography ignorance. Ashamed to say I didn't really understand that New England was not a state but a collection of states. I had heard of the term New England though, mainly because of the New England Patriots. Reading about it now a little and I see it is heavily linked to the history back to the 16th century. Perhaps some of the other states in NE are more famous than NH over here, Maine (especially the Lobster) and Vermont evoke an autumnal paradise with the oranges/red/yellow maple leaves. Would love to see it myself someday.