Upstate New York (I'm thinking Capital region) isn't the best comparison. Even with the housing crisis prices are much lower there than in Southern New Hampshire. We also have a much lower vacancy rate in the rental market (under 1%) compared to the NY Capital region's 4.8%, and property taxes are very high but vary based on the town.

The state motto is just a motto. Yes New Hampshire ranks highly on civil liberties, lax gun laws, etc. but for many it does not directly impact our lives on a day to day basis. NH residents typically frown upon Free Staters and Mass residents who move here and want to change things to fit their view. Culturally Manchester/Nashua are seen as more of an extension of the Boston Metro area, and many commute to Mass at least a few days a week for work. Once you get north of Concord, NH the commuters start to die down and housing prices are more reasonable.

There's a labor shortage in the trades and you'd likely be able to find a job quickly, but you're going to struggle to find housing and employers know that. Best of luck in your search.

Anything south of Manchester is northern mass. Good luck trying to find affordable housing. North of concord things start to get affordable, but decent paying jobs become harder to find. As far as housing goes, you may want to look out in the warner/hopkington area for something affirdable and just commute to the Manchester area

Don't believe the hype.

Go north of Manch. There are car dealers there for you to work at.

While this sub may not believe it, there is actually civilization here.

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There’s demand for technicians further north in concord. Manchester st in concord has a TON of car stores that are in need of a tech

What the fuck does "does the state motto apply" even mean?

So I'll just state facts and you can pick and choose what matters to you:

• Manchester is a city.

• Cities lean pro-regulation.

• Manchester is expensive.

• Southern NH is expensive.

• $250k in Northern NH is a nice house. There are several houses in Berlin for under $100,000.

• Nobody cares how cheap you can by a house in X Y or Z when you're trying to live in A.

I'm guessing your question means "I have strong, polarizing, slightly/extremely right opinions and you really wish people would stop being so mean 😢"

Head north, brother. Complain about the libs and kill your liver like the rest of the people who love the state motto.

sounds like a "I want to have my cake and eat it too" question.

motto bs is irrelevant....

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More populous areas with more $$$$ cost more....like everywhere

This is pretty spot on.

Also, the reason everything is cheap in northern NH is because there is no money. No one is going to go up north to build houses cheap so everyone else can be rich. OP says he'd have to make his own money up there, and he's not wrong. He'd also be making a lot less to be competitive.

No matter where you live, it is likely your income will scale with the cost of living in that area. The exception are some of the higher CoL areas where people will pay to live in paradise (ie: Hawaii and some parts of California). The only people getting ahead are the people living in LCoL areas but work remotely for HCoL or VHCoL area businesses.