Author: Contributors: CARLA FRIED WITH JEANHEE KIM AND AMANDA WALMAC REPORTER ASSOCIATES: ANN KNOL, KEVIN PINO, SARAH ROSE AND MARY SCHAEFER
Date/Issue: JULY 1997 VOL. 26 NO. 7 Word Count: 6322
Section: BEST PLACES 1997
CELEBRATING NO. 1
NASHUA, N.H.
- Area population: 175,800
- Unemployment rate: 2.3%
- Four-bedroom house: $125,000
- Property tax: $3,700 Sales tax: None
- Top state and local income tax: None
- Violent crimes per 100,000 people: 106
- Annual sunny days: 197
- Biggest employers: Digital Equipment, 603-884-5111; Sanders, 603-885-4321; Southern New Hampshire Regional Medical Center, 603-577-2000
--For more information: 603-881-8333
It looks like the New Hampshire Department of Motor Vehicles needs to alter the Revolutionary War-era motto printed on the state's license plates. Today it reads LIVE FREE OR DIE. After the results of this year's survey sink in, it might well be BEST PLACE TO LIVE FREE OR DIE. Led by No. 1 Nashua (pop. 175,800), three New Hampshire spots have cruised into the top 10 of MONEY's 11th annual Best Places to Live survey, which ranks the 300 largest metropolitan areas in the country. Following close behind Nashua, also in southern New Hampshire, is seaside Portsmouth, which sailed into fifth place, and No. 6 Manchester, a 15-mile drive north from Nashua.
This isn't the first time the Granite State has rocked into the national spotlight. Nashua was our original No. 1 in 1987, making it the first Best Place to rise to the top twice. The friendly former mill town on the Merrimack and Nashua rivers, 36 miles north of Boston, got there this time courtesy of a bustling tech-driven economy that rebounded smartly from a painful '89-'93 recession. "A lot of people unfamiliar with the area have the misperception that this is Cow Hampshire," says Michael Valuk of the Greater Nashua Chamber of Commerce. Not Vice President Al Gore, who said in a May trip to Nashua: "New Hampshire has an amazing story to tell."
Sure does. As you can see in the top 10 table on page 140, Nashua's economy now ranks among the best 10% of the 300 metro areas in our survey. What's more, the violent-crime rate is an enviable 84% below the national average. That no doubt will make a big impression on our readers; when polled, they voted low crime this year's most important factor in choosing a place to live. Access to top-quality health care also scored high, and Nashua doesn't miss a heartbeat there, thanks in part to its proximity to Boston's world-class medical facilities. Life in Nashua seems to be as sweet as the state's maple syrup.
For a rousing testimonial, just ask Craig Tobin, president of Oxford Health Plans New Hampshire, a managed-care firm. His company's parent, Oxford Health Plans of Norwalk, Conn., moved its back-office operations here in 1994 after a nationwide search. It now employs 1,425 people locally and will hire another 600 or so within two years. "We looked at the low cost of living, low crime and high quality of life, and you can see why we fell in love with the area," says Tobin.
That safe, snug, healthy feeling makes the Nashua region a great place to raise a family. The schools are rock solid and both kids and parents have an impressive array of recreation options. New Hampshire's lake region, anchored by Lake Winnipesaukee 50 miles north of Nashua, can float the boat of any water-sport enthusiast. For crisp salt air to clear their heads or a just-pulled-from-the-ocean lobster to fill their stomachs, Nashuans head for the nearby New Hampshire and Maine coastlines. And when the yen for big-city activity sets in, Boston is less than an hour away. The urge to hike can be sated in the fabled White Mountains, a 90-minute drive north, which converts to a skier's delight in winter. (Incidentally, that season is a five-month affair, with an average temperature of 21 (degrees) F and six feet of snow.) "Everything is so accessible here that you can do whatever you like without a major production," says Bob O'Brien, director of corporate communications at NuMega Technologies, a Nashua-based producer of debugging programs for Windows software.
To be honest, Nashua itself isn't the stereotypical New England town with clapboard homes and a village green anchored by a charming 18th-century white-steepled church. About 25% of the work force toils in Massachusetts, and the area resembles your basic commuter suburb with strip malls and modern housing subdivisions. However, the neighboring towns of Amherst, Brookline, Hollis and nine other communities that make up the greater Nashua metro area ooze classic Yankee charm.
The top 10 this year are a geographically diverse group, they have plenty in common:
- Lack of tax. New Hampshire and Florida do not levy any state or local income taxes. New Hampshire doesn't have a sales tax either, but residents owe a 5% state tax on interest and dividend income above $2,400 for joint filers.
- Gobs of jobs. Among all 300 metro areas, Punta Gorda is projected to have the strongest job growth over the next three years--13.8% total--according to NPA Data Services, an economic research firm in Washington, D.C. Jacksonville, Madison, Rochester and San Jose also rank high for future job growth. That should catch the attention of anyone thinking about moving. "Most people seek out communities with strong job growth," says Bob Katz, who is president of Easy Analytic Software, a Fresh Meadow, N.Y. compiler of demographic data.
- A sense that big isn't best. Five of our top 10 spots are home to fewer than 250,000 residents; Rochester is the smallest, with a population of 112,900.
Nashua's rise to No. 1--it was No. 42 in 1996--results from a resurrection that makes you think the place should be renamed Phoenix. (The actual Phoenix is No. 36 this year.) Beginning in late 1988, a downturn in the region's technology sector and military cutbacks choked local businesses, including Nashua's largest employers, Digital Equipment and Sanders, an electronics firm. In 1991, unemployment peaked at 8% and home values were down 20% or more from their '88 high as the area fell to No. 233 in our rankings. "It seemed like just about everybody lost their jobs in the late '80s," says Martha Oxner, a Merrimack resident who got laid off in 1989 and now runs a successful tailoring business from home.
Yet with typical Yankee bootstrapping, Nashuans energized their area. The tech surge was key. That's not too surprising, considering that New Hampshire has more techies per capita--78 per 1,000 workers--than any other state, according to the American Electronics Association. The Greater Nashua Software Entrepreneurs Group (GNSEG) was founded in 1993 and continues to offer financial, marketing and development advice to its 1,000 members. "The big firms here shed highly educated technology people who stuck around and went to work for themselves," says Forrest Milkowski, 46, director of product marketing at 150- person White Pine Software. The Greater Nashua Center for Economic Development also launched a program to encourage tech start-ups. So far, nearly 50 companies are up and running.
Service firms are also fueling the economy. Boston-based Fidelity Investments, for example, moved into a 600-acre Merrimack complex last year, where 900 shareholder service and technology staffers are already at work. Another 800 employees should be on board by the end of the year.
All told, Nashua has created a more diversified economy for its residents. "There is a much better mix in the types and size of companies," says Russ Thibeault of Applied Economic Research in Laconia, N.H. Because of the tight labor market--the recent unemployment rate is 2.3%--firms are getting creative to attract and retain employees. Sanders just switched to a schedule that will give employees two Fridays a month off.
Nashua is shaping up as a great place for telecommuters too; it snagged the third best rating for small metro areas in the April '97 MONEY /PC World survey of telecommuting hot spots. And those telecommuters can work from a home whose value is now steadily rising. Prices are increasing about 5% or so a year, and Jocelyn Lavoie of Norwood Real Estate/ Better Homes & Gardens says sellers are getting about 97% of their asking price.
Grumbling about the property tax levy is a local pastime, however. A typical $125,000 house carries a $3,700 annual property tax bill. Then again, those taxes help finance strong schools. Jane Truelove, who relocated from Boston last year to run Fidelity's operations, says her nine-year-old daughter is being pushed as hard in the local public school as she was in a private school in Boston. "The curriculum didn't miss a beat," she says.
Of course, no place is perfect. For one thing, Nashua lacks broad racial diversity (it's 96% white). And no one will mistake the area for a cultural or culinary hotbed. That said, there is a mini restaurant revival afoot. Martha's Exchange, Michael Timothy's, Coyote Cafe and Cafe Pavone are drawing diners back to Main Street in downtown Nashua. There's even live jazz four nights a week at Michael Timothy's wine bar.
To arrive at our 1997 Best Places rankings, we used a proprietary system similar to ones employed in prior years. First, Roper/Starch Worldwide polled a representative sample of 503 MONEY readers (median income: $70,040) and asked them to rate 41 quality-of-life factors on a scale of 10 (most important) down to 1 (least important).
Then MONEY staffers and Bert Sperling at Fast Forward, a Portland, Ore. demographic consulting firm, collected data for the 300 largest metropolitan statistical areas as defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget. We used a combination of government data, such as the FBI's 1995 Uniform Crime Report, as well as figures from private sources. For example, the American Chamber of Commerce Researchers Association supplied cost-of-living data, and we used the Mobil Guide's four- and five-star restaurant ratings. Arizona State University provided recent job growth stats. In instances where we didn't have data on a locality, we either used a state figure or extrapolated from a similar metro area.
We used two new data suppliers for housing figures. Runzheimer International, a Rochester, Wis. firm that specializes in corporate relocation analysis, provided the average price of a four-bedroom /three-bath home for households with $60,000 incomes, plus property taxes on those homes. The average home price for our 300 areas is $169,000. "The Midwest and the Southeast are where you can generally find the best home values today," says Art Balicki, a cost-of-living consultant at Runzheimer. Regional Financial Associates in West Chester, Pa. provided '95-'96 housing appreciation rates. The 14% rise in Greenville/Spartanburg, S.C. topped the charts.
Armed with our cavalcade of calculations, we assigned all the information to one of nine broad categories: crime, economy, health, housing, education, weather, leisure, arts and culture, and transportation. Then we weighted the data to reflect what readers told us they valued most in our poll. Once we had our final ranking, MONEY reporters visited the top 10 and bottom five places for on-site inspections.
As you might expect, readers' changing preferences along with shifts in a region's fortunes and new sources of data can cause a metro area to move dramatically up or down from year to year.
Two New Jersey metro areas, Bergen/Passaic counties (No. 70) and Mercer County (126), home to Princeton, had the biggest swings upward, rising 158 and 139 slots, respectively. Both scored especially well in health care, crime and access to the arts--they received points for their proximity to New York City's offerings.
Our bottom five places struggled with below-average scores in nearly every category. Sioux City, Iowa (No. 296), which abuts but does not include thriving Dakota Dunes or North Sioux City, as projected to creak along with a job growth rate that is about one-fourth the 4.5% national pace over the next three years. Lima, Ohio (No. 297) is still feeling the pain of the 8,000-plus jobs lost in the military downsizing that began in the late 1980s. Anniston, Ala. (No. 298) is expected to have the bleakest job expansion of all 300 regions in our survey and is already feeling the impact from the scheduled 1999 closing of the Army's Fort McClellan. Rockford, Ill. (No. 299) moves up a slot from last year, but locals insist their area gets a bum rap from MONEY. According to recent community surveys, most residents approve of everything from their health care to the economy, though there is agreement that safety and schools need to improve. Davenport, Iowa is No. 300 this year (Moline and Rock Island, Ill. and Bettendorf, Iowa are the three other anchors of the region). The agri-dependent area on the banks of the Mississippi is still struggling to recoup from the farm recession of the mid-1980s. Even so, residents feel their place is a pretty darn fine spot to live.
