Best Small Towns in New England to Live [or buy a home]

[Music] are you looking for a small town to relocate to want to buy a home in a small town keep watching what is going on everyone welcome back to the world according to briggs let's take a look at small towns in new england wherever you go in this great country of ours you will find great small towns i love small towns and i'm not alone more and more people are relocating to small town america as i've pointed out in past videos big cities are starting to lose their appeal they're overpriced overcrowded they're polluted it's just not worth it these days to more and more people why pay double to sit in bumper-to-bumper traffic while you breathe in car exhaust when you can move to a small town where when things like a loose cow is in the news and not a triple homicide today's video is about the 10 best small towns in new england now if you've ever been to new england you already know there's about 300 great small towns to move to these are the best ten that are probably more appealing to most people a lot of you will probably feel we missed some and that's great we'd love to hear about in the comment section below as i always say we're probably gonna make another video about this and we'd love to add your suggestion let us know all right sit back relax and let's take a look at what we found number 10 essex connecticut if you've ever heard the phrase charming small town they may have been talking about essex to be clear you have essex and inside that you have essex village and that's where the charming comes in essex is nice and was actually called a perfect small town in 1 000 places to see before you die it's a book i think a lot of the consideration for that was actually essex village the town of essex has a little over 6 000 residents and the village which is inside like i said has about 2 500 of them if you visit essex village you will probably be inspired to write a book or a screenplay with it as the backdrop it's that cute of a place something like uh i don't know a young reese witherspoon moves here to start a new life she meets a local washboard stomach attractive 30 year old fisherman and they hook up her pass catches up with her in the form of abusive wall street controlling ex-husband all of the sudden the washboard's stomach boyfriend shows up and we learn he was actually an ex-navy seal who snaps him in two and takes him for a boat ride in the middle of the night he comes back alone they live happily ever after ordering amazon stuff yeah that's how nice this place is essex village looks like a movie set is what i'm trying to say all of the stats are graded a or a plus here except for costal living which is a big fat f is so is housing costs a lot of money to hang out with reese witherspoon the median home price here is 475 000 that's about the lowest you're gonna find there somewhere in the 400 to 500 area most the houses here are 000 and above with some you know two three million dollars that are right on the water beautiful place though number nine bar harbor maine bar harbor maine has a population of about 5 500 permanent residents and it's a nice place to live i mean unless you're some like 20 year old goth emo kid you're gonna say you hate it wherever you live and they're gonna leave comments about it just stop typing bar harbor's nice get over it it's really hard to find a crappy place to live in maine anyway it's almost like you gotta ask the locals where the crappy place is to live and they'll have a hard time telling you if you ever take a canadian cruise i mean if and when they ever start up again chances are bar harbor is going to be one of the ports you'll stop at like if you leave new york or boston spend the day in bar harbor when that boat lets you off you'll enjoy it if they do ever make those cruises safe again and you go keep in mind the canadian cruises aren't the caribbean cruises with half dressed 20 year olds around the pool this crowd is a bit older but the scenery is totally worth it try the norwegian cruise line one like again like i said if these are ever safe again when you get to bar harbor prepare not to want to leave it's that nice bar harbor is beautiful and is always a summer vacation favorite for people on the east coast it's located on the north side of mount desert island and it's not too far from in my opinion one of the most overlooked national parks acadia national park that's something i don't know if you'd have time to go there on a cruise day but if you went there and lived there or just visited for a couple days go to acadia national park and bring a good camera you'll thank me later if you visit or move to bar harbor don't go there expecting a killer nightlife they don't have one but you should be prepared to eat a lot of really good seafood they have plenty of that median home listing price in bar harbor is about 477 thousand dollars now it's the low end they got a lot of nice houses with a lot of ocean views for a million plus all the stats in bar harbor get an a or an a plus again the only bad ones well actually there's three on this one they don't really have any jobs because most everyone there has money but the cost of living is high and so is housing number eight hanover new hampshire hanover is located along the connecticut river on the border with vermont this is home to dartmouth college or dartmouth college if you want to make the locals and the alumni skin crawl i hate that oh my god i said that three times in a video in the past and one time i made the mistake of reading it and saying dartmouth instead of dartmouth oh my god the amount of grief i got was hysterical anyway because of the students they have more than enough bars and restaurants and places to shop everything you need that way throw in the fact they have some really good museums this is definitely a place worth giving a look at least visit here this is one of the nicer college towns in the country especially one that has a major college sure it's an ivy league college it's no you know giant state university or something like that but dartmouth is a great college and this is a great town really most college towns are just wrecked with crime and traffic hanover has none of that again the only thing that gets enough here is cost of living everything else is a or their housing is ranked to see which i don't understand because the median home price is seven hundred thousand dollars a lot of money but this is a really nice place in new hampshire and they've got eleven thousand five hundred residents living here now a lot of them are college students so it's really not as big a town as that makes it sound number seven new showroom rhode island new sharm is better known by the name of the island that it actually sits on block island block island sits about 12 miles off a rhode island shore between montauk new york and martha's vineyard block island is a great island to live on if you have a fat bank account and you hate year-round warm weather islands like you'd find in the caribbean or caribbean however you want to say it block island has great summers don't get me wrong but their winters can get terribly cold if you want to visit don't try and drive they have a small airport on the island but about 90 of the people get there by ferry because there's no bridge that's why you can't drive your car there unless it's a really special james bond car the entire island only has about 1 000 residents and they all are pretty much laid back people this is the type of place you move to if you like walking on the beach and be nice to each other oh and you got to have that big fat bank account like i said remember that screenplay from earlier with a young reese witherspoon it could happen here just as easy if you visit or live on block island you'll have the pleasure of being able to eat it dead eye dicks yeah that's the name of the place deadeye dicks not as entertaining as dicks halfway in in missouri but pretty good prices on block island are extremely high the median home listing price that's just the median listing price is 1.2 million dollars yeah that's a little rough on the bank account but it's a great place to live if you can afford it number six chester vermont finally a new england town that is affordable for the common folk like myself the cost of living in housing are graded a d in chester bravo chester you're pulling it off the median home price here is only 264 000 that's not bad the green mountain flyer excursion train is in chester if you know anything about me i like trains it has this adorable little train station look at that this is one of those things that you take your kids on and you know they don't want to go and you get them on there and like 10 minutes later they're totally into it and they love it yeah it's one of those they have great hiking trails including one called lost mine hiking trail which sounds great i read this one review on the town from a girl who moved there to take care of her alien grandmother some time ago she said when she got to chester from boston she couldn't wait to get back to the city this was like death to her but she had to take care of her grandmother her grandmother had passed some years back and she never left she still hasn't found her way back to boston and it's been over 20 years she said she's happy so that says something i think i imagine she's one of the 3 thousand residents of chester 3 000 residents that seem to be very happy chester is one of the happiest towns in new england number five oak bluffs massachusetts and we're right back to the pricey but nice portion of today's list oak bluffs is on martha's vineyard and it's home to about 5 000 residents now i said martha's vineyard so right now you should be seeing dollar signs if you don't look back at the monitor or your phone i put dollar signs up on the screen just now the town is right on the edge of the water and has amazing sunrises i don't get up that early so that would be useless for me if you like history this is a great place for you oak bluffs homes are some of the oldest in the country perfectly preserved homes those gingerbread cottage type things with ocean views this is one of the better looking towns i've ever been to everything but the cost of living in housing are graded in a in oak bluffs now here's where it sets back it's not as bad as some of the other ones on here but the median home listing price here is almost nine hundred thousand yeah i looked around you don't find many for under seven hundred thousand it seems like number four stove vermont look at that stow made another list they were just on our best mountain towns video like a month ago stowe has outstanding stats and great skiing their crime is 60 lower than the national average and it's safer than 80 percent of the cities and towns in the united states school test scores are like 40 higher than the national average everything like usual on this list but housing and cost living are graded in a stow is a great place to ski thanks to the ski slopes well i mean obviously it's not like they have great skiing thanks to the lemonade stand on main and school street right even if you just go visit you'll get that urge to move there if you got the money it's a good place to live the median home listing price in stowe is 860 thousand dollars yeah it's a good chunk of change but hey at least you're close to the ben and jerry's waterberry factory right number three stockbridge massachusetts stockbridge is what our grandparents and great-grandparents wanted america to look like after world war ii this town looks like walt disney designed it for one of the parks like america land or something like that even norman rockwell spent his last 25 years in stockbridge if mr rockwell decided this is where he wanted to spend the rest of his days you know it's got to be good this town isn't terribly expensive either the cost of living is great at a d and it's only nine percent higher than the national average some of the other ones on this list were like fifty percent and sixty percent higher than the national average this massachusetts town inspired norman rockwell's artwork for many years stockbridge is something to see during the holiday season too it's got all the old-fashioned decor all that stuff like i said it looks like 1950s america just outside of town you have the norman rockwell museum which i'd suggest going to see it it's pretty interesting the artwork that that man made the median home listing price in stockbridge is 550 000 not bad number two kenny bunkport maine kenny kennebunkport was the summer home for the former u.s president george h.w bush the home was first built by bush's grandfather george herbert walker that's how he got the hw it is hard to find a bad looking home in kennebunkport it's also hard to find one for under seven hundred thousand it's a little expensive if you ever visit a friend mentioned a little place called the clam shack he grew up around portland maine now he lives in portland oregon how odd is that and he said this is one of those places you have to stop if you're in the area he said it's like they have this big clam batman signal that calls him in every time he was in the area i don't know i thought it was funny this was once a shipbuilding center and kenny bunkport became like a summer retreat in the late 1800s for the rich and wealthy if you can swing this place financially and don't mind a crisp couple months every winter you can relax on the beaches and walk around this cute little town this place is adorable this is another one that looks like disney built it every stat in kenny bunkport maine is an a plus other than our usual cost of living and housing those are big fat f's because it's expensive this town only has around 1 000 permanent residents during the summer it gets a little crowded with people but it's still worth it to live and just a visit all right before we get into number one let us know in the comments section what region should be next the midwest mid-atlantic the south or the west coast we're gonna do another video real soon on this subject all right let's finish up and number one bristol rhode island first and foremost bristol is affordable it is a suburb of providence with a population of about 22 000 residents and it's considered one of the best places to live in rhode island no joke been voted one of the best many times in different magazines and websites it isn't hard to find a beautiful well-maintained home for around 300 000 in bristol if you go lower it might need a little work but it's still worth it if you have the coin you can find homes for around a million a little bit over on the water with like a private dock so buy a row boat or something with a motor around 80 percent of the people in bristol own their homes and that's a good sign people who own their homes tend to like the area it says good things about the area and they make sure it stays nice renters don't care they'll leave a burning couch on the lawn as they leave bristol has a lot of bars restaurants coffee shops and parks it's filled to the brim with young professionals and retirees that i i don't know love seafood and fresh ocean air i guess all the stats are a and a plus but the cost of living which is a c plus in bristol that's not bad for the other ones on this list this makes them the number one spot it's nice probably not as nice as kenny bunkport or some of the other ones but it is achievable for most people to live in bristol bristol is still sort of unknown to many travelers and people not from the area so it doesn't get terribly crowded it's a nice place to visit and a great place to live [Music] all right that's today's list i hope you guys enjoyed it i hope you got some information out of it like i always say don't forget all the links below and like i said tell us what you think which area should we do next love to hear about it everybody have a great day be nice to each other you

Channel: World According To Briggs

Views: 367,641

Keywords: where to live in America, Top 10 reasons not to, best cities to live in, United States, Lists, Best States, New England, small towns in america, mortgage loans, best places to live, new england, new hampshire, affordable housing, Vermont, massachusetts, connecticut, small towns in new hampshire to live, best small towns in new england

Id: WDybFESNFA0

Length: 14min 46sec (886 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 04 2020