Pinkham Real Estate

CONWAY
The largest town in the Valley, Conway is the center of business and service activity. It includes the villages of North Conway, South Conway, East Conway, Center Conway, Kearsarge, Intervale, Redstone and Conway itself. The total population is about 9,000, with a little over 5,000 registered to vote. It lies some 500 feet above sea level at the crossroads of U.S.Route 302 and NH 16. Conway' s affairs are managed by a board of 5 selectmen and an appointed town manager.

When you pay your real estate taxes, register your car or look for a building permit, park behind the white building in the middle of Center Conway that serves as Town Hall. The offices of Town Clerk and Tax Collector are at the front end of the building. The Town Planner is upstairs and can offer information on zoning codes and regulations for building. If you have a special project, it may be considered by the Planning Board.

Being a town with periodic influxes of large numbers of visitors, the Police Department is substantially larger than would be thought economic in most towns Conway's size. At last count, there were 20 sworn officers, plus 7 dispatchers that run the 24-hour-a-day 911 service, and 12 traffic control personnel.

Volunteer fire departments are in North Conway (48 volunteers and 2 permanent staff when we last checked), Conway (40 volunteers), Center Conway (25) and East Conway and Redstone with 15 each. While exact figures will change, the numbers of volunteers are given as an illustration that in Conway, as in all the towns of Mt. Washington Valley, there is emphasis on participation in the affairs of the community, perhaps the result of the town meeting form of direct government. The entire warrant for both the town and the school is voted by all registered voters on secret ballot, after a public airing.

Trash collection services are available, as is a town dump, which requires a sticker obtainable at the town office. Property taxes are higher in Conway than in the surrounding towns, partly because it is the center of Valley business and educational activity. It does not mean property is not as good a buy there. The real estate market, the combined choices of all who purchase, is what sets the price of property in the Valley (or anyplace else). Because of its higher taxes, Conway property thus tends to be valued lower than comparable property in other Valley towns; as a rough estimate, by about $10,000 for a house priced from $150,000 to $200,000.

It is a diverse town. Conway Village has traditionally leaned more toward industry - small manufacturing businesses. A number of these went south when it seemed economic to do so in search of lower labor costs. Now that such costs are leveling out, and there are signs of a reverse trend, there is increasing demand for commercial property. It is generally a year round residential community, and house prices are lower than in North Conway for comparable properties.

Center Conway is similar to Conway. It is the town center and includes a substantial part of Conway Lake. Lake frontage properties, of course, command quite a bit higher prices, though there are houses within walking distance of the lake that are a lot lower. East Conway is reached by the road of the same name and becomes farming country after a few miles. Along that road, however, new developments have opened, and property along the Saco River can be reached down several of the south side-roads.

Redstone is a unique little residential community, originally created to house workers in the now closed quarry that gives the area its name. It is well kept up, with neat, modest homes.

North Conway is the resort center. It is where the mountains begin, being bounded by the Green Hills to the east and the towering Moat Range to the west. The ecology of the Green Hills is managed by a conservation group; the only commercial activity being Cranmore Mountain Ski Area. In Moat Mountain's shadow nestles Echo Lake State Park and White Horse and Cathedral Ledges. Residential real estate is mostly year round, with perhaps a quarter being vacation homes. Proximity to recreation facilities translates to a somewhat higher average price level than in the other Conways, though bargains can sometimes be found in any of them. Most of the houses are located on roads off of Main Street or West Side Road, which wanders through farmland between Conway village and points north. Birch Hill, just off West Side, is North Conway's largest residential subdivision and contains moderately priced properties.

Kearsarge is a residential village north and east of North Conway. Zoning is stricter and housing tends to be somewhat more luxurious and higher priced. Intervale abuts Kearsarge, and the two lie in both the Towns of Conway and Bartlett. Intervale's boundaries are less distinct than Kearsarge; it also embraces Route 16A in Bartlett.

The increasing popularity of North Conway as a shopping mecca, and resulting traffic tieups, sparked state plans for the construction of roads that circumvent the busiest areas and take local traffic away from stores and recreation areas. The new North-South Road begins on Route 302 next to Walmart and runs to the center of North Conway village. A road still further to the east around both Conway and North Conway villages for through vehicles is a long- range project with completion date in another 5 or 6 years...

Idea: Should a contemplated purchase be anywhere near one of the planned bypass improvements, look over the maps at Conway Town Hall to see just where new roads will run in relationship to your interest.

BARTLETT
Bartlett includes the village of Glen and a substantial portion of Intervale. With a resident population of just under 2,300, it is a town with a high percentage of vacation homes. Spread along the valley of the Saco River, closely bounded by National Forest and with a low tax rate, it has been the preferred site of more new subdivisions than any other in Mt. Washington Valley. With a little of the same dichotomy that infects Conway, the town offices are many miles from the center of the town. Its three selectmen, town clerk/tax collector and police force of four operate out of a former schoolhouse in Lower Bartlett - less than four miles from the center of North Conway. Bartlett Village is some seven miles further north and west and contains mostly year round residents.

For the past three decades and perhaps longer, the village has been referred to as a "sleeping giant," indicating that it is expected to be the site of a substantial business and real estate boom. It hasn't happened, but may be about to. Several expanding ventures have provided the impetus that had previously been absent: the sightseeing Conway Scenic Railroad up through Crawford Notch and the expansion of Attitash Bear Peak Ski Area and its Summit Hotel. These two events have affected not only Bartlett, but much of Mt. Washington Valley.

The major Bartlett residential areas are: Route 16A, Dundee, the west side of Route 16 north of North Conway, Glen Village, Linderhof, Nordic Village, Glen Ledge, Attitash area, Stillings Grant, Route 302 from Glen to Bartlett Village, and the Village itself. None of these lend themselves to easy description; each has an assortment of high and low priced properties. For example, Route 16A has an Alpendorf section with mostly older and low to medium priced chalets, Merriman Forest stations duplex townhouses on a hillside with panoramic views, the Farm at New England Inn spreads pleasant attached houses around a valley nook, and the original 16A community of houses clusters along the meandering road that used to be the main route north, set close to the pavement for easier plowing. Some generalization is possible: Linderhof is almost entirely chalets, Glen Ledge mostly contemporaries, and Nordic Village condominiums that function as a condo hotel.

Idea: As of this writing Bartlett still has some excellent real estate buys. If you're in an investment mood, this is a town where values could increase dramatically.

JACKSON
Nestled in the foothills of the White Mountains, this town of nearly 700 is reached through a covered bridge off Route 16 north of Glen. Jackson has a new town office building just on the other side of the bridge. Two police officers are all that have been needed. There is also a volunteer fire department.

Its steep hills, dotted with houses, cluster around a storybook village, giving it a European flavor. Many of the residential properties have spectacular views of Mt. Washington and the Presidential Range. Its charisma and the scarcity of private land - over three-quarters of Jackson land is National Forest - have pushed house prices to a higher level than elsewhere in the Valley.

While summer is an active season with golf, tennis and hiking, the focus of the village is its cross country skiing facility, which is one of the very best in the United States. Wildcat and Black Mountains are its Alpine areas, and the winter atmosphere is complete with skating, sleigh rides and other snow country activities.

MADISON
Lying just to the south of Conway, the best of Madison isn't always seen from paved roads, a gently to steeply rolling countryside of some open fields and more dense woods. So much of the land of Mt. Washington Valley has grown to trees that it takes the discovery of stone walls deep in the forest to realize that almost the entire area was open farmland less than a century ago. Madison encompasses Silver Lake and the old village of that name. A newer village, Eidelweiss, was developed during the 1960s and 70s around the Pea Porridge Ponds. Views are of the Sandwich Range, which includes easily-recognizable Mt. Chocorua, one of the most frequently climbed peaks in New England.

Population is about 1800. Town offices are on Route 113 on the way to Silver Lake; again three selectmen - only Conway has more - with Town Clerk and Tax Collector.

Properties range from year-round farms and village residences to vacation chalets, with prices higher than Conway Village but lower than others north of it.

ALBANY
This little town - population 500 - is usually only noticed by visitors on a short stretch of Route 16 as they head north into Conway. It is actually about the same geographic size as Conway, stretching along the Swift River and the Kancamagus Highway to include a large part of the Sandwich Range. Most of it, however, lies in National Forest. Albany includes the village of Passaconaway and part of Wonalancet. Residential areas are: Wildwood, inexpensive houses just off Route 16; Passaconaway, low to moderate priced houses, Bald Hill and Moat with views up the Valley toward Washington, and the land on either side of Route 16 south of Conway Village which mingles commercial with residential.

EATON
Eaton is another country town, with a population of some 400, which includes the villages of Eaton Center and Snowville. Half of Conway Lake is in Eaton, as is cover-photo Crystal Lake, as well as Hatch and Long Ponds and Purity Lake. Outside of Route 153 south from Conway to Effingham and the Brownfield Road through Snowville, Eaton is all country and dirt roads. Here you might find a few old farms, fewer contemporaries and wooded countryside.

HART'S LOCATION
Located along Route 302 north of Bartlett, Hart's Location is an unincorporated town and thus has no town property tax. It is sparsely settled in a thin band of private land, mostly on the south/west side of the highway, bounded tightly by National Forest. If you prefer the company of animals to people, this is a place you shouldn't overlook. However, there are hiking trails throughout the town that do see foot traffic, particularly in summer.

HALE'S LOCATION
To the west of North Conway, in the shadow of White Horse Ledge, is another unincorporated town. Hale's Location was "discovered" over a two decades ago and boasts a first class hotel, attractive nine hole golf course and a thriving residential community of contemporary homes with more under construction.

NEIGHBORING TOWNS
Some of the prettiest countryside can be found in Freedom, Tamworth (including Chocorua), Chatham, Effingham, and West Ossipee. Except for Chatham, which is the eastern bound of Mt. Washington Valley and also in the mountains, these towns form the southern section of our area and are the bridge between mountains and lakes regions: Lake Ossipee is the seventh largest in New Hampshire, Chocorua may be the single most photographed lake in New England, and Loon Lake tucks itself into Freedom's rolling hills. Sandwich is the site of one of the most famous fall fairs, as is Fryeburg, our Maine neighbor just 15 minutes from North Conway.