Find your place in the Free State.

Source: New Hampshire Fish and Game Department, Bear Conflicts incident log for calendar years 2021–2025, supplied October 13, 2026 in response to the Free State Project’s October 7 records request. The 34-page log contains 2,496 entries statewide; two belong to Wentworth’s Location, which is outside this tool’s roster of 234 incorporated municipalities. All town reports are counted, including sightings, general and agricultural conflicts, public-safety, feeding, and disease/sickness/injury reports. These counts do not measure bear population, attacks, or the probability of injury.

The Department confirms that absent town-years mean zero reported conflicts. Separate incidents at the same property count separately; multiple calls to staff about the same incident count once. Reporting methods and coverage were consistent across the supplied years. Zero reports does not establish zero encounters or zero bears. Town size, visitors, land area and reporting behavior are not adjusted for. The selected year or five-year total controls the report limit and sort; no danger grade or ranking points are assigned.

Statewide annual totals: 2021: 340; 2022: 677; 2023: 491; 2024: 641; 2025: 347. Secure garbage, birdseed, livestock feed and poultry when evaluating a property’s practical wildlife precautions.

Destination distance is the great-circle distance in miles between the Census reference points of two municipalities. Gathering-place distance is measured from the same town reference point to an approximate street location from the U.S. Census geocoder. These points represent whole towns, not a home address or necessarily a downtown. A zero distance to your destination means the same town reference point, not a zero-minute commute.

Distances help narrow the search geographically. They do not measure road distance, traffic, winter conditions, or travel time. Town details provide Google Maps driving links, where you can enter the actual home and destination addresses and check departure times. All active distance and budget limits apply together. Distance limits and sort choices do not add fit points. The community preference adds a distance-based contribution when selected.

The directory currently includes The Quill in Manchester, The SHELL in Rollinsford, The ’Pine in Lancaster, Independence Inn in Strafford, and Concord Prickle in Concord. Nearest means nearest of these five listed places, not nearest Free Stater or event. Many regional gatherings are not represented; use the FSP regional guide to find additional connections. Confirm calendars, guest access and membership requirements before visiting.

Public locations checked October 5, 2026: The Quill · 131 Amory Street, Manchester · The SHELL · 3 Front Street, Lower Mill Room B10, Rollinsford · The ’Pine · 70 Main Street, 2nd Floor, Lancaster · Independence Inn · 6 Drake Hill Road, Strafford · Concord Prickle · 74 Curtisville Road, Concord. Reference points: 2026 Census municipality roster. Approximate street locations: U.S. Census geocoder, Public_AR_Current benchmark, checked October 5, 2026.

This prototype uses the New Hampshire Zoning Atlas, with zoning changes adopted through June 1, 2025. It is a historical snapshot: later state laws or local amendments may change what is allowed today. Source data were checked October 5, 2026. The five component measures are the percentages of mapped buildable land permitting: single-family homes on lots smaller than one acre; unrestricted duplexes; unrestricted buildings with three or more units; accessory dwelling units; and manufactured homes on individual lots.

For the first four components, eligible land must be coded “Allowed/Conditional” by the atlas; “Public Hearing” and “Prohibited” land contribute zero. Duplex and multifamily options limited to affordable or elderly housing do not count as unrestricted. Manufactured housing counts “Allowed on Individual Lots Only” or “Allowed on Both Lots and Parks”; parks-only areas do not count. The score is the equal-weight average of the five percentages, on a 0–100 scale. This is our exploratory composite, not a published index from Jason Sorens or the atlas team.

District percentages are weighted by the supplied buildable acres, not by the number of districts. The atlas removes permanently protected land and water/wetland areas of ten acres or more. We use its mapped district pieces, including overlay and water/sewer combinations, and exclude mapped-but-extinct districts. This measures regulatory options on mapped land, not property availability, infrastructure readiness, permit success, or the complete effect of every zoning rule. The lot-size range includes only districts coded Allowed/Conditional for single-family housing.

Ten municipalities need review of separate precinct, village, or development-authority jurisdictions before receiving a municipal composite: Bartlett, Conway, Haverhill, Hopkinton, Newington, North Hampton, Portsmouth, Rye, Seabrook, and Walpole. Their details show the named municipal jurisdiction only. All other municipalities have complete component attributes for their mapped pieces. A missing composite produces no combined fit score when Freedom to build is selected; the town remains visible. Detached-ADU shares are shown separately and are not part of the composite.

The Freedom to build importance weight blends this composite with your lifestyle and political priorities using the same normalized weighted average. Selecting Regions turns off this town-specific weight. Town details include atlas links and source-listed local zoning documents. Check the current official ordinance and the property’s zoning district before planning a project.

Sources: New Hampshire Zoning Atlas · Datasets and resources · Mapped buildable districts · Source jurisdiction directory. Attribution: New Hampshire Zoning Atlas, Saint Anselm College, in partnership with the National Zoning Atlas.

Home values are the median reported value of owner-occupied housing (ACS table B25077). Monthly rent is median gross rent among renter-occupied homes paying cash rent (B25064), including rent and applicable utility costs. These are 2020–2024 American Community Survey five-year estimates in 2024 dollars. They describe existing housing, not current asking prices or available properties. Town details show the published 90% margins of error; missing or suppressed figures stay unavailable. New Castle’s rent median falls in the open-ended upper interval and is shown as “more than $3,500,” not an exact dollar figure. It has no exact rent value for budget filtering or sorting.

Population density divides estimated ACS residents (B01003) by 2024 Census land area in square miles. It describes the whole municipality, including undeveloped land, and does not measure downtown walkability. Lower density can help identify quieter areas to explore. Use exact minimum and maximum thresholds to filter.

Annual property tax = your entered assessed value ÷ 1,000 × the 2025 total municipal tax rate. The DRA report includes municipal, county, state education, and local education components, with rates completed as of January 23, 2026. Additional village/fire/water district charges, exemptions, credits, and future tax changes are excluded. Assessed value can differ from a purchase price or market value, and towns assess at different levels; these estimates compare bills at the same assessed value, not the tax on equally priced homes.

Budget limits filter municipal medians or calculated tax estimates, not individual properties. All active limits apply together. Missing data fails its active filter unless you choose to keep unavailable data. These measures can be sorted separately; they do not change the existing weighted fit score. Comparisons remain visible when you adjust filters.

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau ACS summary files · 2024 five-year tables · 2024 Census land areas · 2025 DRA tax-rate report, hosted by Acworth · DRA report collection. Checked October 5, 2026. Coverage: 234 home-value, density, and tax-rate records; 205 exact rent estimates, one rent lower bound, and 28 unavailable rent figures.

Source: NHLA’s 2026 Liberty Ratings and official NHLA district API. Snapshot checked October 6, 2026. Each whole-town House representative receives equal weight, including additional floterial representatives; each person is counted once. The average uses NHLA’s combined numeric score, which includes its voting and sponsorship adjustments. Letter grades are displayed, never converted to numbers. Senate scores are shown separately and do not affect this ranking.

For weighted fit, the House average is divided by the highest rated House score in this snapshot (101.0%) and weighted like your other preferences. NHLA scores can exceed 100% because of adjustments. The NHLA sort uses the original average; higher comes first. This describes a 2026 legislative record, not election competitiveness or a town’s residents.

Towns with ward-dependent House districts receive “Address needed” and no combined score when this preference is active. Incomplete (INC) and missing member ratings are excluded from the average, never counted as zero. When at least one representative has a usable rating, the average of rated representatives is used in ranking. Partial coverage is labeled next to the score, for example “2 of 3 rated”; this is not a complete delegation average. If no representative has a usable rating, no score is assigned. The Speaker (SPKR) is displayed but excluded from both the average and the rated-coverage denominator. Coverage counts listed representatives, not vacant seats. Towns without a score stay visible after scored towns. Confirm the actual address and current officeholders with the linked legislator finder, especially after an election or vacancy.

Voter impact adds election closeness to your weighted town fit. Lifestyle ratings are divided by 2; political closeness is 1 minus the average partisan gap divided by 100. Each value is multiplied by its importance weight, then the total is divided by the sum of active weights and shown on a 0–100 scale. This is a model fit score, not a probability. With only voter impact selected, closer elections rank first. Towns with incomplete election returns receive no combined score while voter impact is enabled and appear after scored towns when sorting by fit. You can sort any table column separately.

The current window contains the four latest completed general elections: 2018, 2020, 2022, and 2024. Each new validated general-election dataset moves the window forward by two years. President, governor, U.S. Senate, U.S. House, State Senate, and State House are included when on the ballot. Executive Council, county offices, primaries, and special elections are excluded.

For single-seat contests: gap = 100 × |Republican votes − Democratic votes| ÷ (Republican votes + Democratic votes). Minor-party and write-in votes are excluded from this two-party measure. City wards are aggregated before computing the gap. Absolute gaps are averaged, so opposite landslides cannot cancel each other.

For State House contests, which can elect multiple members, each party’s average votes per candidate replaces its vote total. This normalizes unequal slate sizes and measures party support rather than the winning margin for a particular seat. Single-party slates receive a 100-point gap. Separate districts within a town, including floterial districts, are averaged within each office and year. Offices receive equal weight within a year, then the four years receive equal weight.

This measures results within the town. It does not measure the winning margin of the full legislative district, predict the effect of an additional voter, or adjust for redistricting. Districts and years remain visible in the underlying returns. A town with missing or ambiguous required returns receives no score and remains visible as “needs checking.” Some older source files mislabeled scattering/write-in rows with party codes; these are excluded from candidate support.

Data: OpenElections’ conversion of NH official returns, supplemented by NHPR’s official-document archive for 2018 governor results. OpenElections excludes duplicate recount columns in its 2022/2024 conversions; these calculations use its reported certified-count columns. Reviewed October 5, 2026. Municipality roster: U.S. Census Bureau, January 2026.

Official result collections: 2018 · 2020 · 2022 · 2024.

This prototype uses a small editorial model based on FSP’s regional guide. Each region receives a broad rating of 0–2 for each priority. Your importance weights (0–3) multiply those ratings; the totals set the order. These are exploratory judgments, not measured rankings. Tied regions share a rank.

Town lifestyle suggestions inherit broad regional context; they are not individual town ratings. Regional groupings are provisional editorial areas based on counties and neighboring communities, not official boundaries. The full municipality list comes from the U.S. Census Bureau’s January 2026 roster. Unincorporated places are excluded from this town-and-city tool. A region can contain very different neighborhoods and rural settings. Downtown walkability depends on the actual address. Community proximity uses town distances to listed gathering places; it does not measure the number of Free Staters.

Housing prices, property taxes, school options, internet service, and commute times are not scored here. Check current listings, local resources, and specific addresses before narrowing your search. Regional ratings are provisional and should be checked against local experience.

Source: FSP’s New Hampshire Regions guide · Reviewed October 5, 2026. Explore moving resources.

Try this task: choose your priorities, shortlist three towns, and open one town’s details.

Tell the FSP where you got stuck, what surprised you, and which missing information would change your decision. Include whether you used a phone or computer.