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Well, this board sure has had some lively posts as of late! For better or for worse, I don’t have a choice in the matter—the Army is sending my family to R.I. in June, so here goes….
North Kingstown:
Having never been to R.I., we’ve pretty much settled on North Kingstown from our internet research. (Foolish or not, we’ve got only a few days next week to visit and buy a house, so culling down the choices was a necessity.) We decided on this town for its central proximity to Warwick (the job), the Naval base (services for us), and Newport/beaches (fun), plus it seems to have a decent public school system. And, Wickford seems oh so cute.
Anybody have any advice on which neighborhoods to choose or avoid in North Kingstown? I think we want to be south of Rt. 102. What’s Slocum like? Houses there seem to be lower-priced than the rest of the Town. Is there a reason for this that we should know about??? What is the Hamilton area like? It seems isolated for some reason—a vacation area rather than a year-round residential community?
How far away is shopping (grocery stores, big box stores, a decent mall) from North Kingstown?
Hurricanes:
Does anybody know whether homeowner’s insurance is significantly higher if you own a home on the coast? And just how often do you need to board up your windows as a precaution against hurricanes? Is it closer to once a year or once a month during hurricane season? We currently live in the Arizona desert, and hurricanes aren’t much of a problem here. Dust devils, maybe. Hurricanes, not so much.
Well, this board sure has had some lively posts as of late! For better or for worse, I don’t have a choice in the matter—the Army is sending my family to R.I. in June, so here goes….
North Kingstown:
Having never been to R.I., we’ve pretty much settled on North Kingstown from our internet research. (Foolish or not, we’ve got only a few days next week to visit and buy a house, so culling down the choices was a necessity.) We decided on this town for its central proximity to Warwick (the job), the Naval base (services for us), and Newport/beaches (fun), plus it seems to have a decent public school system. And, Wickford seems oh so cute.
Anybody have any advice on which neighborhoods to choose or avoid in North Kingstown? I think we want to be south of Rt. 102. What’s Slocum like? Houses there seem to be lower-priced than the rest of the Town. Is there a reason for this that we should know about??? What is the Hamilton area like? It seems isolated for some reason—a vacation area rather than a year-round residential community?
How far away is shopping (grocery stores, big box stores, a decent mall) from North Kingstown?
Hurricanes:
Does anybody know whether homeowner’s insurance is significantly higher if you own a home on the coast? And just how often do you need to board up your windows as a precaution against hurricanes? Is it closer to once a year or once a month during hurricane season? We currently live in the Arizona desert, and hurricanes aren’t much of a problem here. Dust devils, maybe. Hurricanes, not so much.
Thanks guys!
Hi CBA: Glad to hear your plans are going forward. First, I don't know of anyplace called "Hamilton" in RI. There is a condominium development in Wickford (or was) by the name of Hamilton Harbor. Could that be it? Wickford is quite special ... my favorite yarn shop is there; and in the summer over 4th of July weekend they hold the very famous Wickford Art Festival which is very nice. There are two very nice malls next to each other in Warwick off Rt. 295/Rt.95 at Rt. 113. On Rt. 2 in Warwick there are also tons of big box stores.
As for big box stores in/near NK, there are plenty, and you're a hop skip and jump to East Greenwich where there is also plenty of shopping. I would not venture to Slocum or Richmond; that is going too far away I believe from the "amenities". Your Realtor will be the best person to help you find nice locations around NK. West of Rt. 4 is the area I'd be interested in, toward Schartner Farms area. You have easy highway access to everything from there and still country. Exeter is also a nice rural area with good highway access but that's about as "far out" as you may want to go. Remember, all of these towns in RI are very small, and close to each other. The state is only 48 mi. long I believe, corner to corner.
I don't think RI has had a major hurricane in years. Nothing that anyone boards up windows and all that, unless you live right on the ocean. You'll have more to deal with snow than you'll ever have to deal with hurricanes.
When you get to RI, pick up a copy of the Rhode Island Monthly magazine. There are many high end ads in it, I don't pay much attention to those, but it has a lot of good information on restaurants, things to do etc., and will give you an idea of areas, and basically get you "oriented". Your Realtor may have one in your relocation package for you.
Thanks Apple Annie--as always, you're a wealth of information! The website for the Town of North Kingstown lists Hamilton as one of the villages within the Town. I believe it's located on Bissel Cove, from what I can tell. Google maps lists "Hamilton" on Bissel Cove, so I'm assuming that's it. And when I do MLS searches in North Kingstown, "Hamilton" comes up as one of the neighborhoods listed in property descriptions.
I did a search for Schartner Farms, and I think it's located near Slocum on Rt. 2? Relying on Google maps again, it seems to be 2 miles away from the Village of Slocum...? But that area west of Rt. 4 and south of Rt. 102 is definitely the area we're most interested in, other than possibly the Village of Wickford. I hadn't looked at the Town of Exeter before. I'll check out the school district info some more, but I see that it shares with the Town of West Greenwich.
We don't have much confidence in our realtor, since when we emailed her to find out which elementary school covered Wickford, she emailed back that Wickford was actually in North Kingstown (no kidding!), and she gave us the name of a school that closed several years ago. I called the district superindendent's office myself to get the info we needed! Needless to say, we're a little skeptical of our agent's abilities! I think we'll be finding ourselves another agent.
I didn't mean to suggest that Schartner Farms is a subdivision ... I should have explained that a little better. Schartner Farms is a great farm type market, and more; gift shop, landscaping, yadayada, nursery, plants. I just love to go there in spring and fall. There are some lovely subdivisions in the NK area. Hamilton I guess would be the two or three block area near Bissel Cove; that's why they named those condos as they did. Don't blink ... it's like only a street or two. Very cute ... Wickford is adorable and charming. I hope you find a good experienced Realtor who lives in and has specialized in that area for a long time. I hope you find that special home.
Hi there,
There really aren't any bad neighborhoods in NK. Some have smaller homes and lots and there are loads of kids, some have McMansions and acreage. There are horses and rural land, Rt 1 has loads of shopping, quaint areas like Wickford and water areas. Coming from AZ you will be surprised at how compact everything is. You can drive though NK in about 10-15 minutes.
For what you get for your taxes and schools I would stick with NK over Exeter. Exeter has a population of only about 6300 and no services such as garbage pickup. Most of the homes there are on wells.
Click on my ID if you would like to send me a private message with questions about the area. I am a native of Rhode Island, grew up in Narragansett, lived for a time in Warwick and now in South Kingstown. I have a lot of links I can send you about tax rates and school reports.
Thanks, Lula. I checked out Exeter's shool reports and done a little online research, and had pretty much decided to stick to NK, but reading your post helps seal the deal. That's why I love this site...how else would you know there was no garbage pick-up and mostly well water if you didn't talk to someone local?
I live in Saunderstown, which is the southernmost town in NK. We built a house three years ago and live in a great community of approx. 65 homes. Young professionals and all have kids. You can't go wrong with NK as you have so much directly around you (shopping, beaches, bike trails, etc). Good luck with the search
Swimman, thanks for the info. I read an article on Projo online about Sunderstown that implied it was a close-knit community where everyone knew everyone else and that life revolved around the local yaght/swim club, where practically the entire town was a member. I got the impression from the article that if you weren't from old money and an old R.I. family and didn't belong to the club, you wouldn't fit in. Do you find that to be the case?
CBA,
Definitely not the case where I live in Saunderstown. I don't belong to a yacht club (someday I'll have a boat!!!) nor a swim club (there are no swim clubs that I know of in NK - other than the Y) and there's no old money in my bank account. I think the reason why my community is so close is because we live in a development in which there is one road in and one road out - no through traffic. Everyone waves to each other when you drive out of the development. There are some families I don't care for but you pick your friends. Outside of my community I know few other people from Saunderstown.
Other parts of Saunderstown are like this as well but the people I have met don't seem snobby. Most of my neighbors are in their upper 30s to upper 40s with young kids at home. Incomes probably range from 60k-100+. I will tell you in NK that the tax rate is lower than much of the rest of the state but property values are higher and therefore correlate to high taxes (mine is just of $8k/year). For what we pay in taxes, we don't get much although the school system is good. However, we don't get sewers, water, fire hydrants, or garbage collection (primarily in Saunderstown, not NK). I have lived in Providence where the taxes are much higher but you get more. It's basically how you choose to live. We love the secluded nature of our area but also being able to get to the grocery store by driving 5 minutes.
swimman, thanks again. We're headed to NK in 2 days to buy a house, and we'll check out Saunderstown. It's amazing how much taxes are back east. We're from NY and are used to sky high taxes, but for the past several years here in AZ, we've been paying taxes of only $1700 annually for a 1900 sf home built in 1998. We've been spoiled!
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For better or for worse, I don’t have a choice in the matter—the Army is sending my family to R.I. in June, so here goes….
