Newsletter
A new issue comes out every Monday. Each one covers a New Hampshire town, the political news worth knowing that week, and a few things to do with the family.
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This week’s town: Windham
Windham is in Rockingham County, between Derry and Salem. Interstate 93’s Exit 3 is in town. About 16,300 people on 27 square miles. You will need a car.
Windham’s 2025 certified total tax rate is $14.15 per $1,000 of assessed value. That is the bill-style number: town, county, local school, and state education added together. On a $500,000 assessment, figure about $7,075 a year. Most of that rate is the local school piece, $10.07.
The town finished a full reassessment in 2025, and overall assessments rose 67.3 percent, so the rate alone is a poor comparison with last year. The amount to be raised still went up 4.6 percent. What you actually pay still follows how the town assesses your lot. Houses in the Breezy Gale village district pay another $1.04 per $1,000, and Moeckel Pond pays another $0.31.
A typical house is worth about $723,000. If you rent, figure about $3,220. Most homes are owned. Household income is around $190,000. Almost every household has broadband. The town has zoning rules, so call the town office before you assume you can put a shop or a second house on the lot.
In 2024 they voted 5,557 to 4,373 for the Republican for president.
This week in New Hampshire
Politics
A new poll has the open Senate race close, and the governor’s race a little less so. A poll from AARP and the Saint Anselm College Survey Center, reported by WMUR on October 8, puts Democrat Chris Pappas at 51 percent and Republican John E. Sununu at 44 for the Senate, and Republican Kelly Ayotte at 52 and Democrat Cinde Warmington at 45 for governor. The margin of error is 3 points, and both offices decide how hard Washington and Concord push on your tax bill.
On October 8 the National Federation of Independent Business endorsed Governor Kelly Ayotte, and she defended the state’s business tax cuts, NH Journal reports. She pointed to September business tax collections of $269.8 million, $69.4 million over the monthly plan, and to a July law that raises the business enterprise tax filing threshold from $300,000 to $400,000. NFIB says that change lets about 4,500 more small employers skip the return, which matters if you run a small business or you are watching whether Concord shifts costs onto the property tax.
Chris Pappas, the Democrat in that Senate race, told NHPR on October 9 that he wants federal grants so towns will rethink zoning that makes it hard to build, including tiny homes and apartments over shops. Windham already has zoning, and voters rewrote parts of it in March. Whether to take that money is a decision for the town.
Things to do
These are still ahead of you, and they are close to Windham.
Carriage Shack Farm in Londonderry, the next town over, holds Halloween Glow Nights on Friday, October 16, through Sunday, October 18, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Kids walk a farm lit up for Halloween. Children 15 and under are $15, and babies under 1 are free.
Charmingfare Farm in Candia holds its Children’s Trick-or-Treat on Saturday, October 17, and Sunday, October 18, from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Kids in costume collect candy, ride a wagon or a tractor train, stuff a scarecrow, and visit the animals. Tickets are required for ages 2 and up.
WZID’s Pumpkin Patch Party is Sunday, October 18, from 10 a.m. to noon at J & F Farms in Derry. Kids get in free, and they can paint a pumpkin, walk a corn maze, see the animals, and take a hayride.
Salem Recreation holds a free trunk or treat on Thursday, October 22, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Ingram Senior Center. More than 50 businesses hand out candy, and there is a costume contest. Park at the courthouse and town hall and walk over.
Elected Officials
In Washington, the House seat is Maggie Goodlander (D), 2nd District. Both U.S. senators, Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan, are Democrats.
In Concord, the state senator is Regina Birdsell (R), District 19. Liberty Alliance graded her B+ for 2026.
Windham’s own House seats are Rockingham 17. Four seats, all Republican: Daniel Popovici-Muller (A), Bob Lynn (A), Charles McMahon (B+), and Katelyn Kuttab (B+). Windham also shares one extra House seat, called a floterial, with Londonderry. That is Rockingham 35: Julius Soti (R, A). Liberty Alliance graded them for 2026.
What’s nearby
Grocery is about 5 minutes (Shaw’s). Windham High School is in town. The ER is Parkland Medical Center, about 11 minutes, in Derry. Parkland does not deliver babies. The hospital that does is Southern New Hampshire Medical Center, about 21 minutes, in Nashua.
If you need a city job, Manchester is about 30 minutes from the middle of town.
Those are map estimates with no traffic. Drive it yourself.
Worth knowing: the growth cap failed
On March 10, voters turned down a citizen petition that would have slowed new houses when the elementary and middle schools filled up. It would have blocked planning board approval and certificates of occupancy once projected enrollment in kindergarten through 8th grade hit a capacity number, and it would have delayed school impact fees. The planning board had recommended a no vote, 5 to 1, and all three citizen zoning petitions failed that day.
The planning board’s own amendments passed, including one that allows apartment buildings in commercial zones, with a shop on the ground floor, because state law now requires that. On March 13 the planning board told the economic development committee it will work on its own growth ordinance this year.
March 13 committee minutes · March 10 zoning ballot
If you are buying a house
Ask the seller for the paper New Hampshire makes them give you. It covers radon, arsenic, lead, PFAS, and flood. Then look the lot up on FEMA’s flood map. Regular home insurance usually will not pay if Cobbett’s Pond or Golden Brook comes up.
Crime in Windham
Windham has its own police. In 2024 the FBI counted 3 violent crimes and 36 property crimes. That’s 39 reports in a town of about 16,300.
New Hampshire’s violent-crime rate is about 110 per 100,000 people. Windham came in under that.
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