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Bow
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Bow is in Merrimack County, on the south side of Concord. Interstate 93 runs through town. About 8,400 people on 28 square miles. You will need a car.
Bow’s 2025 certified total tax rate is $20.05 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 $10,025 a year. Most of that rate is the local school piece, $12.58.
A typical house is worth about $507,000. If you rent, figure about $1,540. Household income is around $173,000. Broadband is common. 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 3,093 to 2,246 for the Democrat for president.
This week in New Hampshire
Politics
On October 14, Governor Kelly Ayotte proposed a program that would pay the rest of community-college tuition, after federal and state aid, for New Hampshire families making up to $100,000. The community college system estimates about $5.5 million a year from the general fund, the legislature still has to approve it, and fees are not covered. In a state with no income tax and no sales tax, that is a new claim on the money that keeps other taxes down, NHPR reports.
Housing is the fight in the governor’s race. Ayotte has signed laws that let apartments go up on commercial land and that give state agencies 60 days to act on a housing permit, while Warmington says she would spend more state money, ban private-equity home buying, and undo the law that lets a landlord end a tenancy when the lease ends, NHPR reports. If you are shopping in Bow, the price and the rules on the lot both depend on who wins November 3.
On October 16, Rep. David Luneau and four others asked the state Supreme Court to keep the Claremont school-funding rulings, InDepthNH reports. Luneau, a Democrat from Hopkinton, holds one of Bow’s House seats and wants more state aid for towns with less property wealth, while the attorney general has asked the court to throw the rulings out. Bow’s local school tax is already most of the bill, so a shift in who pays lands on the house you buy.
The Bow school district held a public hearing on Monday, October 19, at 6 p.m. in the Bow High School auditorium, on the school tax cap question that House Bill 1300 put on the November 3 ballot, the town calendar says. Governor Ayotte signed that bill in July. The local school piece is $12.58 of Bow’s $20.05 rate, so a cap on that tax is the part of the bill a buyer would feel.
Things to do
These are still ahead of you, and they are close to Bow.
Halloween Howl is Friday, October 23, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Main Street in Concord, the next town north. Kids trick-or-treat the shops, visit a trunk-or-treat, and play games. It is free.
Bow Parks and Recreation holds trunk or treat on Sunday, October 25, from 2:00 to 3:30 p.m. at Bow Elementary School. Kids go from car to car for candy, and families vote on the decorated trunks.
Sunfox Farm in Concord holds its Spooky Season weekend on Saturday, October 24, and Sunday, October 25, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The farm is free to enter. Kids can walk a six-acre corn maze, and children 10 and under get into the maze free. They can also pick a pumpkin.
Family Fright Fest at the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center in Concord is Sunday, October 25, from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Kids paint a pumpkin, do a scavenger hunt, and see live animals at noon. The activities come with admission, and a costume gets you buy-one-get-one-free.
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 Tara Reardon (D), District 15. Liberty Alliance graded her CT for 2026. CT is Liberty Alliance’s mark for a constitutional threat.
Bow’s own House seats are Merrimack 9. Four seats, all Democrat: David Luneau (CT), Eleana Colby (F), James Newsom (CT), and Muriel Hall (CT). Liberty Alliance graded them for 2026.
What’s nearby
Grocery is about 15 minutes (Market Basket in Concord). Bow High School is in town. The ER is Concord Hospital, about 16 minutes, in Concord. That is also the hospital that delivers babies.
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 coal plant on the river
The coal units at Merrimack Station, on the Merrimack River, stopped selling power on September 12, 2025. Granite Shore Power, the owner, said so. On September 2, 2026, the company told WMUR it is taking that coal equipment out of service and looking at what to do with about 400 acres along the river. The company said it has no plan yet.
Eversource is studying a 350-megawatt connection for a user at the site. The filing does not name a data center. Governor Ayotte and Cinde Warmington have both said they want a pause before any data center is built here. If you buy in Bow, that river land is still an open question for the tax base, the roads, and the neighbors.
NHPR, October 6, 2025 · WMUR, September 2, 2026
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 the Merrimack River comes up.
Crime in Bow
Bow has its own police. In 2025 the FBI counted 2 violent crimes and 27 property crimes. That’s 29 reports in a town of about 8,400.
New Hampshire’s violent-crime rate is about 118 per 100,000 people. Bow came in under that.
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