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Goffstown

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Goffstown Rail Trail in Goffstown, New Hampshire
Goffstown Rail Trail, in town. John Phelan, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Goffstown is west of Manchester in Hillsborough County. About 18,500 people on 37 square miles. You will need a car.

Goffstown’s 2025 certified total tax rate is $20.88 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 house, figure about $10,440 a year. What you actually pay still follows how the town assesses your lot.

Most people own. A typical house is worth about $377,000. If you rent, figure about $1,230. Household income is around $114,000. 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 5,344 to 5,037 for the Republican for president.

Who represents you

In Washington, the House seat is Chris Pappas (D), 1st District. Both U.S. senators, Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan, are Democrats.

In Concord, the state senator is Keith Murphy (R). Liberty Alliance graded him A for 2026.

Goffstown’s own House seats are Hillsborough 29. Four seats: Joe Alexander (R, A), Henry Giasson (R, A+), Sherri Reinfurt (R, A+), and one vacant seat. Sheila Seidel resigned. There is also a floterial seat, a district that covers more than one town. That is Hillsborough 44, with Weare: Lisa Mazur (R, A+) and Ross Berry (R, A+).

What’s nearby

Grocery is about 12 minutes (Hannaford on Mast Road). Goffstown High School is about 3 minutes. The ER and the hospital that delivers babies are the same place, Catholic Medical Center, about 17 minutes.

If you need a city job, Manchester is about 22 minutes from Town Hall.

Those are map estimates with no traffic. Drive it yourself.

Goffstown on the map

A rule that changed: detached accessory dwellings

An accessory dwelling unit (ADU) is a small second home on the same lot. People often call it an in-law apartment. In March 2026 voters passed a zoning change that allows detached ADUs, matching a new state law (House Bill 577). The vote on Article 2 was 2,295 to 884.

Town meeting results

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 river comes up.

First 60 days / living here

Crime in Goffstown

Goffstown has its own police. In 2024 the FBI counted 9 violent crimes and 88 property crimes. That’s 97 reports in a town of about 18,500. Low, but still real.

That puts Goffstown in line with the rest of the state: New Hampshire’s violent-crime rate is about 110 per 100,000 people.

Crime in New Hampshire

Not the Free State Project. No pledge.

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