I have lived in two different towns in NH. Tamworth and Moultonborough.. Each has their own appeal.. Tamworth for the record, is near Ossipee and Sandwich.
Tamworth was/is a beautiful small NH town. Not much has changed since the 50's. There is no zoning which means pretty much no rules!! This benefited me in building my home, I didn't have to worry about building inspectors, etc. It was easy. However, I was a bit younger less informed at the time when I purchased the land. What killed me about Tamworth were two issues. The property taxes and services. The home I built, I was hoping it was going to be worth somewhere in the neighborhood of 115-120k, well it turned out to be worth 183k!! Well more than I thought, that had me paying what would have been close to $3500 in property tax. That was well above what I could afford!! Hence, I got it on the market sold before my first $1700 property tax bill came..
Second issue I had with Tamworth was the services issue, meaning road mtx, and plowing. I had bought a nice 1.35ac lot in a quiet little development with community water. The water cost I knew which was $125 each quarter, what I never knew was that it didn't include plowing!! I thought the town plowed the road, after all with the high property taxes I thought it was given.. Again, I'm just chocking this up to being young and naive
Well, we had to hire someone to plow the road. Unfortunately, with no association only half the people would pay and the other half would get a "free ride".
So in the end if you chose to live an area like Tamworth, I would personally recommend buying a road that is maintained and plowed in the winter. I would also recommend if you can take advantage of buying large acreage and putting it in current use. That will save money on property tax.
Now, I built a home in Moultonborough. I paid more for the land however, my home is worth 245k vs 183k and I pay $1552 a yr in property tax. Much more affordable for me!! I live in Suissevale, its a large association. It can be a little busy in the summer but, I live in a quiet area, 4 homes on the road, and I can walk to the lake. I love it here. The dues are $850 a yr but, the town plows the road, it includes community water, I don't ever have to worry about drilling a new well someday or testing my own water. I'm paying for piece of mind. Its still much cheaper than Tamworth. It all about exchanging one thing for the other. One thing I didn't realize about Moultonborough is that it had zoning and setback rules. I knew Suissevale had rules. What I didn't realize was Moultonborough trumps Suissevale's rules. Sooo, I had to get a little creative in setting a Cape style home with a garage on .25ac lot. I made it work and it looks great..
When it comes to living in a place like Moultonborough with all the rules, you just have to play the game. I'll admit I built wood shed to go with my house. I heat with wood. I was a little shocked that I got charged a building permit fee for it. Apparently I was suppose to file a building permit to build 4X10 wood shed.. Go figure, it seems they really don't care what you build, it more about revenue generation more than anything.
Anyway, sorry for the long winded reply, I just my experience might help you in someway..