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Places to live in MA (kind of long)
Hi Ladies -
I'm hoping you may be able to offer some advice. I live in NY and post on my local nest board - and the gals there are great - so I'm guess you'll be helpful too!
My husband and I are likely moving to MA in the next few months. He's in the final stages of interviewing for a job in Waltham and (fingers crossed) hopefully it'll work out.
That said, we need to find a nice town to live in! I grew up in Arlington, but don't really want to move back to that area. (It's nice, but after living there for 20-something years, I don't think I could go back).
We will be buying a house, and hope to spend no more than 850K. We'd like a nice, family-friendly community (I'm pregnant with our first) - and restaurants (we're both big foodies!) As well as good schools.
We're open to many different areas - th places we were thinking of were: Acton, Sudbury, Wakefield/Lynnfield, Concord, Westford, Chelmsford, Stow, Sharon, Natick...to name a few. (I know, all over the map) If anyone could offer thoughts/advice on those communities - or others that would be commutable to Waltham - it would be SO helpful!
Thanks in advance.
Re: Places to live in MA (kind of long)
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I live in Waltham an really like it but the school systems in towns like Lexington/Newton/Weston are better than Waltham. In your price range, I think you could get a decent place in Newton or Lexington. If money were no object for me, I would LOVE to live in Lincoln...amazing contemporary homes on lots of land....but I think the median home price is something like 1.5 M. You could also look for something in Cambridge and your husband could do a reverse commute but the public schools are not the best.
Sharon is not bad, but the property taxes are ridiculously high since they don't get much money from commercial protperties since they don't have many. Concord westford and chelmsford are high up there with home values. Nice towns to live in. Heck if I had 850K to spend on a house I'd think I hit the jackpot. I thought $350K was alot.
Either way what you want to look for is the number of people per sqaure foot when researching the town you want to live in. The higher the btter. IMO I woudl just look at the surrounding towns of where you DH will be working.
I hope this doesn't come off wrong (honestly I'm just totally jealous!) but with that budget you will definitely be able to find what you want where you want with a great school system. Of those towns, I know the ones that are further west best (Acton, Concord, Westford, Chelmsford). And of those towns, I know that Westford has an awesome school system. Not to say that the others aren't very good as well though. As far as cost of the homes, Concord would probably be the most expensive of your whole list, that I know of.
Really though I don't think you'll have any trouble finding something to fit all your needs
Good luck searching!
Also, congrats on your pregnancy - we have the same EDD!
Hi there!
I live in Waltham and work in Wakefield and I will tell you, 128 N and S can be a NIGHTMARE when talking about commute times. I don't get a huge amount of traffic heading out of Waltham, but route 128 heading into Waltham is alway bumper to bumper.
Concord is right off of Route 2, so commute wise, it would fare pretty well. Sudbury has Route 20 which leads right into Waltham and it's a lovely town. I know a few people that live/have lived in Sudbury and they found it to be very safe, family friendly, etc. Natick is not one that I would recommend because you have the traffic coming on all sides from either Route 9, Route 128 and I think Route 16. It's crazy busy, especially around weekends and holidays. Have you thought about Lexington and/or Newton? My sister lives/works in Lexington and it is extremely family friendly. I lived in Newton years ago and went to college there and thought it was nice, more family orientated than anything. Where is your husband interviewing?
Good Luck!
I live in Newton and would recommend looking into it. Lots of events, restaurants, seems family friendly, I think the school system is really good. We rent & dont have kids, but based on info from our neighbors I think it would be a great place for you to look into. Good luck!
Newton is wonderful as is Brookline, but that may be too close to the city. I also like Andover, but that may be to far out of your way.
US News & World Report just did their rank for high schools and I think MA ranked pretty high. We'll be looking in the next year also and we're considering Natick, Newton, Dedham, Roslindale and possibly some places on the South Shore.
Good luck!