Possible Indianapolis to Boston / NY Areas move (Attleboro, Beverly: houses, catholic schools)

[IndyBill]

We have been happily living in the Indy'd Carmel suburb for nearly 5 years now, where I work from home and cover a territory spanning IN, central KY, central TN, and southern IL. We are a family of 5 with a 17, 15, 13 year olds. Chicagoans originally, we made a 1.5 years stop in Charlotte, 1.5 in Indy, 2.5 in Bowling Green KY, 6 more back in Chicagoland before returing to Indy for a second time. We've been offered a career move to New England / NY where I'd work from home still but have a business territory of NYC and New England. We've been given the flex to move next Summer when our 1st goes off to college, second is 1/2 thru high school, and the third will be starting HS. The kids and we are open to it. Obviously we've done this before, know the changes and difficulties but relish the adventure to a degree. We've been to New England and Boston and like it, and are intrigued at adding a chapter to our lives living in the Northeast. But we are really struggling with thoughts of the costs / taxes, etc. We live the ideal suburban life with a newer custom 6,000 Sq ft 6 bdr home, $675K on a 1/3 acre with only $7K annual property taxes and 3% state income tax. Our kids attend a top Catholic HS - $11K a year, and a nice Catholic grade school $5K. Catholic parish life is important to us. We can literally live anywhere in places where NYC and Boston are reachable by car or train in 2 hours or so. Driving in Mass well West of Boston we've seen the charming little New England towns. Don't know anything about RI, CT, NJ, upstate NY. Mass seems easier. But for those of you who know or have done this, would you do it? and wear might you land that would provide a great quality of life with a great Catholic HS in the area?

[gf2020]

Welcome to city-data!

Does the move to the New England and New York territory come with an increase in pay?

To replicate your current lifestyle in the north of Boston suburbs, for example, I suspect you will need to earn ~40-50% more.

4500 sq foot, 5 BR house on 2 acres in Boxford = $900K, $12K in taxes
annual tuition at St. John's Prep HS (Danvers) = $18K
annual tuition at Saint Mary's (Danvers) or St. John's (Beverly) K-8 school = $6K

There are certainly less expensive areas in New England that may offer what you are looking for, but if you are looking for the finer things that Greater Boston has to offer, they come at a price.

[holden125]

Well, if your territory covers down to NYC, you'd probably want to be west or perhaps south of Boston (each city accessible by Amtrak from stations south of Boston). MA income tax is 5.3%, which really isn't that big a difference from what you pay now. You'd get some of the exctra tax paid back anyway since it's highly likely you itemize.

I don't know about 6,000 square-foot houses. Personally that seems kind of obscene to me. 2,500 square feet seems plenty, but I'm used to Boston and places where homes are older and smaller (e.g. NYC, Paris). If you want something that big, and anything new, you'll pay north of a million or have to go farther from Boston. Perhaps the area down near Norfolk, Wrentham. Bishop Feehan HS is in Attleboro, not far away. I don't know much about the school but it's pretty well-regarded and tuition is $10K or less, I think. The Wrentham area's far enough from Boston that you'd likely find larger and newer homes, and you can catch a train to NYC out of Providence.

Plenty of Catholic schools in MA. MA, RI, CT have the most Catholics of any states in the nation.

Massachusetts Catholic High Schools

[MassVt]

6,000 square feet? That is , frankly, obscene...

You won't get anything near that here..