Another Seattle uproot (Boston, Worcester, Somerville: real estate, condos, crime)

[TrishaJ]

Another Seattle to Boston possible relocation in a year or so. Most of the post's I've read are involving inter city neighborhoods. I'd like some info on maybe places out side of Boston that would be safe to live in, be under an hour travel time to Boston via public transportation, and maybe be able to buy a single family home for under 300k? (is that even possible in MA?)

Most of the research I’ve done has given me the impression that living with in the neighborhoods of Boston would be unwise due to safety and super expenssive unless there is a neighborhood I’ve missed?

[smarty]

Without traffic, 1 hour could be as far away as New Hampshire(North), Rhode Island (South) and Worcester (West). The trick is $300K and your expectation. Most will be disappointment since it may be smaller house (3 bedroom), older (100 years old), or small yard (0.2 acre).

Lot of choices...

Many areas in Boston are safe. Unfortunately they are not cheap. A nice area in downtown Boston (Backbay) would cost you $300+K for 1 bedroom condo (600sq feet). Too many rich parents buying condos for their kids in college.

[TrishaJ]

wow.. that's a horrible price for a codo that size. Although I'm not surprised. Seattle was selling 350-400 sqft condo's around 200k recently.

Well I want to move back to the East Coast to be closer to family (nova scotia) and I thought Boston might be a good choice for employment since it's a larger city. Do you know anything about area's like... Stoneham, Wakefield, melrose, somerville etc.? Any personal info on the area's would be very helpful.

[smarty]

TrishaJ,

I do not know those areas. I suggest boston.com real estate section where you can take a quick look and compare demograhics. You have to figure out what is important. Education level, crime rate, price, ethnicity, schools, ... etc. {url]www.boston.com/realestate/community/ {url]

Boston Magazine also have a list of best places to live. [url]www.bostonmagazine.com/marketing2/Boston_Best [url]

One other thing is where is your job? Distance from your job. It is a big factor also.

*City or town Median single-family home price
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2001-05% change
Melrose $326,000 $344,000 $389,900 $405,000 $423,000 29.75%
Somerville $280,000 $329,000 $362,500 $382,000 $415,000 48.21%
Stoneham $303,750 $338,950 $370,000 $391,500 $420,000 38.27%
Wakefield $300,500 $340,000 $376,600 $395,500 $425,000 41.43%