Greater Boston- Help me here pls (Worcester, Quincy: apartment complex, insurance, mortgage)

[GTA_BOS]

Hi, the more I read, the more I am confused. Please help us here.

Along with my promotion, I am offeerd to move to Boston from TORONTO. I will be working at John Hancock building. For non-residency clause, we are selling our place in oakville and may fetch upto $425k. I have 2 kids- 4 and 1 yr old and my wife is not planning to work for a couple of years.

Please help us here, as it is getting harder to decide where to live. We are subburban fans and love to be in a green/family oriented town with better schooling system for young ones. I am willing to commute upto 30-45 mins, trains/subway would be preferred. Is hancock building accessible through public transits??

Also, if anyone can guide us, what should i negotiate for our moving expenses.
Can we buy a new development in this price??
Anyone from Toronto/Oakville with young families ??? please help here.
thank you in advance.

[jayrandom]

If by John Hancock building you mean Hancock Place (i.e. the tallest building in Boston), there are ample public transportation opportunities. If you're looking for something suburban, your best bet may be to take the commuter rail to nearby back bay station. There are four main commuter lines that service this station--Providence/Stoughton, Framingham/Worcester, Franklin, and Needham. There are a number of great towns within 45 minutes on all three of those lines.

How great and how close depends a lot on your budget. You could definitely find a place for $425K, but it would probably be a smaller, in a town with only good and not great schools, or further away. If $425 is the target, I'm sure people can suggest a number of possibilities--or you can investigate yourself by looking at the MBTA website and investigating the stops on those lines.

Good luck.

Another possibility is to take the Green Line and live in either Brookline or Newton. Brookline is nice but may not be suburban enough for you. Newton is a little further out and more of a dense suburb. Both have great schools but both would likely cost more than $425K, especially for a single family home.

[GTA_BOS]

Thank you so much for your reply.
I will be working with JH insurance and I believe, they are at 601 congress st.
We looked at Newton and Brookline, however, my wife thinks, they are pricy and old for the kind of house, she is looking at.
4BD, build within 5-10 years and approx 2300 sqft+
Her perception is that suburbans school system is always better than in the city and as out kids are pre-school age range, both of us are concerned about the early age grooming.

We may go upto Arlington range commute in the same radius to my office, I think, it is manageble, if we can get a newer place.
Our budget might go up by another $50-75k, as I heard that mortgage interest is tax deducaible in MA, which is not a case in Toronto/Canada.
Thanks and appreciate your comments/suggestions.

[jayrandom]

601 congress is a different location, so what I told you is quite wrong. That's nearer to South Station, which is serviced by all the train lines I mentioned plus the Kingston, Lakeville, and Greenbush lines. Unfortunately, 601 congress is a sizable hike from South Station so you might need to transfer to the silver line at south station unless you like to walk.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by "go upto Arlington range commute in the same radius to my office", but if by that you mean that you are looking for places as far away from your office as Arlington that's not quite the way to approach commuting in Boston. Distance does not equal time, especially if you are taking public transportation, but even true if you are driving.

Also, I hate to inject too much realism on a Sunday morning, but you're requirements are far too stringent. There isn't that much new construction in Boston to begin with, and almost none inside the radius of Arlington from downtown. New construction in that radius generally involves tearing down the 1920s era housing that was there and building new, which usually makes the house expensive. There just isn't that much land for building anymore.

500K in that tight a radius will most likely not find you 2300+ square feet (except maybe lot size), especially in a community that is considered to have great public schools. You'll need to consider which of those requirements are important to you and in which order (i.e. spending less than 500K, having great public schools, having 2300+ square feet of living space and 4BD) because if such a house existed I would have found it! Boston can be expensive, so that is just something to keep in mind.

I hope not to discourage you, though. There are plenty of nice suburban towns within reasonable commuting distance and that would fit your budget, but they aren't going to satisfy everything you are looking for.

[GTA_BOS]

Seems like, I am thinking more in Toronto terms, where distance means travel time and tons of new constructions in suburbs, within an 45-60 mins of a commute to Toronto downtown.

We were looking into Upton and Sudbury and liking the feel and looks of the town. I haven't researched around my travel time to 601 Congress St and schooling system, but you are right.. we are very confused about the geo-structure of Greater Boston. I think, our priorities for the first 5 years would be:

- Newer development-decent size home for approx $500k
- above average junior schooling system for my 4 yr old, I still have 3 yrs for my next one.
- 30-45 min of rail commute to 601 congress.

What are your suggestion on Upton/Sudbury or Concord???
Thanks for suggesting MBTA. that was very handy and good way for me to start my search.

[jayrandom]

The MBTA has a very nice trip planner on their website. You can use that to estimate times between two locations.

Concord is very nice, but I don't think it will work for you. Between the Concord commuter rail station and 601 congress, for instance, they MBTA trip planner preddicts between 80-90 minutes one way. The main reason is that you have to transfer twice--once at Porter Square to get on the red line and once at south station for the silver line. And this doesn't include the time you would need to take to drive and park at the Concord station. You would be better off driving from those locations most likely, at least in terms of time (about 35 minutes without traffic, from google). Also, Concord is way out of the 500k price range for a 2000+ square foot newer house. Even if prices come down 30% or so like many expect (or like to threaten), that would still be a stretch in Concord.

Sudbury is nice, too, but you would have to drive to the commuter rail station, as well. If you drove to the framingham/Worcester line MBTA estimates about 60 minutes from the station, mostly because you've eliminated the time-costly transfer at Porter and go directly to South Station. I think a newer 2000+ sq. ft place in sudbury for 500k would be a stretch, but I think it's starting to at least be in the realm of possibility, at least if you adjust your idea of what it means to be "newer" to Boston.

I don't know much about Upton except that it is very far away. If you were to drive to the Grafton station it would take you over an hour on an express train to south station.

If you are really thinking about doing a long-distance commuter rail journey, let me highly recommend the providence/stoughton line. It is fast and goes right to South Station. 30-45 minutes might not happen with the transfer or long walk you'd need to take, but it's more likely within your price range than on the Framingham/Worcester line and considerably more likely than on the Fitchburg line, which requires two transfers.

If I were you, I would look around Canton, Sharon, and Mansfield, at least to start.

As for the geo-structure of Greater Boston, it is very simple. Boston is the "hub of the universe" (or so they like to think). All trains and most transit emit radially from downtown so moving radially is generally easy and moving circumferentially is generally very difficult. There are two interstates in to downtown, I-93 which is crowded and free and I-90 which is slightly better and carries a toll. There is an inner "beltway" called 128, even though it is also I-95 locals never call it that for some reason There is also an outer beltway called I-495. The northern suburbs are called the North Shore, the southern suburbs are called the South Shore, and the western suburbs are called Metro West. Trains from roughly north of 90 go to North Station and trains from west and south go to South Station. By some cruel accident of history these two stations are not in any way connected (even if you take a subway from one to the other you have to transfer). South Station has Amtrak service to New York and point south and North Station has Amtrak service to points north, but you have to manually transfer yourself if you are going from NYC to Maine, which is just brilliant. This North/South divide in trains means that if you need to go to South Station you are better off looking south and west of the city, even if you like the idea of living north of the city.

[GTA_BOS]

Great suggestions. for sure, I didn't know much about the North/South stations. That was a great insight.
what would be my options from South Station to reach 601 congress ?? Do I need a separate pass/ticket to cross over?

Canton seems very reasonable and approx 35 mins to south station. Housing seems affordable and schools are not bad. Thanks for the suggestion. I would never know about it.
I will research more about it. Any further links/opinions on Canton/or similar towns i.e Islington/Norwood/Windor gardens.
Do you still live in Westwood?? how is that place?

Is there anyone who lives in Canton, would you please provide more insigtht

[jayrandom]

The commuter rail pass ($163/month for zone 3 > for further zones) is good for subway, bus, and commuter rail. It should allow you to take the silver line to 601 congress. The silver line is really a bus. Your other option is to walk, it's about 0.8 miles.

I do live in Westwood, it is very nice. Islington is the neighborhood of Westwood I live in. The reason I do not recommend Westwood is that you will not find a newer 2300+ sq. ft home for < 500k in Westwood. I live in an older <2000 sq. ft home. The schools are very good in Westwood. The franklin line is nice, but a little slow. Not too many stops to Boston, though, so it takes between 30-40 minutes to South Station from my house. They are building a huge shopping complex by rt. 128 station, so living near there in either Westwood or Canton could be a bit of a gamble in terms of future traffic/inconvenience.

Norwood is also very nice. The schools aren't as good as Westwood, but it has a great walkable center. It also has some nice restaurants, which Westwood lacks. Windsor Gardens is an apartment complex in Norwood that has it's own rail stop. There is also Walpole on that line, which is another nice little town but now you are starting to get pretty far by train.

Canton has a cute center and a couple of train stations. The providence line is faster than the franklin, as well. That's about all I know. Every place has a slightly different feel, but they all seem nice to me.

[GTA_BOS]

This is really a great help. Considering, I am coming again to Boston next week, I may drive upto Canton/Sharon area. My wife wouldn't be with me this time, ohhh well.

What is the repo for Quincy area or (Braintree). it is closer to water and a close proximation to south station.

Sorry, another stupid question, what trasportation system is closer to Congress street, so I don't have to take a transfer. Is it T subway system which runs by the 601 Congress St .
South station and a bus ride would add another 15-20 mins including the wiating time. If there is one, within the proxmation of 601 congress st, I might also look at other options, closer to that system.
And also, what if I drive from Canton, MA to Congress.
I really appreciate your assistance.
I should take you out, next time we are in town.

[jayrandom]

It's the silver line that runs by 601 congress-which is really a bus but connected to the subway system, so transfers and such are treated like you it is a subway. There isn't a more convenient way of getting to the silver line that I know.

You have options beyond the Providence/Stoughton line--pretty much any line that goes to South Station will work for you. When I was looking for a house--I looked at the train schedules and determined all the towns that took 30 minutes or less to South Station, ruled out towns that were either too expensive or had questionable schools, and went from there. You have lots to choose from, so don't worry if you don't like Canton.

Arlington may be an option as well. It's a bit denser than what you're probably used to, but it's a nice town and there is bus service to the red line which will take you to South Station and the silver line.

Don't know much about Braintree or Quincy. From what I've seen Quincy is denser than, say, Canton, but it's still a suburb. You can go to greatschools.net as a first order way of finding out about school districts.