Foreign family needs advice on relocation (2 under 2 years) (Boston, Cambridge: real estate, to rent)

[German.Family]

Hello,
my family is moving to the Boston area end of this year or beginning next year to start a small affiliate of our company. We are a couple (from Germany) around 36 years old with 2 childrens under 2 years.
It's not so easy to find a nice, secure place where we as a family are feeling well...but we need to find it somehow.

We're looking to rent a place and hoping to meet some priorities:
1. Nearby downdown, e.g. Cambridge, so that my family has something to see during the day and can feel the spirit of city (important for me that they are feeling well during the day)
2. 3 Bedrooms, because I would need 1 room at least for homeoffice
3. around 1300 squarefeet, new and familyfriendly (max. of 3000$ rent)
4. Nearby parks or other kid-friendly places (playground?) to take my kids to. A neighborhood with families would be good
5. Minimize travel time for me, because I would go from time to time to Andover, therefore we would like to stay in the North of Boston

Any suggestions about the areas? Should we focus on Cambridge? Can anybody suggest an appartment complex?
Maybe it sounds stupid, but: Is it easy to establish contact to other families (haven't done it in a foreign country so far)
How does it work with daycare for my eldest and is it expensive?

Appreciate any ideas and comments. Thanks in advance.

[clevedark]

I suggest you widen your search to Brookline, too. We live there, it's a lovely town right outside of Boston with a very international population and good public schools (although you don't need them now, there will be families for you to meet).

As far as meeting people, if you're not a local, you tend to meet them through your kids and your kids' school. Your kids are too young for school. But if you pick a neighborhood that has a nice active park you should meet plenty of other families. If you stick to places like Cambridge and Brookline you will be surrounded with people from all over the world and you won't feel like an outsider.

I'm a stay at home mom and don't have first hand experience with daycare, but I do know that it's expensive. (One of the reasons I'm a stay at home mom--the cost of daycare almost cancelled out my income. Totally not worth it.)

Kind of stream-of-consciousness, but you asked some big questions. I wish you luck in your search and in establishing your business.

[clevedark]

You might want to look at Hammond Real Estate (Hammondre.com). They have a really nice site and you can contact a realtor to ask some questions. We worked with a great guy named Dan Lyons when we bought our house in Brookline. He told us we would love the neighborhood our house was in, and he was right.

Dan does Brookline, I don't think he covers Cambridge.

[septimus]

i would suggest cambridge-cambridgeport area or huron villiage. outside of cambridge, belmont and lexington (i know some german families that live in those towns and they are easy to do without a car every day (you'll still need a car just not necessarily 2 cars