Moving to Winchester, concord, newton....any comments (Lincoln, Carlisle: real estate, apartment)

[smarty]

Demographics: The median age Concord: 42 years vs MA: 37years
25.1% under the age of 18,
4.2% from 18 to 24,
25.8% from 25 to 44,
28.4% from 45 to 64, and
16.5% who were 65 years of age or older.

A relatively rural town with median house price ~$600K and not a lot of rentals, not too many "young" people can afford it.

If you want young... go toward Boston and Cambridge.... there are plenty of 20 yr olds... :-)

[jms2007]

Anybody do this commute? I would be leaving b/w 6:45am and 7:45am depedending on the day....we are moving from philadelphia and its tough to figure all this out from here so we appreciate any input..
J

[jms2007]

Thanks Smarty...yea we live in the center of Philly now and we certainly love city life but think we are ready for some space...fresh air and trees....we just hope we dont age ourselves by doing it....
J

[smarty]

I could only suggest rent a house for a year before buying. I had a friend who thought he wants country living... realized that he spend more time taking care of a house than enjoying it. He went into Boston every day... and finally had to move back into the city.

[Valerie C]

I second smarty's post. I would recommend renting, at least short-term, to get to know the area before you commit to buying. You may find that the town that works well on paper isn't what you expected at all...

Just my .02

[jms2007]

Does anyone know if Concord has adult sports...pick up basketball anywhere, football games on sunday, softball etc...

[clevedark]

Originally Posted by jms2007

Thanks everyone....my wife and I drove through all of the towns...we liked Concord a lot b/c of the amt of land you can get but were a bit surprised when we out to dinner that night, sat, to see that we brought down the age by 20 years...does anyone have any ideas if Concord has a young family vibe at all...how bout the commute from concord to Winchester???
Thanks

About noticing alot of senior citizens and older people in restaurants at night, I had the same experience when we moved to a rich suburb on the south shore. We went out to dinner one night and we were by far the youngest in the room by like 20 years. I had never been in that situation before--and never went to that restaurant again!

But relax, it doesn't mean anything--there are plenty of young families all over the place. They're just not filling the expensive restaurants on Saturday night. And there is usually one restaurant in whatever area that's really popular with the younger set--it will be packed on Saturday night with loud merrymakers. You just have to find it, if that's what you're into.

That said, there are many more older people in eastern MA than I'm used to--we moved here from NJ, from a town with insanely high property taxes. Basically once your kids graduated from HS you sold your house for a condo in a different town or out of state relocation. Nobody aged in place, and I mean NOBODY!!!

[NorthShoreLover]

Lexington and Newton are more diverse than Winchester or Concord. We have considered all these towns and had concerns about each -- in Newton and Lex the schools are great, but also so incredibly high pressure that they can eat kids alive -- even trickling down to elementary school. There was an extended artucle in the NYT about Newton in particular and all the stress.

Concord is a nice community, but too rural for my tastes. Not much to do etc.

We joined a church in Winchester - I think the town is adorable and the schools are very very good, but it's really homogeneous and I think pretty clique-y/snotty. We were turned off.

Of all the towns, I think Winchester is your best bet -- I have a slighte pref. for Lex, but the diffs are minor, so why not have no commute?

[smarty]

Concord Basketball League
http://www.concordma.gov/pages/Conco...lvball0809.pdf

[jms2007]

we are going to rent now and are looking for a home to rent in concord and or carlisle....anyone have any leads...