Moving to Winchester, concord, newton....any comments (Boston, Lexington: to rent, house)

[jms2007]

Young married couple, 30s moving to boston, going to work in Winchester:
Looking for a nice town with a diverse community and a reasonable to commute to Winchester....we have heard good things about Newton, concord, not heard much about living in Winchester or lexington....any comments...we plan on having kids soon...any thoughts on raising kids in these areas?? Much thanks

[MichelleLane]

All the towns you named are nice. I live in Newton myself. Winchester is a lovely town with good schools. Income and house values above the state averages. If I remember, the center is very quaint. So if you are working there, why not live there? There is a lot to be said for keeping the commute down!!

[Gaffer]

Winchester, Concord and Lexinton are similar towns all with excellent school systems and very nice towns. Winchester is as nice as any town you'll find and since you will be working there, as a previous writer said, why not live there. Yes, the town square is very quaint.
Travel to Boston may also be easier from Winchester since train service runs a regular schedule, at least used to.
I may be biased since I grew up there, on the west side, but Winchester was a great place to grow up.
I can't comment on Newton. I simply don't have enough familiarity with it.

[smarty]

Originally Posted by jms2007

Looking for a nice town with a diverse community and a reasonable to commute to Winchester....

May be if you can be a little more specific....

What do you consider nice? Green? high income?

What kind of diversity are you looking for? Ethnic? Income? Age?

What is reasonable commute? 30 minutes? 60 minutes? 1.5 hr?

[ogre]

Originally Posted by Gaffer

Winchester, Concord and Lexinton are similar towns all with excellent school systems and very nice towns. Winchester is as nice as any town you'll find and since you will be working there, as a previous writer said, why not live there. Yes, the town square is very quaint.
Travel to Boston may also be easier from Winchester since train service runs a regular schedule, at least used to.
I may be biased since I grew up there, on the west side, but Winchester was a great place to grow up.
I can't comment on Newton. I simply don't have enough familiarity with it.

Mmmm, Winchester, Lex., and Concord may be similar in terms of typical incomes, but Concord is different from the other two physically. Winchester and Lexington are both largely suburban in character. Concord is more exurban. It does have a good-sized town center, but most of the town is fairly rural, with plenty of winding country roads, woods, and fields. I don't know what you are looking for regarding length of commute, but the commute from Concord would be significantly longer than from Lexington, which is next door to Winchester. Lexington has a more substantial downtown area than many typical suburban towns. I hear the same of Winchester but don't know that from observation. I do believe that Lex. is a bit less densely populated in some areas than Winch., but both are predominantly affluent suburban towns that are real towns rather than subdivision kinds of landscapes.

Newton would offer a longer commute than that from Lexington, but most likely shorter than the commute from Concord. Newton is another nicely established affluent suburban kind of town. It's quite a bit larger than any of the other towns mentioned, with a population over 80k, and has pockets with a more urban character, but is predominantly characterized as affluent older suburban, with a number of neighborhood retail districts, and good public transit access to Boston.

[maggiekate]

All the towns do come with a high price tag if you rent or buy! therefore, my advise is to rent near where you work. West Roxbury is also nice, as JP and arlington. It really does depend on the cost!
check the boston globe etc. Winchester is nice, so rent. If you have the money, no problem. Also
some towns have the snob appeal? With this economy, who need that!

[deirdre white]

HI,

Are you looking to buy or rent? All of the towns you are looking in are very nice but pricey! You may want to think about what you want to pay and work backwards!

Sincerely,

Deirdre W

[Jhon25Smith]

Winchester is a lovely town with good schools,nice properties and educated people.Not to many places where you can eat,but is close to the highway.If you are looking to move here I can recommend you a moving company that I use and they were just great.
Regards,
Jhon S

[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

[miu]

Concord should have a good number of young families. Concord has an excellent public school system. It's why my parents bought our house there years ago, and the main reason many still move out to that town.

I now live in Newton, I've been here for almost 20 years. Newton is very convenient to the city. It wouldn't be that difficult to get to Winchester from Newton via the secondary roads like Route 16. Newton also has excellent public schools.

Winchester seems very nice, I've only passed through the town but I've always heard nice things about it.