Moving to Boston frm Minneapolis in 15 days (Lowell, Cambridge: apartment complexes, rentals)

[gudluck07]

We are a family of 3(two adults and one 2 1/2 yr old kid), my husband got a new job assignment there and need to move there in 15 days...his office is in downtown boston, can anyone pls tell me some good friendly neighbourhood suburbs with easy commute facility, reasonable apartment rents and good pre-schools..basically looking for a kid friendly and safe city... we are from India and Minneapolis is the only place we have lived in.. we don't know much about boston..any information will be greatly appreciated..Thanks in advance..

[smarty]

Around Boston, Cambridge and Waltham has high Indian population. If you go other further away, Framingham, Lowell, Nashua NH also has high Indian population.

If you want suburb (with apartment), I would look into Lexington, Newton, Waltham, Natick and Framingham. It depends on what is acceptable commute.

Pre-school. Most are private. You just have to find the right one...

[scarletfire]

If you look further west of the city you can usually find more reasonably priced rentals though they tend to be quieter bedroom communities and I didn't know if that was your preference or if you wanted more of a city feel. For example, Southboro is a very pretty small town with really good access to highways & Commuter Rail about 45 minutes west of Boston. There aren't a ton of rentals right in town but there are some. There are also some nice areas of Framingham & Natick that are a little bit closer to the city. (I'd generally stay away from apartments in the 01702 zip code of Framingham. 01701 is the nicer part of town and DEFINATELY stay away from downtown - quite a bit of crime there).

I know there's a very good Montessori grade & pre-school in Natick: www.eliotmontessori.org. I think these private preschools are quite expensive. I have info on some preschools - not so crazy priced - in Hopkinton. If you'd like to PM me your email address I can send you a PDF file with info on all the preschools there. There's also a commuter rail on the Hopkinton/Southboro border that would give your husband a more stress-free commute. For apartment prices, I think you could find a very basic two bedroom around $1200-1300 in Framingham, a nice larger home around $2300-2500/mo, or anything in between. In Southboro you're more likely to find single-family home rentals because there aren't really any apartment complexes there. A note: I would Mapquest the address of any rental first to see how close it is to the highway. Southboro is intersected by several highways, which is nice for access but that also means there are some neighborhoods where you'll experience quite a bit of road noise.

Re: areas with Indian communities, there are lots of Indian families who live in the Boston & metrowest area. I've met lots of people who relocated here and moved to Westboro, Hopkinton, and the other "boroughs" as well as Cambridge.

Best of luck!

[scarletfire]

Here are a few good sites for finding apartment & home rentals in Massachusetts:

http://boston.craigslist.org/about/apts.html (broken link)

http://realestate.wickedlocal.com/properties/search/ (broken link)

http://re.boston.com/rentals/searchindex.asp