Looking for Information on Weymouth (Boston, Cambridge: fit in, low crime, townhouse)

[dei6360]

Hi,

Wanted to know more about Weymouth. We have been looking at homes in the Academy Avenue Elementary School area. Does anyone have any info on this school?

I also have been wondering why home prices in Weymouth are so low for being only 30min out side Boston. I have been looking online and reading other peoples post here about Weymouth and it seems like a nice place to live but I must ask what is Weymouth really like?

Also I will be working out of the home but will have to commute to Boston sometimes and wanted to know what the traffic is like on weekdays, and weekends.

Thanks for any info.

[bgrasser]

Google Academy Avenue Elementary School area
for a panel report; it will give you the stats.
Not only are the houses priced right, the taxes are
reasonable. I don't travel to Boston so I can't help you there.
Check C-D homepage, profile on Weymouth; not much diversity, low crime. Overall not a bad place to hang your hat.

[throop]

My husband and I were actually wondering the same thing. Why are the prices in Weymouth so much lower than the surrounding towns? We were looking in Quincy, Braintree and Milton and then found we can get twice the house for 100 K less. Does anyone have any ideas why Weymouth is priced so much lower?

[manc]

we did live in weymouth for a year, near colombian square to be exact


it's not a bad place to live, I think the prices are low because as is usual when you have a town selling more than there is buyers then the price drops thus cheaper houses in weymouth.

there's different reasons why people move so couldn't give you an exact reason , sorry I can only tell you why I and others I know moved or want to

[lomiri8]

Weymouths prices are lower because of it's horrorable high school envirorment.
In the last decade much improvements have been in the community from having a mayor instead of a counsel. The one truely large issue with weymouth right now is the school system. The drug problem is rampid and drop out rate is comparitive to brocktons. The powers that be, seems to believe that if they don't post the drop out rates or they pretend everything is ok then the public will go along with it. They don't want to spend the money to address any of the problems. When issues start with kids in the younger grades Weymouth chooses to ignore as much as possible, put a temporary band aid on it, or blame the parents. In the long run they hope for the " problem" children to drop out so that they don't have to deal with it while keeping their testing and graduation averages looking good. They can't (the school kids) fail if they are not there.

[scf79]

I can't speak to the schools as we don't have kids yet, but we bought a townhouse in Weymouth at the end of June. We like the town itself - people are very nice and it doesn't feel like a big town at all ... I often forget how many people actually live here! I think we'll end up moving to a smaller town when we do have kids, but that's mostly because I grew up in a small town myself (and I want our kids to experience that too). Anyway, I work in Boston and my husband works in Cambridge, and the commute can be tricky at times ... if you don't travel during rush hour, it will only take about 25 minutes to get up to Boston, but during the morning commute, it often takes me an hour (yes, I'm one of those poor souls who drives ...). The HOV lane is often a tremendous help though, as long as you have 2+ people in your car! You just need a lot of patience ...

[happywifey]

We just bought a house in Weymouth and we have two little kids. We're hoping schools improve in the next 15 years, but if not, we as parents have to keep a watch on our kids to do well. The town/city itself is great. My husband grew up in Boston and graduated from *sigh* Dorchester High. We're both college graduates that needed to buy a home! We just couldn't afford Hingham, Newton, Wellesley, etc. with "great" schools because we're "normal" people! Weymouth seems to have a large senior citizen population and we're hoping that with the turn around, the city fills with people like us who would love to live in a place like Hingham, but financially, just cannot do it. The best part of us purchasing in Weymouth is that we are not stretching beyond our means. We have a great little (I think it's big but it's only 1600 sq ft) house and what seems to be a great sense of community. Even if we could afford the affluent communities, we probably wouldn't fit in very well there.

We searched out a couple "affordable" places in the area (Dedham, Stoughton, Canton, Walpole, Woburn, etc.) The best thing to do is spend a day (preferably a Sunday so you can hit up some open houses) in the town you want to look at and see if it's a right fit for your family. We just had "that feeling" when we were looking in Weymouth. Good luck on your search!

[Boomerang]

One of my colleagues just put her house on the market in Weymouth. She's getting out before her kids have to enter middle & high school there.

[CaseyB]

Originally Posted by lomiri8

Weymouths prices are lower because of it's horrorable high school envirorment.
In the last decade much improvements have been in the community from having a mayor instead of a counsel. The one truely large issue with weymouth right now is the school system. The drug problem is rampid and drop out rate is comparitive to brocktons. The powers that be, seems to believe that if they don't post the drop out rates or they pretend everything is ok then the public will go along with it. They don't want to spend the money to address any of the problems. When issues start with kids in the younger grades Weymouth chooses to ignore as much as possible, put a temporary band aid on it, or blame the parents. In the long run they hope for the " problem" children to drop out so that they don't have to deal with it while keeping their testing and graduation averages looking good. They can't (the school kids) fail if they are not there.

That seems to be the case. One of my friends is a teacher in the Weymouth secondary schools. From what she's telling me, the high school principal is currently on probation and most likely will be fired at the end of the year unless the situation improves. Apparently there are kids there that are homeless? They sleep on the streets at night unless they find their way into someone's house. Have you heard any similar stories?