Need suggestions on where to live for family (Boston, Springfield: rental, home)

[sandhill]

First, I have to say my housing budget is on the low side - $1,600 rental and up to $300k to eventually buy (I would like to initially rent but ideally in an area where I'll be able to afford to buy in a year or two).

I've been reading suggested towns on this forum, like Melrose for families, but I'm interested if anyone might know if single parents might do better in terms of social acceptance in some places vs others. I'm a single mother with one child, who will be entering 7th grade next year, and I've found that suburban neighborhoods can be isolating if you're not the married couple family. The family on my side is mostly passed on so we're looking for new roots, if you will, although I do have a young niece who has moved up to Pembroke. My daughter's father is in San Francisco, and she flies there once or twice a year to visit, and it's not much of a relationship. I'm originially from the east coast (Virginia) and lived in nyc for 20 years, and after 3 years of trying out west, so my daughter could have a shorter 2-hour direct flight to SFO, I want to make my permanent home back east. I've been to Boston and through the Northeast a lot over the years when living in new york, and I really liked it there. NY and NJ are out of my price range when property taxes are factored in, plus I've read that surrounding suburbs have a better commute into the Boston metro than the "tri-state" commute into nyc. We have a network of friends in NY and NJ who we could make weekend or holiday trips to see, and I've come to realize, I'm not ever going to be able to replace that here. I grew up going to Jamestown and Williamsburg and love the historical aspect in new england, and it sounds like there's much more interest in preserving that history than what I've experienced down south.

I work in the healthcare medical records field, so I'll be applying to hospitals and larger medical institutions. It would be great to live in a neigbhorhood where there's lots of families and children around. For instance, where we are now in the suburbs outside Denver, the middle school bus stop is 3/4 mile in a different s/d because there are no middle school students in our s/d! Even our DOG is lonely because you almost never see anyone on the streets for any reason, including walking a dog - people let them out in the backyard. We'd love somewhere with parks or playgrounds where there are people out and about. I'm a big fan of walkability and public transportation. I also like farmers markets and access to natural foods stores. Northampton or Easthampton sound like possibilities as well, but it sounds the eastern side of the state is a better bet for finding a job.

[wmass]

I agree that Northampton would be a good choice, but you might need to look to the Springfield area for work (medical fields have a relatively big presence there - BayState). That would be about a 20 minute commute, and traffic is not too bad. Decent housing is available in your price range.

Conversely, you will either be paying a lot more in rent to live in eastern mass near public transportation and/or spending a lot more time in traffic commuting from drab suburbs.