Looking to buy a house (Natick, Needham: real estate, apartment, renting)

[SannySmith]

Hi,

We are currently renting an apartment in Needham and planning to buy a home, budget is not more than 450K. We work at Fenway (Green Line -D) which is conevenient from Needham but houses here are very expensive.
Can someone suggest any other neighborhoods which have good school system (2 kids under 3), family town with easy access to commuter rails.

We are looking at homes in Needham, Sharon, Mansfield but any other location/suggestions will be helpful?

Thanks.

[Falcons1]

Sharon is a great town. It has a beautiful lake, Moose Hill and Ward's Berry Farm....both really nice if you have kids. Much better schools than Mansfield or other surrounding towns. However, the real estate taxes are high due to the lack of retail within the town. If you have a family the Heights area is the best....lots of neighborhoods and young kids.

Great town for people with a young family. Halloween parade for preschool kids, 4th of July parade, summer concerts on the lake.... Hard to beat!

[SannySmith]

Thank you for the response.

Also somebody suggested Wayland, Stoughton and Canton as well. Any thoughts on these? Or which town is more affordable and still has a good school system?

[kmann-sherborn]

Wayland is lovely, quiet & has very well regarded schools but I wouldn't call it affordable. I think there are lots of options of good school systems in your price range, but many would have a longer commute time. Do you want to stay accessible to the commuter rail? How long of a commute is ok?

[SannySmith]

Yes we would like to stay accesible to commuter rails...I would say 45-50mins is OK for us. So if you can suggest other city options kmann-sherborn would be helpful in our serach.

[ogre]

Do you want to be within walking distance of commuter rail, or would a quick drive across town be okay?

One suggestion I'll make is Natick, which is a nice, pleasant suburban kind of town with solid schools, a nice little downtown with a few mom-and-pop stores, easy access to mall shopping, and two commuter rail stations. Whether you'd be able to walk to the train would depend on the neighborhood. You'd have a drive through town from many neighborhoods.

If a local drive to the train would work, you might check out the south side of Wayland, if you can find any property with a price that fits. Finding properties at the right price will be a tall order in Wayland, but if you were to find something toward the south side, you'd be as close to the train station in Natick Center as you would be from much of Natick itself.

[kmann-sherborn]

From Southboro (which has well regarded schools, lots of community activities, good train & highway access), you could take the express train to Back Bay & then walk the two blocks to the Green Line. However, that puts you at about 40-45 min for the train commute alone. A closer town would be Natick, though the rankings tend to put the schools as solid but not as high.

[SannySmith]

Yeah we have looked into homes on wayland but could not find anything good in our range. Natick somehow I feel is very congested.
We have also found some townhomes/single family in our range in Ashland and Concord.
Any idea about these neighborhoods?

Thanks

[NotAPrincess]

Concord schools are excellent, top 10 in the state. I'm surprised that you find Concord more affordable than Wayland, though. I'd have guessed them to be about the same.

[SannySmith]

actually we came across a few listings for new construction in our price range so was were considering the same. Any idea about Ashland?