Seattleites looking to buy in Quincy?

[mdovell]

Quincy is going though quite a bit of construction. The center area has a 1.8 billion dollar plan that will be totally finished in 2020 (fingers crossed)

In all honesty I agree that you should rent and check out places.

You might also have to understand a bit of how some of the development occurred. Mill towns were all across the northeast and that caused cities to form. But the decline in manufacturing as plants moved south kinda left people here. You had to develop suburbia in areas where there wasn't enough apartments. In some case companies had their own living quarters (cortage park) so they had no real choice.

Having said that Quincy has turned out better than other former mill areas. It has quincy college, enc, medical centers and of course marina bay. The center area was massive in the 30's and 40's but declined with the highway system, malls, walmart and now online stores. Is the project going to bring it back? Probably not but it isn't going to decay either.

[lukyelle]

I'm going to chime in here since I've lived in both Boston (Somerville) and Seattle (Capital Hill and U District).

I just can't even begin to describe how different these two places are - the east and west. I go on and on about it in some of my posts.

It was startling to me to see how non-progressive the Boston area is in a lot of ways. This is part of it's charm and old-school feel, but still shocking coming in from the outside. I finally found a location I like pretty well (Somerville - Spring Hill area). I chose this area to live because it really feels like a college town in a lot of ways, it's pretty progressive, quite a few squares with shops and bakeries, upscale pet shops and second hand used clothing stores (like Buffalo Exchange)...I can walk to Harvard Square in about 20 minutes and am close to the Red Line subway line which will take me to MIT, downtown Boston, and even down to Quincy.

I like it here as well as I think I can like the east (it's been a very rough adjustment), but I'm now wanting to buy and I find that 1) I can't really afford to live here unless I bought a 300 sq ft studio condo 2) the commute to work isn't ideal. I would leave the Boston area altogether but I have a job with tenure and I'm not about to get up and leave that in this economy.

So I'm looking for a new place to call home after being out here 6 years. There aren't a lot of good choices in my price range and commute range. Quincy was an option, but I can't afford it really, for what I want, which is a small single family place.

Best of luck to you in your move! Be ready for a shocker. Sounds like you have some awesome graduate plans lined up, that's one thing that Boston area is on top of (and many other things too...I have to admit).