Relocation help - CT to Mass (Boston, Newton: homes, safe neighborhood, buying)

[ackack]

Hi all

My wife and I are currently living in the Farmington Valley of CT and entertaining the offer of a possible relocation to Boston for work. We’ve lived in the Davis Sq area and Brighton Center during our mid 20’s, but we’re now in our early 30’s and looking to settle down and start a family. We’re willing to move away from the action and have a larger place to entertain at home.

That said, I don’t have a clue how Mass schools compare and would greatly appreciate any feedback to help with our decision. Below is a list of our ideal criteria – I say ideal because we all know sacrifices are necessary when buying.

- Commute by car, train, or bus during rush hour: 45 mins
- Price Range: using CT as a reference, our max was $470k
- Proximity to town center for those days/nights we don’t feel like making the trek to Boston
- Be able to walk or have a short drive to restaurants, bars, brew pubs, coffee shops etc.
- Excellent Schools w/ reputable Sports programs (hockey, lacrosse, squash)
- Safe neighborhood (able to park on street, without having to worry about car being broken into)

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

[kmann-sherborn]

You can get a lot of what you're looking for but a lot of the outer burbs in this area aside from Concord & Wellesley don't have a ton to offer in the town center & those are both pricey. For ex, in Holliston there's a cute town center but really just one cafe with music at night + not much in the way of restaurants, though there are a lot in nearby towns.

I'd be glad to chime in more later but at the moment can share a few links re: schools

Best Schools 2010: The Rankings - Boston Magazine
Massachusetts | Best High Schools | U.S. News
GreatSchools - Public and Private School Ratings, Reviews and Parent Community

[sfosyd]

Property taxes in Mass are generally much less than Connecticut so you may be able to up your range a bit.

[ackack]

Thank you for the responses - depending on the property taxes and hopefully with salary increases we can up our range.

While my wife and I appreciate the option to have a walkabale town center (think West Hartford, Burlington, VT), we would still prefer to have the larger home and excellent schools. Don't get me wrong, I would love to be able to live on the coast, still have a yard with a pool, and some local restaurants/pubs, and on top of that, have well ranked schools - just not going to happen with our budget - something will have to give.

I should have also mentioned in terms of the commute to Boston - my wife and I both workout in the AM - usually around 6.15AM, so it would require us leaving earlier and hopefully avoiding AM rush hour traffic.

Are any of these towns suitable based on the criteria?
- Beverly Farms
- Chestnut Hill
- Concord
- Duxbury
- Hamilton
- Hingham
- Hopkinton
- Lincoln
- Manchester
- Marblehead
- Wellesley (still dry town)?
- Weston
- Needham
- Newton

[capecodcathy]

I don't really see keeping under $500K in any of the towns you mention. You may want to look in some areas surrounding these towns. For example, Swampscott or Saugus, instead of Marblehead. Danvers instead of Hamilton. Beverly instead of Beverly Farms.
I'm not really familiar with the suburbs west of Boston as far was downtowns, etc., but many of these, including the North Shore ones I've mentioned are going to be at least an hour, even by public transportation.
They're all very nice and all very pricey.

[kmann-sherborn]

You might be able to find a home in Holliston or Hopkinton in your price range, which both have well regarded school systems. Hopkinton has been getting a lot of attention lately due to high ranking in Boston Magazine's top public high schools, inclusion in Newsweek's top high schools, and special mention in US News & World Report's list of top high schools in the country, and being listed in Boston Magazine's Best Places to Live. Holliston also has award-winning schools. They're also one of the few towns in the state that offer French language immersion classes in the elementary schools.

You could take the train from the Hopkinton/Southboro or Hopkinton/Ashland line to Back Bay or South Station in about an hour on the express train. Traffic is hit or miss but you might be leaving early enough to miss the worst of it.

Holliston town center has a cafe, general store, children's park, tennis courts, small grocery store, and a handful of cute shops. Hopkinton town center has Zia's cafe (lunch/dinner/wine), Hopkinton Gourmet (small coffee place), summer movie nights & jazz on the common, Hopkinton Drug, Colella's Grocery Store, 2-3 small boutiques. Not a ton else. Supposedly there are plans to revitalize the town center and that would be a great addition to the town. I believe both towns have youth lacrosse & hockey leagues (among other sports) though not squash that I'm aware of.

We live in Sherborn (next door to Holliston) and usually if I want to go out at night we drive into Wellesley where there are lots of nice restaurants, or into Natick. Our first home was in Hopkinton, which is close by to restaurants & shops in Westborough.

[kmann-sherborn]

Another thought: You could get into towns like Wellesley or Needham in a smaller home or 1/2 duplex. You'd be closer to the city with more local shops & restaurants, have closer train access, but you'd likely have a smaller house, tiny yard & no garage compared to Hopkinton or Holliston where you'd be a bit further from the city with a larger yard. All of these are lovely places to live though. It's just a matter of preference.

[etiquette]

If you like Marblehead I'd suggest Winthrop By The Sea. It's a really great, small, untouched community just 15 min to Boston. I tell all of my clients that it's Boston's best kept secret. There are some really beautiful single family homes there. It's one of the only places in NE that you can buy a beachfront home for under $1M. One of my favorite properties located directly on the beach sold last year for just under $500K!

[capecodcathy]

Two problems with Winthrop. Flooding and noise from Logan. A friend who grew up there had to be evacuated several times via boat and we would have to stop speaking when planes were arriving or departing. You could barely hear yourself think.