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Old 07-23-2011, 03:15 PM
 
Location: Massachusetts
244 posts, read 572,896 times
Reputation: 72

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My husband will be getting his relocation papers any day now and we may be moving from MD to a suburb of Boston (he will be working downtown near the Back Bay Station)...I have only been to some towns in the southwest area like Foxborough, Sharon and Franklin. Can anyone give me a breakdown of what the different areas are like? Currently, my husband drives about 1 hr and 20 min to and from work b/c of the traffic near Washington, DC so any commute on the train under 45 minutes to an hour is fine. Lower than that=even better
We have 3 school aged children (one in high, middle and elem) so education is important as is safety and community feel. We do some hiking and simple biking, visit museums/historic areas in our spare time. Our budget would be about $550K for a single family house, we currently drive anywhere from 8-15 minutes to get to the nearest mall/major retailer, the town I live in is small with a rural feel but only 10 minutes from the next town which has a nice downtown area for any age group.

Hope this helps with any advice you can give me. I was looking at Franklin and Westborough but have recently read Acton is nice, which is further north I think.
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Old 07-23-2011, 03:48 PM
 
925 posts, read 2,742,013 times
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If you're commuting by train, the best routing is from the south or the west. You can find the train schedules at www.mbta.com. The Metrowest suburbs have quite a few highly ranked school systems, including Holliston, Hopkinton, Westboro & Southboro. Hopkinton in particular has been gaining a lot of attention lately because the schools were one of only a few in the state to be included in Newsweek's list of top public high schools in the country, they received an honorable mention in US News & World Report for the schools & the schools are consistently ranked high in Boston Magazine's list of top public high schools. They also receive high marks from greatschools.org.

Hopkinton has a small town center with few shops (small grocery, cafe, one good restaurant, plus a pretty town common with free movie nights & summer concerts). There are two lakes in town for swimming, boating, canoeing, etc plus Hopkinton State Park & tons of trails. There are lots of community events, like the PolyArts Festival, Holiday Shopping Soiree, 4th of July Boat Parade, Horribles Parade, etc. The town was named one of the best places to live this year & I think two years ago as well.

Holliston also has award-winning schools & one of the only school systems in the state besides Milton to offer French language immersion for elementary school students.

Both are lovely towns. Hopkinton is growing a lot & there's quite a bit of new development there. You have easy access to the train in nearby Southboro or Ashland.

Holliston is a quintessential New England suburb and has a very nice town center (which I find lacking in many towns around here). There's a cafe with music at night, cute boutiques, a playground, tennis courts, ball field, general store, etc. And new artist lofts just opened nearby. You can take the train from Framingham but depending where you are in town you might end up in a bit much traffic & just end up driving into Boston.

Westboro is also nice but more built up. You'll find lots of pretty neighborhoods but also big box stores & chain restaurants. The town got more built up before Hopkinton did so there's far less new construction going on there than Hopkinton.

Anyhow, I hope that's a bit helpful! Will write more later!
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Old 07-23-2011, 04:00 PM
 
925 posts, read 2,742,013 times
Reputation: 432
Here's a few links that might be helpful for your search:

Best Schools 2010: The Rankings - Boston Magazine - school rankings

Best Places to Live - Boston Magazine - best places to live

Wall Street Journal article about Hopkinton & surrounding towns

Scenes of Holliston Downtown - a set on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/21590926@N07/sets/72157623385271299/ - broken link) - pictures of Holliston
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Old 07-23-2011, 07:24 PM
 
Location: Massachusetts
244 posts, read 572,896 times
Reputation: 72
Thank you for the links!
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Old 07-23-2011, 09:59 PM
 
23,529 posts, read 18,678,020 times
Reputation: 10819
Forgive me if I'm being critical, but I believe you have already been provided wirh extensive information on this topic from your various older posts. Are you hoping that you will attract more responses, or do you not like the answers previously given? You say you have looked into some of the areas suggested. Were you disappointed in what you found or are you trying to narrow it down? By just asking the same broad questions again makes it difficult to pinpoint what it is you want, and frustrating too.
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