Family Relocating to Boston Area - Please Advise (Framingham, Hingham: mortgages, homes)

[Valerie C]

You know, it's kind of hard for someone who grew up in the area to think of Newburyport as a "destination town", but I guess that's what the downtown area has become. Eek! People tend to park somewhere near State Street, walk around the downtown, and think that's all there is to the town... oh and maybe a short drive to Plum Island and back again

If you are relocating from other areas, and need malls nearby to make life complete, Newburyport isn't for you, sorry. No malls, no big box stores, and very few chain restaurants except of course Dunks/McD's/Wendy's. I can't honestly think of ANY chain restaurant even along 113 (maybe there is a Friendly's?) Newburyport is relaxing, walking on the boardwalk, or biking to Plum Island. Townspeople usually don't shop the downtown stores (well maybe the newcomers do!) There's a couple of grocery stores along Route 113, a great hospital, some wonderful neighborhoods, and an industrial park. The closest major shopping area would probably be to head south on 95 to Danvers/Peabody area, that's your nearest mall and mall-type stores. Seabrook to the north has tax free shopping Lowes, Walmart, typical big box stores.

As far as bring remote, well I95 and Route 1 runs through Newburyport, and 495 is just a mile or two outside the city, in Salisbury. I guess it depends on where you need to get to.... I commuted on Rte 95 for years, and it was nowhere as bad as 93, however, this was several years ago... In any case, be sure to visit Newburyport for "Yankee Homecoming Week" and spend lots of money cuz the shopping is great!

[Friars]

Swifty, I think that we could be a great help to each other. I'm moving to the Triad in the middle of Oct and have lived in Norwood and Quincy. I'd love to talk to help each other out. PS that commute from Newbport would Suck!!!!Trust me I dated a girl from there and that is a BAD drive.

[SwiftCreek]

Hi NY'er's, Friars, Valerie, and everyone else!

My wife read through these postings and was thoroughly impressed with the info you shared with us. Thanks! Valerie, The points you made about Nbpt were dead on. We don't have a burning need for big box stores in our backyard. We liked the independent shops around Nbpt. BUT, after reading NY'er's posting (I loved it!) I Googled Nbpt to Boston and sure enough - 1hour excluding traffic. The guy i'll be working with does leave at 6:30am, but I guess I should have asked him what time he drove home (my guess 7pm)!

My family is pretty active and we're usually exploring new places on weekends. We discovered a ton things to do around Nbpt - including lots of kayaking, biking, etc. But the Ashland/Southborough areas are getting ringing endorsements and I don't take the commute warnings lightly.

I think I will focus my search on Ashland/Southborough and hopefully run into you at Starbucks! I do have Swift Creek tshirts - so if any of you see me or my wife wondering around - please stop us!

[NY'er lost in MA]

Glad you are weighting all your options Swift. We just moved to this area 2 months ago. We had been searching for a good community for close to a year while our condo was on the market. We had chosen Shrewsbury or Northborough, but in test driving the commute and checking out neighborhoods, we just didn't have any good results. That made us have to go back to the drawing board. We swung by our house on a whim one Sunday and immediately knew it was the right neighborhood for us. But we didn't have much information on Ashland at the time because it wasn't one of our 'finalist' towns. So we made a point to tour the town that same day and so many things jumped out at us as- this is a great place to be. The small town feel (I grew up in upstate NY after my family fled the Metro NYC area when I was 5) I have always wanted to raise children in a small rural area to experience great opportunities I did as a child: a backyard, having a dog, parks, hiking, and peace and quiet

We have a baby on the way, so we didn't immediately consider school systems- plus we had just found our ideal town and neighborhood. As mentioned before- I think alot of a child's upbringing is what you instill in them- not the test scores.

Ok- back to Ashland. We live right down the street from Hopkinton State Park. You mentioned kayaking- you can rent canoes and kayaks there. My wife and I did that 2 weekends ago and had a great time. We kayaked out to a small island and had a picnic there. And this is one mile from our house!!

A few more miles down the road is Ashland State Park. We haven't been there yet, but we do receive the town community center newsletter. There are TONS of events, classes and other activities all year long. The community center is right at the entrance to the park.

I also like being fairly close to all the stores/mall. The new Natick Mall called 'The Natick Collection' is probably one of the best malls I've been in. Really upscale with alot of good restaurants. You also have Jordan's and the IMAX close by which is always fun. Only 2 miles away are the Weston Nurseries- a fantastic nursery with animals and tons of activities for kiddos.

But overall, you can see the pride in the community- both in Ashland and Southborough. House are nice, lawns and landscaping very appealing, and people that wave to you when you go to get ice cream up the street.

It's a good place to call home and as mentioned- there are probably 5-10 good homes that would meet your criteria.

Best of luck and don't hesitate to contact me. I drive around alot and would be happy to show you some of the places I mentioned.

NY'er.

oh..PS gang...GO YANKEES! yawn...

[2KidsforMe]

I agree with NY'er. Thee is a lot more to Southborough than proximity to malls & big boxstores. I just happen to like that, but I know it's not for everyone. I like that we have Hopkinton State Park in ourbackyard, and there are a few walking trails in town. We have a good little library and town green, nice people, and a real sense of community. We have houses of all shapes and sizes, with big yards and lots of trees. So basically, we chose where we live for the same reasons as NY'er. Whatever you decide, god luck.

[Mr.Mortgage]

I've lived in almost every segment of the state. I ended up on the south shore. This area has so much to offer with the exception of traffic and high prices. We have public transportation, great schools, public and private, great recreational actvities, shopping, etc. check us out. Check out Duxbury (ocean community) with the Kingsbury Club (tennis and fitness activitiesfor whole family) and Myles Standish State Forest (largest state forest for hiking, etc..). 45 minute commute. Whole foods and trader Joes nearby with a planned natural grocery store right in town.

Mr. Mortgage

[NY'er lost in MA]

Originally Posted by Mr.Mortgage

....This area has so much to offer with the exception of traffic and high prices.....

ummmm. enough said.

One of my best friends just moved down to Norwell. Took him over 2 hours to get to Boston one morning. No thanks!

[SwiftCreek]

I'm not looking in the South Shore because we will be driving to CT, ME, and Montreal and I don't want to drive through or around the city to get there. I do understand that there are beautiful places on the South Shore. Just not for us. Thank you for the suggestion though.

[scarletfire]

SwiftCreek, I don't know if you're still considering Hopkinton at all but did want to let you know that there is some parkland there. Whitehall State Park has trails and you can also kayak there. There's also a lake across town called Maspenock but it's become pretty heavy motorized use there and not really a good place to kayak anymore. Upton State Forest (next town over from Hopkinton) is also a beautiful place to go hiking and biking except be careful to note when hunting season is because it is allowed there.

[SwiftCreek]

Thanks for the note scarletfire. I was looking at house using Redfin - per NY'er's suggestion. Fantastic way to look at houses as they come up on a map! The only problem so far - Redfin doesn't cover Southborough. I'll keep your suggestions in case we widen our search.