move to boston - town help needham, westwood, sharon... (Newton: real estate, 2013)

[ms2013]

[SIZE=3]Ok I need help in deciding on towns to live in my price range for single family is around 700K range the towns that I can think off on the 95 corridor is Needham, Newton, Westwood and Sharon. I have one kid entering school this year and another in a few years. My husband’s work is in Waltham but may move to Bedford and I work on Providence. I personally like Needham the most but it is the most expensive of the three towns. I also want recommendation of some good realtors (just genuine people no solicitation please) if anyone has one. Moves are always very painful/stressful and boston is just too expensive. Any suggestions? Thank you in advance for all updates...[/SIZE]

[495neighbor]

MikePru who is a regular on here always has good advice and insight into the various suburbs. I believe his territory is based out of Needham.

Not a realtor, but I know you will get a far better home in Needham, Westwood and Sharon in your range than Newton. Newton has many older turn-of-the-century multifamilies turned condos, a fair number of college student residents especially Boston College and BU due to the green line and many main roads running through the town (the Mass Pike, route 9) thus lots of traffic.

I think you are smart looking in the area towards Canton Junction for those two commutes.

[WestonMassSAHM]

Originally Posted by 495neighbor

MikePru who is a regular on here always has good advice and insight into the various suburbs. I believe his territory is based out of Needham.

Not a realtor, but I know you will get a far better home in Needham, Westwood and Sharon in your range than Newton. Newton has many older turn-of-the-century multifamilies turned condos, a fair number of college student residents especially Boston College and BU due to the green line and many main roads running through the town (the Mass Pike, route 9) thus lots of traffic.

I agree! Mike has been very helpful and always try to reach out to help other members. He is very professional as well as insightful.

Below is MikePRU's profile link. You can try and send him a private message.
http://www.city-data.com/forum/membe...u-1263014.html

[MikePRU]

Originally Posted by ms2013

Ok I need help in deciding on towns to live in my price range for single family is around 700K range the towns that I can think off on the 95 corridor is Needham, Newton, Westwood and Sharon. I have one kid entering school this year and another in a few years. My husband’s work is in Waltham but may move to Bedford and I work on Providence. I personally like Needham the most but it is the most expensive of the three towns.

Here are my 2 cents Sharon is a great town and a great place to live. My biggest two complaints about Sharon is that there are almost no commercial areas in town so no shops, no restaurants, no real town center. Also, if you want to drive into Boston, you have to go on I93 North which is a nightmare almost any time of day. If your husband's job moves to Bedford that's going to make for a LONG commute for him as well. Sharon appears to be the most equi-distant from your two jobs but the traffic between Sharon and Bedford will make his commute much worse. Sharon also has some of the highest real estate taxes in the state so don't forget to factor that into the cost of a home. I think you'll find the cost of living in Sharon goes up a lot if you do.

Newton also a great place to live. It's much more "dense" and being made up of 13 different villages offers a variety of environs from more urban feeling areas to classic suburban areas. The more suburban parts of Newton tend to be the most expensive. Newton has great access to Boston as well, but also has a lot to offer within its borders. I lived in Newton for 10 years and personally I found it a bit too "big" for me.

This might be the first time I've ever heard anyone say Needham is more expensive than Newton. I suppose Needham is probably more expensive than some areas on the north side of Newton, but I would say Needham on average offers more bang for your buck. I like the town center and like Newton Needham offers a variety (although a much smaller one) of environs as well. Some areas of town are definitely more densely populated than others. Needham also offers great access to Boston and heading south from here is pretty easy too.

Westwood . . . yup you guessed it . . . another great place to live (good list you've made). Westwood has some of the issues that Sharon has in that there's not a ton going on in town in terms of shops/restaurants or a town center. However, construction should be restarting soon on University Station which will bring a lot more shops/restaurants to town. The typical route in to Boston from Westwood is I93 as well.

I don't think there's really a bad town on your list. The questions are more . . .

Which town is the best fit for your lifestyle?
Which town offers the best balance between your two commutes (I would say Needham followed closely by Westwood and Newton)?

Also, what kind of house are you looking for? You won't get a brand new 3,000 square foot home in Needham at $700K, but you can definitely get a lovely house for that price.

Originally Posted by ms2013

I also want recommendation of some good realtors (just genuine people no solicitation please) if anyone has one. Moves are always very painful/stressful and boston is just too expensive. Any suggestions? Thank you in advance for all updates...

There's no solicitation allowed in the discussion threads so you don't have to worry about that.

[ms2013]

Thank you all for your responses especially Mike! I actually had only three towns in my original post needham, westwood, sharon then added newton to the list. Agreed Newton is the most expensive town and also too urban for my liking! Thanks for the update on westwood and the University Station construction update, have been wondering what was all the construction for?

[MikePRU]

That area used to be all office buildings but they were torn down to make way for a large shopping/condominium complex. The project stalled when the economy went south and the developer had some issues with local governments but I recently read construction will be starting again in the next couple of months although the project has been significantly scaled back. The good news is that Wegmans is still on board with opening a location there.