Considering moving to Boston from Silicon Valley (Gill, Florida: sales, how much)

[Ariel C.]

Dear CrystalClearWave,
My husband and I have lived in Boston since 1979 and it looks like we will be relocating to the Bay Area (or Silicon Valley) when the company I work for moves there, probably next year. Would you be open to giving me some suggestions about California? The company is probably locating somewhere near Mountain View.

Regarding Boston, from what I can see it will be less expensive. Housing has slumped so you will be able to get great deals. The Route 128 corridor has high tech, closer to the city is the most biotech. The Massachusetts Biotechnology Association has many tech companies as members. The best schools are in areas outside of Boston, like Lexington.

Sincerely,
Ariel

[CrystalClearWave]

Originally Posted by Ariel C.

Dear CrystalClearWave,
My husband and I have lived in Boston since 1979 and it looks like we will be relocating to the Bay Area (or Silicon Valley) when the company I work for moves there, probably next year. Would you be open to giving me some suggestions about California? The company is probably locating somewhere near Mountain View.

Regarding Boston, from what I can see it will be less expensive. Housing has slumped so you will be able to get great deals. The Route 128 corridor has high tech, closer to the city is the most biotech. The Massachusetts Biotechnology Association has many tech companies as members. The best schools are in areas outside of Boston, like Lexington.

Sincerely,
Ariel

Ariel,

If you are going to work in Mountain View, you have many options on where to live.

Mountain View itself is a great town with a nice little downtown centered around Castro Street, where there are many good restaurants and boutiques. Then there are also Palo Alto to the north west, Los Altos to the south west, Sunnyvale to the east and Cupertino to the south east, all within 20 minutes reach as Mountain View has 3 major highway accesses (85, 101 and 237) which convieniently connects it to other towns. Palo Alto and Los Altos are very very expensive to live. My realtor told me a few weeks ago that there was a small fixer up home for sale in Palo Alto with asking price of $825k, and she had a client who offered over $900k CASH as well as closing in one week, and they didn't get that home. In fact, their offer was among the bottom 10 of all the 25 offers. That home was eventually sold for over $1 million!! Cupertino is not as bad, but still very pricy as $1 million can only buy you a small 3-bedroom ranch style house in the top school district. Personally I think Sunnyvale is a good place to live as it's not as expensive as the other places I mentioned, but is a very well organized town and is in prime Silicon Valley location with easy access to everything. Although schools there are not top, they are not bad and some of them are high above average.

As for California in general, I just came across a post under California-San Jose forum which very well describes it - "the good things about California are really good (weather, geography). But the bad things about it are really bad (high cost of living, crowding, state politics, natural disasters)."

I think you will love the Bay Area for its gorgeous weather, stunning beauty in the surroundings, and easy access to many outdoor activities as well as world class locations. At the mean time, also be aware of the real bad things like extremely high real estate prices, potential earthquake, etc. Personally I don't feel the Bay Area being over crowded as I was born and raised in a large city myself, and Bay Area suburbs are not even close to where I was grown up. But depends on your background, you may find it over populated.

Good Luck on your relocation!

[rpc101]

If I were you....

If I were you, I would consider southern NH (about 25 miles from Boston). With no state income tax or sales tax, a little more land, and a documented high quality of life, you can get the benefits of being in Boston with a greatly family-raising environment.

Places like Nashua (and surrounding towns.. Hollis, Londonderry, Windham) have long been major high-tech places (IBM, Oracle, BAE, etc... all have big places in Nashua. With Rt128 only about 20 miles away, the commute is reasonable (going into Boston from any suburb is a pain).

Windham, NH (03087) Property: CASTLE REACH - Ready to go featuring quality and d...

Many people that move to the are move to So. NH. In fact, the #1 state that MA people move to is NH (I think the 2nd is Florida).

As I work in municipal consulting, I visit a lot of communities and know them well. If I were to pick a place to live in the boston area, I would go with Windham, Londonderry, or Hollis NH. These are towns where all the kids play sports, you know the families, the schools are good, no crime, and beautiful towns. Then I would look at places like Andover, Winchester, Concord or Lexington, MA.

I would stay north of boston as you have an immediate getaway to the mountains, lakes, or ocean.

[mszerlip]

I am a Realtor in Newton and depending on how big or new a house you want 800-900 does not go a lomg way. Since you are coming from the Bay Area you are used to high priced homes. The 128 belt probably has the most high tech jobs. Cambridge and Waltham probably have the largest concentration of high tech.

[ecovillager]

Hi folks from "The Other Bay Area", ;-)

You said you have children and would like a good place to raise them with good schools. Have you considered cohousing? I'm a member of Sawyer Hill Ecovillage (sawyerhill.org), which I will be moving into in 2008. It's just off 495 and 290 in Berlin MA, and lots of our folks work in high tech in the 128/95, Mass Pike (90) and 495 corridors. There are 3 and 4 BR homes that could work for you in a price range you would be happy with for a brand new home. Since you're from the Bay Area, you may have already encountered some version of cohousing.

Berlin is a lovely New England town in orchard and horse farm country, yet you can easily get to Boston or Worcester for urban culture, plus we expect to have a lot going on in our own community. Cohousing is a very multi-generationally friendly type of community in general, with indoor and outdoor recreational amenities, and we have a good number of families with children already part of our group.

The schools are rated well, and one of my future neighbors (and a current teacher) visited them and reported very positively on them (as someone who works in the area of teacher professional development, I agree with a previous poster who says do not judge any school solely by its test scores or NCLB Adequate Yearly Progress ratings; they are statistically and educationally unsound).

I love the Boston/Eastern MA area, and have lived here about 7 years.

Ecovillager

Originally Posted by CrystalClearWave

My husband (then boyfriend) and I
1. Which outskirt areas in Boston have the most high tech jobs?
2. How's salary in Boston comparing the the SF Bay Area?
3. I heard Boston is also expensive, but by just briefly looking online, I found houses there are a lot more affordable than the Bay Area. Can $800k-$900k get me a pretty decent newer house with good public schools there?
4. I heard Boston's public schools are not that great. Is that true? Which areas have better schools?
5. Any recommendations on other areas in the U.S. where there are lots of high tech jobs, good public schools, great culture, open minded people, and reasonable cost of living?

[Back2MassAgain]

My wife and I just did what you are considering. We moved from Burlingame to Pepperell Mass. We also loved the Bay Area but needed to be closer to family. But Mass has it's plusses. There are fewer people, less traffic, lower overall cost of living, good schools (some of the best), good social opportunities, great sports teams to cheer for, clean air to breath, and a rural atmosphere in 95% of the state.

The weather has also been surprisingly good. The summer and fall have been awsome. Sure, the weather is turning colder, but you dress for it and do winter things like skiing, skating, bowling, visit the symphony, museums, theatres, the Celtics, etc.

The people have been wonderful. We've been welcomed by the new neighbors, old friends, and family.

There are lots of nice places to live. It depends on what you need. If you need to be close to Boston, live inside the rte 95 ring road. If you don't, live father out. Even if you are 50 miles from Boston, the drive is not much more than an hour into the city.

I live west of Boston, outside the rte 495 ring road, about 25 miles out. Want a small town? Take a look at this area On the expensive side there is Lincoln, Sudbury, Wayland, Concord, Groton. Less expensive...stow, bolton. Cheap....maynard, pepperell, townsend. Many more cities. Good quality housing prices range from 200K to a Million, but the average seems closer to $400 for a nice 4BR colonial. $600K buys a palace. $800 buys that palace and lots of land. We went from 1/8th of an acre in Burlingame to 2+ acres in Pepperell.

Let me know if I can help.

[smarty]

Originally Posted by Back2MassAgain

We also loved the Bay Area but needed to be closer to family. But Mass has it's plusses. There are fewer people, less traffic, lower overall cost of living, good schools (some of the best), good social opportunities, great sports teams to cheer for, clean air to breath, and a rural atmosphere in 95% of the state.

We went from 1/8th of an acre in Burlingame to 2+ acres in Pepperell.

It seems most of people I know moving back here are for family reason... not too many for JOB reason.

Many people love the BIG yard until they realized how much time, energy or money is needed to take care of it.

[bingo08]

Originally Posted by CrystalClearWave

My husband (then boyfriend) and I moved to the Bay Area about 10 years ago, and enjoyed nice weather, beautiful scenery, great outdoor activities, as well as tremendous career opportunities (we are both in high tech) in the past. However, after having 2 kids, I just don't feel it is the right place to raise family because I always wanted a nice big house to raise kids, but house conditions in South Bay (Cupertino/Sunnyvale/San Jose, etc) are not only expensive but rather old (lot's of ranch style houses). With our combined salary of $250k and a decent downpayment of $500k+, we could afford a somewhat big house (2000 sqft) in a good school district in Cupertino, but the house was 40+ years old and I really don't like houses that old (less than 20 years maybe ok, but 40 years...). Besides, that house would still cost us around $1.2 million and we would still carry almost $700k loan. So with so much financial pressure and poor living standard, I really don't see the point of living in the Bay Area any more.

As my husband and I both came from Canada (Toronto area), so initially we were considering moving back to Toronto for better quality of life and being close to extended family/relatives, but we still feel that U.S. offers better job opportunies and higher salaries. Also, with the recent Canadian$ rally and US$ going to trash, Canada becomes a too expensive place for us to return giving that all our assets are in US$. As an alternative, we are considering moving to the Boston Area, and have some questions about the area:

1. Which outskirt areas in Boston have the most high tech jobs?
2. How's salary in Boston comparing the the SF Bay Area?
3. I heard Boston is also expensive, but by just briefly looking online, I found houses there are a lot more affordable than the Bay Area. Can $800k-$900k get me a pretty decent newer house with good public schools there?
4. I heard Boston's public schools are not that great. Is that true? Which areas have better schools?
5. Any recommendations on other areas in the U.S. where there are lots of high tech jobs, good public schools, great culture, open minded people, and reasonable cost of living?

First you have to decide where you are going to work and how long of a commute are you willing to endure. There are plenty of great towns for that price range, but again it depends what city you find work.

[CrystalClearWave]

Originally Posted by smarty

It seems most of people I know moving back here are for family reason... not too many for JOB reason.

Yeah, that's why my husband (although is not against moving to Boston) says if we have to leave behind the great weather and established life in the Bay Area to suffer cold winter and start a new life, it makes most sense to move back to Toronto where family is.

Lately hubby was actively looking for jobs in Toronto area through his old connections, and he just landed a job offer with salary pretty close to his current Silicon Valley salary (which is above average in the valley). So it looks like we are moving back to Canada. I think I will miss US for lots of great things like less sales and income taxes, wider selections of goods with cheaper prices, convenient online shopping (most those online stores don't deliver to Canada and even when some do, it incurs a big shipping charge not to mention the hassle of going through custom and additional duty), etc. Oh well, at least I get to raise my two young kids close to family and my kids will get to interact with grandparents, aunts and uncles on regular basis as they grow up. Maybe at a later stage in life, I'll return to the US and retire somewhere warm.

[missingthesunshine]

I moved here from san jose CA about 3 years ago. From what I have experienced, I think that the bay area has more "high tech" jobs than Boston does. Of course, it depends on your specifics. There are a lot of opportunities for research in medicine and science here.

Salary is less here I think, but so is cost of living. But only a little bit, really. yes, gas may be cheaper, and housing may be somewhat cheaper, but it's not a huge difference between here and the bay area. My husband and I are paying pretty much similar rates for apartments here as we were there, and we live in metrowest, half an hour outside of boston. we'd be paying even more for old, run down, apartments where you also have to pay to rent a parking spot if we had wanted to live in Boston.

Maybe, because you are from Canada originally, you won't mind the winters. Honestly, it is a difficult transition to come from cali to six long months of awful winter every year. The roads suck, it is pothole city (not to mention the ridiculous lack of city planning). So you basically have 2 seasons, winter, and construction season, when they poorly attempt to fix some of the potholes in the warmer and humid months. So if you have a nice car with 4 wheel drive and don't mind replacing your shocks frequently, or don't mind rust damage on your car, come here.

And, if you don't mind most people ignoring you on the street (meaning no one makes eye contact, smiles, or, heaven forbid says Hi while passing you on the sidewalk), you'll be ok. Warmer climate = warmer people. Colder climate=cold new englanders.

If you are ok with regulated car insurance, move out here.

If you are ok with a lot of small towns and the accompanying small town mentalities, move out here.

If you are a smoker, or don't mind smokers, then you will be ok with the stark contrast between the amount of people who smoke here (seems like almost everyone does!) compared to the rarity it is now to find a smoker in cali. very different laws about second hand smoking here.

Also, you should know that many houses have Septic tanks, rather than regular sewage systems. Septic tanks are an entirely different mess. You should also be warned that many basements routinely get flooded. Hope you don't plan on having carpet, or anything of real value downstairs should you buy a house with a basement. we get lots and lots of precipitation. Personally, I'd take a good earthquake over the Nor'easters any day.

Also, don't plan on getting great fresh produce from october to april unless you are willing to pay top dollar at whole foods or trader joe's. They have a fair # of farmer's markets here, but only in the summer months.

Forget finding decent Mexican food, because you really can't here. Also, no In-N-outs.

If you aren't a red sox or patriots fan, watch out, you will now have enemies. Don't advertise it if you aren't. Also, if you are a republican, keep quiet, because people will also automatically think less of you if you dare to be a republican in this very liberal blue state.

I wouldn't raise a family here, but many people do and are and turn out just fine, it's just my opinion, so don't go off on me with comments. The other thing you should know is, there is at least one thing that catches fire here every day. If you watch the late night news, there is without fail, at least one apt building, house, factory, etc. that burnt to the ground during the day in this state. I think it is because everything here is so old, combined with old wiring, vandalism, etc.

A few good things about Mass:
housing prices haven't dropped too much, so if you buy a house here it will probably continue to appreciate in value. It's one of the few markets that's remained relatively stable.

great sports teams and lots to do in the city if you like sports, history, theater, etc.

you can easily travel to other states in a relatively short time. take a weekend trip to new york or dc if you like.

The library offers discount passes to local museums and attractions, which save you a lot of money. We have used these passes to see a lot of cool places in Boston, like the Museum of Science, the Plimouth plantation, New england aquarium, etc.

Ok, that is my 2 cents.