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Hello all,
My wife and I both moved to western mass after completing school in Boston. It has taken us some time to adjust to the slower life in this part of Mass. However, our jobs are quite stable and pay decent (combined 185k +) and we intend on having children. We have been renting so far but would like to purchase a house and Amherst is a location both of us like. The school system seems to be quite good for the area and the town has a certain vibrancy. The inventory in Amherst is quite slim and the locations in Amherst we do end up liking, the prices are in the low 400k. While we can afford a house in that range, we are not sure if it is worth to invest that much money in Amherst house. Thinking of the long term, will it be difficult to sell in Amherst? Do you see Amherst becoming more desirable/improving in the years to come? Are Umass and/or Amherst college going away anytime soon? It is a big purchase and we are just looking for some opinion on the city.
Thank you. I really appreciate your input.
Hello all,
My wife and I both moved to western mass after completing school in Boston. It has taken us some time to adjust to the slower life in this part of Mass. However, our jobs are quite stable and pay decent (combined 185k +) and we intend on having children. We have been renting so far but would like to purchase a house and Amherst is a location both of us like. The school system seems to be quite good for the area and the town has a certain vibrancy. The inventory in Amherst is quite slim and the locations in Amherst we do end up liking, the prices are in the low 400k. While we can afford a house in that range, we are not sure if it is worth to invest that much money in Amherst house. Thinking of the long term, will it be difficult to sell in Amherst? Do you see Amherst becoming more desirable/improving in the years to come? Are Umass and/or Amherst college going away anytime soon? It is a big purchase and we are just looking for some opinion on the city.
Thank you. I really appreciate your input.
Look at Hadley.
The taxes are low and Hopkins Academy is a great school. It has a charitable trust which supports the school, something that gives it a leg up against almost every public school in the area.
The two colleges and University are definitely NOT going anywhere. The University has plans to expand enrollment and number of students, and therefore (hopefully / presumably) faculty. A stable base of Ph.D. salaries, and a somewhat constricted supply of homes versus housing demand caused by such a large university should keep housing values in Amherst stable, if not rising, for the forseeable future!
If you like Amherst, buy in Amherst. There are areas to stay away from due to UMass students so choose your neighborhood with care. I've seen some really bad situations with UMass bus stops that attract rowdy students and apartment complexes full of students, also houses rented to groups of students--not a good mix for a family. But there are good, quiet areas too. Ask around and don't believe your realtor 100%.
Thank you everyone for your input. I really appreciate it. The area that I am looking into is near Amethyst Brook Conservation area and Wildwood Elementary. From my understanding, North Amherst has high density of student population and we are not looking into that area. We wanted to be close to town without actually living in-town. Thank you again. If you have more advice, please share.
Thank you everyone for your input. I really appreciate it. The area that I am looking into is near Amethyst Brook Conservation area and Wildwood Elementary. From my understanding, North Amherst has high density of student population and we are not looking into that area. We wanted to be close to town without actually living in-town. Thank you again. If you have more advice, please share.
Good choice of area. You will probably discover this on your own, but stay away from intersection of North East St and South East St by Amherst Glass. Too many student dive houses in that section (including yours truly not that many years ago). I'm guessing you'd be looking more around Heatherstone Rd or Harkness Rd, both quite nice neighborhoods. Pelham Rd itself has some nice houses but pretty fast-moving road. Amethyst Brook is really great for a short stroll or heading off to hike for many miles, with a couple very nice views along the way! One of the places I miss, no longer living in Amherst!
IMO, Amherst is overrated. The super high property taxes are due to the so-called excellence of the schools. While they are good, they are good in the general area. There has been or will be a number of teacher layoffs.
Many Amherst neighborhoods have students living in apts in the big houses in-town. I have friends on Fearing St who suffer UMass student noise all the time. And stuff like toilet paper draped on the trees at Halloween, parties, trash, etc. It is a problem on some streets.
In the summer Amherst is dull for kids. Northampton is much more vibrant. Well, there is the Eric Carle Museum in So. Amherst, and that's about it. The better neigbhorhoods in South Hadley would be my choice if I were going to have kids. There's LOTS of kid activities at the Odyssey Bookshop across the street from Mount Holyoke College, and a wonderful young kids chorus run by a MHC music prof. It's not that far from Amherst if you want to go there.
Where are your jobs? Consider which side of the river to live on. The bridge over the Connecticut between Amherst and Northampton carries heavy traffic daily and esp at rush hour. Your commuting time, if it involves that bridge, is to be considered. The traffic between towns (esp involving Route 9 over the bridge) can be hefty. Plus where will your kids' daycare and/or after-school activities be in relation to where you work.
When my kids were younger we lived in Hatfield, a stone's throw from Northampton. There is no diversity in town so my kids went to all-white middle/upper class very small schools in that town, but it's a nice old ag town with whole foods market.
If you are working in Hamp, adjacent Florence (with beautiful Look Park for the kids) is super.
Again, think about traffic patterns. Good luck. It's a great area for a family.
But 'girl', if Amherst is dull in the summer, where does that leave South Hadley? Dead, I'd say. Amherst has stores, cafes, a green with a scene. South Hadley is very quiet any time of year. Also the S. H. schools are nothing to write home about. So maybe they are good, or good enough, but the Amherst schools are in the fast lane. South Hadley has more class diversity as the lower half of the town is working-lower middle class. Amherst is all upscale but no doubt has more cultural diversity with the presence of the three institutions of higher learning. But I'm glad to hear of good things at the Odyssey. It was great when Romeo ran it back in the day but has seemed a little thin in the inventory department since the store relocated to the Village Commons.
If the question is about the relative economic sensibility of the investment, there is a general sense that being in university towns is desirable, in part because the demand is relatively disconnected to the economic cycle. Amherst College has an endowment of $1.64 billion. UMass Amherst is the flagship state university. Neither is going away. Places that are more connected to the economic cycles will make riskier investments. If you time the investments right, you make more money if you buy into a more volatile town at the right time, but you can also lose more money. But, overall, if you feel risk averse, Amherst may be a better choice than outlying towns.
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