Most underrated cities/ Towns in Massachusetts (Worcester, Lowell: real estate, crime rate, house)

[traffic_lover]

my vote is Reading & Medford

[in_newengland]

I'd say places like Deerfield, S. Deerfield in WMass. In EMass, places like Salisbury and Amesbury. Decent locations and beautiful areas. I disagree that Ware is underrated. I lived there for a while and it was worse than I ever thought any place could be. (I apologize if I offend anyone, but it was convenient to nothing at all, no jobs, run down, backwards.)

[Brave Stranger]

Originally Posted by traffic_lover

have you looked at home prices there in the past year?

Nope, but I guess Littleton property is going up fast ?

[FCMA]

Greenfield and Pittsfield are largely overlooked in western MA and both offer high QOL and low COL. Easthampton is also great but not talked much about.

In the middle, Worcester is the eternal scrappy underdog but offers a lot of cultural happenings. Also in Central MA, the towns Westah Wistah like the Brookfields, Barre, Oakham, Spencer are overlooked, ignorantly referred to as being part of Western MA, implied to be toothless hinterlands, but offer beautiful fairly affordable and rural living. In my neck, Orange is quietly coming back, loading up on Pioneer Valley-ness rather than descending further into Winchentuckyness (ie N Central MA rust belt hopelessness disease epitomized by places like Fitchburg and Winchendon) and becoming a very nice affordable place to live, even if Athol isn't keeping pace.

In eastern spheres, Lowell and Gloucester seem not recognized enough for some reason and places like Malden and Everett seem to have their well-known tough sides but a lot to offer. In the SE, Fall River and New Bedford are rising again.

[FCMA]

Agreed also on Dartmouth area - Westport too (pricy though)- I'd add also Fairhaven, Mattapoisett, Marion - the Buzzard's Bay shore towns with wonderful seaside scenery without the Cape Cod traffic jams.

[luvmyhoss]

Originally Posted by FCMA

Greenfield and Pittsfield are largely overlooked in western MA and both offer high QOL and low COL. Easthampton is also great but not talked much about.

In the middle, Worcester is the eternal scrappy underdog but offers a lot of cultural happenings. Also in Central MA, the towns Westah Wistah like the Brookfields, Barre, Oakham, Spencer are overlooked, ignorantly referred to as being part of Western MA, implied to be toothless hinterlands, but offer beautiful fairly affordable and rural living. In my neck, Orange is quietly coming back, loading up on Pioneer Valley-ness rather than descending further into Winchentuckyness (ie N Central MA rust belt hopelessness disease epitomized by places like Fitchburg and Winchendon) and becoming a very nice affordable place to live, even if Athol isn't keeping pace.

In eastern spheres, Lowell and Gloucester seem not recognized enough for some reason and places like Malden and Everett seem to have their well-known tough sides but a lot to offer. In the SE, Fall River and New Bedford are rising again.

Gloucester is a huge tourist destination with a cruise port.

[Space_League]

Haverhill and Worcester. both get a kind of bad reputation that isn't warranted imo. couple shady corners in worcester but on the whole it's a fine city. same with haverhill

[495neighbor]

Walpole, really a lovely upper middle class suburb, that gets unfairly downrated on C-D due to the presence of the prison.

Framingham, same thing, people who only know the area around the commuter rail, base their opinion on a small area of the town. West sides (area around country club and area closer to Callaghan State Park) are upper middle class and Northeast side (Nobscott and Saxonville) is solidly middle class.

[AtkinsonDan]

Originally Posted by btownboss4

Every town has it's stereotypes, but some are old and outdated.
Some cities/Towns are really underrated and have an unfair Reputation
In my opinion Lowell and Billerica are underrated. Also Fall River is called a ghetto when it's largely working class and has much less crime than similarly sized cities (Lawrence, Lynn, New Bedford, Brockton)
Then some smaller mill towns, Clinton, Ware, Pittsfield, are kind of unfairly looked down upon.

Originally Posted by pennyone

I think Quincy is hugely underrated. It's usually compared to smaller and more affluent and homogenous towns (like Milton, Norwell etc) when it is a huge city of nearly 100,000 people with different economic and racial groups . For a city, Quincy does pretty well.

Originally Posted by Space_League

Haverhill and Worcester. both get a kind of bad reputation that isn't warranted imo. couple shady corners in worcester but on the whole it's a fine city. same with haverhill

I can't speak for the south coast or west and central Massachusetts; but I do endorse Lowell, Quincy and Haverhill as being underrated. I would also add Woburn to the list. It has a nice walkable downtown, in fact most of Main Street (route 38) is walkable. It also has a healthly variety of retail options with shopping centers located within a reasonable distance of all neighborhoods. It also has a substantial amount of conservation land within walking distance of downtown near Horn Pond. I think Woburn has always existed in the socio-economic shadows of Lexington and Winchester.

[massnative71]

Originally Posted by AtkinsonDan

I can't speak for the south coast or west and central Massachusetts; but I do endorse Lowell, Quincy and Haverhill as being underrated.

I don't think Lowell is underrated. It is one of the few satellite cites to get any recognition. Quincy has been up and coming for a long time, and it's not really a secret.

Originally Posted by FCMA

In the SE, Fall River and New Bedford are rising again.

Can't really speak for New Bedford, but I was in Fall River recently and it is certainly not rising at the moment. Almost seems cursed at times.