looking for info on areas in and around boston... (Lowell: real estate, lofts)

[earmark]

hello all, my husband and i are looking into moving back to the boston area, we are currently in california. Although we have lived in Boston (Brighton and Medford) for a few years in the past we have never spent any time in south or east boston or jamaica plain areas. We are looking into buying a home somewhere that is safe, has a nice town or main street center, preferably on the T or within walking distance. Our home budget goes upto $325,000, less is preferred... We work out of our home so commuting on a daily basis will not play a big part in our decision, but we still want to be able to get into the back bay, south end, coolidge corner, fenway, harvard square areas with ease.

If you have any suggestions for locations or advice on the following areas we would love to hear, or if you have a new location all together please share!

JP: best area to live in? Do you feel safe here? Stuff to do?
Somerville, Davis Square: Is this area worth looking into? What other areas are good places to call home (not near medford)?
Cambridge: besides Harvard Square, which areas are nice to live in?
Quincy: Is this a nice city? How is the transportation from here? Does it have a nice neighborhood feel with good restaurants and small stylish shops, not chains?

We really like to be in walking distance to good restaurants, coffee shops, grocery stores and transportation. We are interested in finding a loft if possible.

Thank you all, your help is appreciated. We are kind of on a surprise time crunch too, which has been a daunting task from the west coast.

We are also open to other areas around Boston that have a great town center feeling, similar to a northampton, brookline type feeling. Also open to Rhode Island areas.

[missionhill]

Stylish shops? Quincy is probably like Medford and Brighton in that respect. Davis Sq has stylish shops, I guess, and has red line subway service. Union Square, somerville, should be considered, also Porter Sq--many stylish shops along Mass Avenue there. Inman Sq is great, maybe more restaurants than shops and no subway but urban, a bit edgy. Consider Central Sq too--maybe not stylish, exactly, but hip. You might like Brookline Village too. JP is very hip, very nice, has some style in between the real estate offices and has easy subway access to the very stylish Back Bay and South End neighborhoods. Best area to live in in JP is side streets off of Centre from Hyde Square down to the monument (cor Centre and South.) No lofts there, however; it's nearly all wood-frame residential buildings. A few lofts in JP exist between the Orange Line and Washington Street. I remember seeing a huge loft building go up in a tremendous conflagration near the Bromley Heath project--we looked down on the fire from Mission Hill. The building was full of artists at the time--guess everyone got out alive. This was over 30 years ago. Now there's a supermarket on the site.

For loft living, nice community atmosphere and a better price, maybe Haverhill and Lowell in Mass and Pawtucket and Providence, RI. Boston doesn't have a lot of lofts and those it has, like the Boston Wharf Co buildings along Fort Point Channel, have been discovered by big real estate.

[brightdoglover]

Is $325K for a condo or a house?

Offhand, I'd say there's no part of J.P. that I feel OK about- primarily because it changes so much from block to block.

In Cambridge, I favor the area between Harvard and Porter Squares, specifically the Radcliffe area. It has a town/village feeling, with the height and density of the buildings, and lots of trees. I don't think any part of Cambridge is unusually high crime, except maybe (relatively) right around housing projects. Statistically, the lowest crime area in Cambridge is East Cambridge, but for me, the scale of buildings, lack of trees and so on made it unattractive to me.

How big a place do you hope to get for $325k? That won't get you much or anything anywhere near "stylish shops" or walking to village-feeling urban areas, at least not in Boston/Cambridge. I don't know much about areas in the south of Boston, on the Red Line, like Quincy, etc., but maybe there's something there.

Could you find something in East Arlington or Arlington Center? I think it fits all of your needs, depending on how large a condo you were looking for. I'd live there in a heartbeat.

Good luck.

[brightdoglover]

P.S. Just noticed your mention of a loft. There are new lofts in North Cambridge called "Brickworks" or something like that. You might find something in your price range there. They look very nice.I think they're off Rindge Ave., so not fully North Cambridge, and near Alewife Red Line. (Not far to Davis Square, either).