Relocating from MO, prettiest small towns around Boston? (Cambridge, Waltham: new home, to buy)

[Gatorman4017]

Originally Posted by dravogadro

Coming from the Midwest, there is no city or town with a feel exactly like what you are looking for. It just different here.

Anyway, I'm going to be more upbeat on Waltham for you. Reading personally gives me the heebie-jeebies.

- I think the commute to Reading could be fine, depending on what the work schedule is. 128 is right next to Waltham, so you can head north and be there in 20 minutes. It is a morning reverse commute so the traffic will be a bit lighter (except around 3 which is always congested).
The return commute will be worse than the morning but if your wife's schedule isn't fixed, I think you can make it less painful.

- You will probably want to look at neighborhoods near 128, which takes out Warrendale, a perennial favorite. You may be able to slide into a fixer-upper in Cedarwood, but I doubt it. You will probably have better luck on the northside, unfortunately a more car-dependent area. I've heard that families settle in the Hardy Pond area.

- I don't know the real story about schools. Some neighborhood schools have lower test rankings because of the percentage of ESL students Waltham has.

- If you have to get into the city, you have several options. You can take the Pike in, which is 1-2 stops away from Waltham. There are also various back road tricks. You have the option of several bus lines and a commuter rail stop. It's a short drive if you feel the need to take the green line in, or even the red line. There is also a separated bike trail that runs straight into Boston. There is another being planned to head into Cambridge.

- Waltham is not Mayberry but it has a walkable downtown with many good restaurants and interesting museums. I would not use the words quaint or pretty. Work-in-progress.

- For being so close to Boston, there is a lot of greenspace. Plenty of trails for hiking.

- There is a Farmer's Market. And a farm. Yes, a farm in Waltham where you can get more veggies than you can deal with most of the year.

- Chickens are currently not permitted but they have been discussed. I think it could get passed but there isn't enough interest to muster up the political support. I have seen chickens around so I know they exist.

- Low property taxes

Ha! Thanks for the info. Waltham wasn't high on my radar, but I'll check into it some more. Thanks for the chicken info too. I kind of assumed that most areas around there would be ok with it. They're pretty popular these days.

[495neighbor]

Originally Posted by dravogadro

Coming from the Midwest, there is no city or town with a feel exactly like what you are looking for. It just different here. ...

- Waltham is not Mayberry but it has a walkable downtown with many good restaurants and interesting museums. I would not use the words quaint or pretty. Work-in-progress.

Waltham is probably more hipsterish than Reading. Not a very attractive town, in most parts, though. Cedarwood and the area around Bentley college are the most attractive parts of Waltham.

Originally Posted by dravogadro

Anyway, I'm going to be more upbeat on Waltham for you. Reading personally gives me the heebie-jeebies.

Pretty strong statement, how so?

[dravogadro]

Originally Posted by 495neighbor

Waltham is probably more hipsterish than Reading. Not a very attractive town, in most parts, though. Cedarwood and the area around Bentley college are the most attractive parts of Waltham.

I don't think Waltham is that hipsterish. I would actually say it is trending more yuppie than hipster.

To be honest, Waltham has a lot of old people that are just waiting to cash out and move. I think once there is more housing turnover, things will look better. There are also very weak regulations on property blight, which is also an issue because landlords don't care, and I hope that will be changing in the next several years.

The northside has some really nice scenic parts, almost rural. I think Waltham has its good/bad pockets like any city.

Drive down 'Main St' in Reading - is that really good looking? It's a solid mile or two of strip malls.

Originally Posted by 495neighbor

Pretty strong statement, how so?

Just an opinion, not that strong of anything. It just seems like a strange place: you have this compact business center but no way to really get to it besides a car. It's always completely dead except for a few city picnics. I just get a strange vibe every time I am there; I cannot explain it.

It obviously works for many people but I wouldn't recommend it to someone who identifies as a farm-to-table-loving, bearded gentleman.

[495neighbor]

People on here keep talking about all these parks in Waltham. I've only been to the one on the Metropolitan State Hospital grounds. It seems like just a place for people to power walk, not hang aroudn and enjoy. Not much vegetation either. Are there better landscaped or more densely forested parks in Waltham.

Originally Posted by dravogadro

Drive down 'Main St' in Reading - is that really good looking? It's a solid mile or two of strip malls.

In the town center between the train station and Main Street on the side streets, it is all small businesses. The residential areas around the town center have quaint neighborhoods that look pretty walkable and cute, at least to me.

The part that goes into Wilmington is also pretty.

I think the part you found unattractive might the area off the rotary, not Main Street. That is where the grocery stores and strip malls are located.

The part of Main Street closer to Stoneham and the other highway exit is a bit grubby too.

Originally Posted by dravogadro

Reading personally gives me the heebie-jeebies.

Originally Posted by 495neighbor

Pretty strong statement, how so?

Originally Posted by dravogadro

Just an opinion, not that strong of anything. It just seems like a strange place: you have this compact business center but no way to really get to it besides a car. It's always completely dead except for a few city picnics. I just get a strange vibe every time I am there; I cannot explain it.

I get what you're saying. The older downtown went through a large funded renovation a few years ago. I checked it out before the businesses filled in and I got that same feeling. I revisited it a year ago and many more businesses had filled in and it was much more vibrant than the previous time.

[dravogadro]

Originally Posted by 495neighbor

People on here keep talking about all these parks in Waltham. I've only been to the one on the Metropolitan State Hospital grounds. It seems like just a place for people to power walk, not hang aroudn and enjoy. Not much vegetation either. Are there better landscaped or more densely forested parks in Waltham.

I don't know about landscaped parks - maybe some of the historic sites have that - but the more densely forested areas can be seen in google maps. You can find trail maps at Waltham Land Trust's website.

You must have been near Beaver Brook - there is an extensive trail system in there. I don't think it feels as isolated as it can in Lincoln but I think it is very nice for being inside 128.

Originally Posted by 495neighbor

In the town center between the train station and Main Street on the side streets, it is all small businesses. The residential areas around the town center have quaint neighborhoods that look pretty walkable and cute, at least to me.

The part that goes into Wilmington is also pretty.

I think the part you found unattractive might the area off the rotary, not Main Street. That is where the grocery stores and strip malls are located.

The part of Main Street closer to Stoneham and the other highway exit is a bit grubby too.

Alright, I'll give it another shot.

[masshawk]

Originally Posted by 495neighbor

People on here keep talking about all these parks in Waltham. I've only been to the one on the Metropolitan State Hospital grounds. It seems like just a place for people to power walk, not hang aroudn and enjoy. Not much vegetation either. Are there better landscaped or more densely forested parks in Waltham.

The nicest one is probably Stonehurst. The area in front of the house was landscaped by Olmsted and has some nice benches, a stone wall, and a rocky/grassy knoll to hang out on. Behind the house are a couple of miles of nicely wooded (I'm not sure what qualifies as "densely forested" to you, I'm a city kid so it seems dense to me) trails including the Western Greenway. One passes by a vernal pool. I was amazed that a place like that was just open to the public to walk around in, very cool.

Otherwise, there's Rock Meadow (the entrance is technically in Belmont, I think) with pleasant meadow areas along with denser wooded areas, Prospect Hill Park, the dog park at Beaver Brook, the park along the river by the Museum of Industry, to name a few. I see more on Google Maps -- e.g., never been to Juniper Hill. Cedar Hill is a beautiful woodsy area but private, only for Girl Scouts.

[timberline742]

I like the Beaver Brook property. The Waltham portion and add it to the Belmont portion and there is a nice little landscape. It's almost connected to the Audubon Belmont property as well.

[495neighbor]

@dravogadro, masshawk, timberline. Thank you. Looking forward to new Waltham urban treks in the spring.

[Beantown_mama]

Melrose is a great town and a very easy commute to Reading - about 15 minutes using local roads which is nice during rush hour. It has a pretty downtown, lots of independent stores, a Whole Foods and an independent natural foods store, indoor and outdoor farmers markets and CSAs, as well as a bunch of independent (and chain) coffee shops. It is also close the the Middlesex Fells Reservation and the Breakheart Reservation, and has a very popular running club (with a great running store downtown) so there is an active/outdoorsy community too. I wouldn't call Melrose hipster but it does have a lot going on there for a suburb - more so then Reading and Wakefield (which are both really nice towns but have different vibes). However, it is pretty much in demand these days so I am not sure if you'll be able to find a house for $400 - but there are a bunch of condos where you could buy a place for that much (and some are big victorian houses that have been broken down into a few condos so they can be quite charming).

For your budget, you may need to head north of Reading on 93 and look at North Reading, or Tewksbury, or Wilmington - I am not sure about the culture of the towns - they are more rural than Reading, Wakefield and Melrose - but they are also more affordable.

Good luck! It has never been easy to find a home in the Boston area and I think it has been getting harder over the past few years.

[LexWest]

UI I'd like to mention in regards to Beantown Mama's post that by Tewksbury and Wilmington being "more rural", she means suburban. Neither town fits the description of rural. One would need to venture west of Rte 3 and I-495 (i.e. Pepperell, Townsend, and further).

In any case, coming from MO, which is arguably either Midwest, South, or a bit of both (depending on who you ask), this area will likely feel "dense" to you, especially Melrose. While Melrose may range from suburban to nearly urban for Boston standards, I've met people from the Midwest in general who describe this area as "old" and "congested" due to the amount of structures—especially older/historic ones—in a given area; and even smaller, quiet towns having so much trees compared to the open landscape in the Midwest.

Suburban will still be different than what you've experienced in CA. There's not an abundance of sprawl. One can easily sense the difference in atmosphere shortly after entering or leaving the 128/I-95 "belt". One can be within 20 miles from Boston and be in comfortable towns such as Lincoln, Concord, or Sudbury, whereas one could drive 50 miles and still be in a suburb of LA. It is easy to "escape" Boston yet be within a shorter, ideallyc commute into to the City.