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Old 09-20-2016, 09:14 AM
 
Location: Ma
50 posts, read 53,477 times
Reputation: 57

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To start off - this is an awesome resourceful website that we never knew!! There is vast amount of data to go through here! Thanks for making this possible to all the contributors.


We finally are ready to buy a home but woke up to a big surprise.

We have lived in Woburn-Burlington area apartments for a few years.

Our details:

Ethnicity - Asian - Indian
Ages - early 30s.
Getting ready for kids and settling down with a home.
Both work in IT. - bring home just a bit over 200K a year.
Have about 100-125K for down payment.
Probably can afford 700K home. I think we can afford a bit more - but the more practical and realistic wife puts me in check.
Looking for something 2750 - 3000 range newer home with modern upgrades built in.
I work in downtown. Wife works on rt 3 and 495.
We got pulled into the magic of school districts - and sheesh did we wake up for a real surprise or what
We are looking to be in a town with decent 'Indian presence'.

After educating ourselves and speaking with friends, we identified Westford, Acton, Bedford, Lexington, and may be Andover.

But, both of us love communities with more homes than just one home in the middle of a main road, and newer homes that have a modern/contemporary feel to them...

We even put together a spreadsheet with the things we would ideally have in a home we would buy.

None of these towns mentioned above have any new communities or area for communities I guess - like the ones getting built in west borough or hopkinton. Man those communities are awesome - except for the 1.5 to 2 hour commutes by drive and may be a 1.5 hour commute by train!!!

Even with Westford, groton, littleton, acton - I'm paranoid to take the commitment of driving or train travel for almost 1.5 hours into downtown...

Lexington and most of bedford are out of price range as anything newer and of decent size in lexington is at least over a million. Same with Bedford - if we find something new and spacious it doesn't fit into our price range.

We are very confused and looking for some guidance. Where do people with our requirement set buy homes - do they bite the bullet and buy out of the 495 belt? Or do they bite the bullet and buy a costlier but very small and old home in lexington area? !!

Last edited by confuseddesi; 09-20-2016 at 09:59 AM.. Reason: spell check
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Old 09-20-2016, 10:03 AM
 
3,808 posts, read 3,139,335 times
Reputation: 3333
Others might disagree, but a 550-600K mortgage seems a bit high for a household income of 200K - particularly once factoring in taxes, maintenance, transportation costs, and childcare (if one chooses that path).

If working downtown, I would recommend buying a close to the commuter rail as possible in towns like Acton, Littleton, etc. ...assuming you value sqft and schools over more ideal commutes. Groton? Despite is allure, don't even think about it.
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Old 09-20-2016, 10:13 AM
 
161 posts, read 231,059 times
Reputation: 236
They recently completed track work along the Fitchburg commuter line, which sped up the travel times significantly. If you take the express trains, you can probably make it to downtown from Acton and Littleton in an hour or less.
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Old 09-20-2016, 10:31 AM
 
Location: Ma
50 posts, read 53,477 times
Reputation: 57
Thank you very much for the quick reply.

Yeah, I probably mis-led you with the 200K number. Apologies.

$200K is much lower than what we will bring home this year. But, we want to expect an average of $200K excluding that we might be near the $250 range in some years.

The $120K - $140K for downpayment was assuming we will need emergency funds and some more cushion in our accounts.

Here is what comes out of the zillow calc when I put in $700K home, $140K down, 4% Jumbo loan (just being cautious here), $10K taxes - (1.5% - again being cautious), $800 home Insurance and $400 HOA.

P&I $2,674
Taxes $875
Insurance $67
HOA $400
Your payment $4,015

I think we might be ok with 4K with all things considered and considering there is a little bit buffer added to it as well. Does it still looks worrisome?


Coming to the location - yeah - we were thinking about acton/littleton - But, there are no newer homes in the price ranges which satisfy our requirements. Littleton has some - but the school district is worrying when compared to next towns - Acton and Westford.

Groton - yeah - very luring - we even looked at a home in Ayer and were talking about Shirley as they start getting really cheaper the farther you go - But, I don't want to live on trains and cars - so opted out of those...

After all of this - I'm now contemplating - if getting a land and getting a home built is the best option - even for that, there are no decent lots !!


Quote:
Originally Posted by Shrewsburried View Post
Others might disagree, but a 550-600K mortgage seems a bit high for a household income of 200K - particularly once factoring in taxes, maintenance, transportation costs, and childcare (if one chooses that path).

If working downtown, I would recommend buying a close to the commuter rail as possible in towns like Acton, Littleton, etc. ...assuming you value sqft and schools over more ideal commutes. Groton? Despite is allure, don't even think about it.
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Old 09-20-2016, 10:32 AM
 
Location: Ma
50 posts, read 53,477 times
Reputation: 57
Quote:
Originally Posted by 00na View Post
They recently completed track work along the Fitchburg commuter line, which sped up the travel times significantly. If you take the express trains, you can probably make it to downtown from Acton and Littleton in an hour or less.


Oh - that is not bad ...


IN comparison with Acton, Littleton - how is westborough/Hopkinton?

Anyone drive from there to Chelmsford area ? How long does that drive usually take? Is it even thinkable? It's freaking 35-40 miles
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Old 09-20-2016, 10:43 AM
 
Location: New England
2,190 posts, read 2,233,403 times
Reputation: 1969
Andover or somewhere along the Fitchburg Line seems like the best option. The commute from anywhere else to downtown Boston would be much worse.
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Old 09-20-2016, 10:55 AM
 
15,798 posts, read 20,504,199 times
Reputation: 20974
Quote:
Originally Posted by confuseddesi View Post
Anyone drive from there to Chelmsford area ? How long does that drive usually take? Is it even thinkable? It's freaking 35-40 miles

Depends on what time you leave. Plot the drive on any of the map websites that allow you to set an arrival time, and see what you get. if you get into the office early, it may not be so bad.




But to be honest, anything on 495 trying to get downtown is going to be rough. Hopefully you have the ability to telecommute during inclimate weather.


Any chance of future job changes where you can get outside of the city? If so, you could always take that into consideration, otherwise think really hard about what sort of commute you can endure and for how long. What someone on the internet describes as "not bad" may not be so great to you. I know in my case, I despise public transportation and it's really not an option for me, so my home location was based on this fact despite people telling me I could take the bus/train/shutter from location A to location B very easily.
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Old 09-20-2016, 11:17 AM
 
Location: Massachusetts & Hilton Head, SC
10,022 posts, read 15,665,421 times
Reputation: 8669
Why are you including an HOA fee in your budget? Most neighborhoods here aren't HOA.
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Old 09-20-2016, 11:46 AM
 
Location: East Coast
4,249 posts, read 3,724,745 times
Reputation: 6487
Quote:
Originally Posted by confuseddesi View Post


We are very confused and looking for some guidance. Where do people with our requirement set buy homes - do they bite the bullet and buy out of the 495 belt? Or do they bite the bullet and buy a costlier but very small and old home in lexington area? !!
This is the age old dilemma. I was dumb enough to make the same mistake TWICE. I vowed never, never, ever again. Two times I went for the larger, newer, nicer home that was far from the city and I seriously regretted it both times. I will never, ever, do that again. I love the city, I love being able to get into and out of the city easily, I love a short commute, if possible. I love, when travelling, not to have a journey home from the airport that lasts as long as my plane ride, I love being able to go to ball games or concerts or to nice restaurants and not have it be a major all-day commitment. I love that if someone comes into town on a business trip, I can see them without a lot of hassle. I love that people are willing to visit me at my home because it isn't a major undertaking to get to where I live. I love being able to walk to at least some places and walk to transportation that can take me into the city. And I love having restaurants that deliver food to my house!

I will never live far away from the city (any city) again. Never. I gave up the nice, new(er), spacious house with an attached 2 car garage and kitchen that I loved. I miss my old house, but I do NOT miss its location. It is very easy to be seduced by the nice, new, spacious house. Very easy. But I knew that I must resist.

BUT, not everyone cares about the same things I do. Some people hate the city. Some people don't care about restaurants. Some people almost never travel and figure the long ride home from the airport once every year or two isn't a big deal. The enclosed garage and nice big lawn with beautiful gardens and landscaping they can be in every weekend is perfect. (I hate the bugs, I hate the dirt, and I hate the damn heat. A tiny lawn is fine with me.)

It depends on what you like and want. If the big, nice house is what will make you happiest, go for it. The price is a long commute for you and bad access to the city in general (which, again, for some people is a very small price, and sometimes even preferable.) But if you like having access to the city -- if you love it, and if you need to go there frequently (for whatever reason, not just for work), then don't do it. Are you happier just being in your house? Or are you happier going out and seeing things and people?
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Old 09-20-2016, 12:05 PM
 
5,792 posts, read 5,107,619 times
Reputation: 8008
Quote:
Originally Posted by confuseddesi View Post
To start off - this is an awesome resourceful website that we never knew!! There is vast amount of data to go through here! Thanks for making this possible to all the contributors.


We finally are ready to buy a home but woke up to a big surprise.

We have lived in Woburn-Burlington area apartments for a few years.

Our details:

Ethnicity - Asian - Indian
Ages - early 30s.
Getting ready for kids and settling down with a home.
Both work in IT. - bring home just a bit over 200K a year.
Have about 100-125K for down payment.
Probably can afford 700K home. I think we can afford a bit more - but the more practical and realistic wife puts me in check.
Looking for something 2750 - 3000 range newer home with modern upgrades built in.
I work in downtown. Wife works on rt 3 and 495.
We got pulled into the magic of school districts - and sheesh did we wake up for a real surprise or what
We are looking to be in a town with decent 'Indian presence'.

After educating ourselves and speaking with friends, we identified Westford, Acton, Bedford, Lexington, and may be Andover.

But, both of us love communities with more homes than just one home in the middle of a main road, and newer homes that have a modern/contemporary feel to them...I

We even put together a spreadsheet with the things we would ideally have in a home we would buy.

None of these towns mentioned above have any new communities or area for communities I guess - like the ones getting built in west borough or hopkinton. Man those communities are awesome - except for the 1.5 to 2 hour commutes by drive and may be a 1.5 hour commute by train!!!

Even with Westford, groton, littleton, acton - I'm paranoid to take the commitment of driving or train travel for almost 1.5 hours into downtown...

Lexington and most of bedford are out of price range as anything newer and of decent size in lexington is at least over a million. Same with Bedford - if we find something new and spacious it doesn't fit into our price range.

We are very confused and looking for some guidance. Where do people with our requirement set buy homes - do they bite the bullet and buy out of the 495 belt? Or do they bite the bullet and buy a costlier but very small and old home in lexington area? !!

Wait. So you want to put down 125k for a 700k+ home? And you plan to have kids (daycare, other expenses)? You're kidding? 250K combined salary?
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