Chelmsford (Lowell, Cambridge, Lawrence: house prices, high school, subdivisions)

[Morgan119]

Is Chelmsford a nice town to raise a family in?

Which areas in Chelmsford are considered the best to live in?

[Russia25]

Chelmsford is a really nice area to live in. Considered one of the top 100 towns to live in in 2007.

[goyguy]

If the "top 100 towns" are all in Massachusetts, which has a total of 351, that's not saying much! (LOL)

Chelmsford to me is suburb hell, a constellation of self-contained subdivisions with next to nothing that could be called a town center. A lot of its residents are "city refugees," many of them from neighboring Lowell. The people I know who live there, in fact, respectively traded life in Cambridge and NYC for houses with yards on streets that have names followed by "Drive." You can tell the age of a section of the town by the style of its cheesy houses: post-WWII to mid-sixties if split-level or brick/wood colonial, mid-nineties to present-day if all-wood (or vinyl siding) colonial, etc. Bleccchhhh.

Chelmsford's high school is a 1970s concrete bunker with a sweeping view of the 3/495 expressway interchange. The public education system can't hold a candle to the adjoining affluent Concord/Carlisle and Acton/Boxborough districts, but does a fair job. Support for kids' and high-school athletic programs is strong, though, which for good or bad says something positive about community pride.

Ever since America became a car-oriented society, people have looked to suburbia as a good place to raise their kids. The thinking is that if you house children in a bedroom community where they have to be driven everywhere or else make their own fun, they'll grow up healthy and happy. Naturally, some do while others get bored and frustrated and wind up as "juvies" (LOL.) If a sleepy white-bread town is what you're after for your family, "Chimmsfuhd" would be a fairly solid choice. The folks I know who dwell there are content, and I'll say in the town's favor that in both cases their neighbors are friendly and down-to-earth rather than isolated and self-centered. That, sadly, can't be said for a lot of American communities any more.

So, when's all said and done I'd recommend Chelmsford IF what I've described is what you seek. Other nearby towns with similar style (and house prices) are Littleton, Westford, Billerica, Tyngsborough, Dunstable, and Pepperell.

[MillTownBoy]

As a young guy living near "Chensfehd" (my accented version, how it actually comes out. ) in Lowell, it is quite your average Post-WWII suburb. I call it your average "Pleasant Valley Sunday" sort of town, lots of Lowell escapees, whose kids either come back here for something to do something fun.

goyguy hit it spot-on. I just had to register to put in my 2 cents.

I do have some good friends there, just like any average suburb outside of Lawrence, Lowell, or any other old mill town which get bad reps by the some of the more upper-crust suburbanites I've encountered.

[xxqueenbtchxx85]

chelmsford is wonderful town to rais a family.every area is nice and decent i live in south chelmsford and i love it. quit, friendly, in my neighbor hood eveyone knows eachother..waves when they drive by and says hi when they go for walks.. its nice

[rusummer1]

Chelmsford is nice area to live but it's rumered that the school system is really under-budgeted and becoming worse. If I were you i would look at other surrounding towns like Westford, Pepperell, Acton, Billerica, etc.