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We are recently married in our early 30's looking to probably move to Westwood over the next year and start a family. We were originally focused on Natick, but now have a better feeling about westwood. I work in the city and my wife works in Needham so the commute works well (even better than natick). Our realtor we are using does most of their work in natick so they aren't as knowledgable in westwood. We want to still give them the chance. Can someone fill is us in if there are better parts of Westwood (i.e. more desirable) and describe the different areas?
It seems like a good fit for us. My wife works in education and we like the schools are highly regarded in Westwood. We really liked the feeling of driving through the town - felt very New England. Natick is a great town, but to us it felt Westwood has more charm in the various neighborhoods although no real town center (It's personal preference - we felt like more select pockets of Natick felt really nice but most of the houses we looked at were surrounded by older/smaller ranches or just happened to be on busy streets or streets that didn't look great. hopefully doesn't sound too snobby)
We haven't ruled out natick though yet as it still checks boxes for us. We are trying to keep our budget $850k max (less would be ideal) and looking for a fairly upgraded 2.5k sqft or so + 2 car garage. We are hoping to be more in a neighborhood as opposed to on the main street (busy road) I'm hoping this will be doable - there's very little inventory now it seems like.
We will probably consider Sharon too. Need to check out the town some more. The taxes past $11k seem like a deal breaker to me although you need to consider the total price. It also starts getting further away commutes. We are both Jewish (not super religious) and didn't want to be the only jewish people in town. We know Sharon has a huge population. Can anyone comment on the jewish community in westwood? I believe there are some. We realized we can't get what we are looking for in towns like Newton/Needham/Brookline. Some people throw out the idea of Milton, but don't think our money goes that far there (might be possible). I've also heard medfield mentioned (we have never really been there, but it starts to get a stretch of a commute to the city - I already work 8ish -630ish many days so ideally don't want a bad commute.
Thanks so much in advance
Last edited by JohnS5457; 02-24-2019 at 06:37 PM..
Westwood is a great town. Can't go wrong there. I'd stay away from Sharon i've heard nightmares about the driving commute from there.
Yet another early 30s member of the millennial bulge looking to move out to the burbs...
JohnS5457, if you were offered a equally high paying job in a suburban office like Needham or Newton that would be an amazing commute from Westwood. Would you take that or would you want to continue going downtown?
It seems to me that your Natick based realtor should be able to speak competently about Westwood.
I have friends in Medfield, and they are Jewish. I don't remember which temple they attend, but they are happy enough. They go to Needham frequently and he works in Wellesley. So the commute to Needham would be great. But the commute downtown would be a drag. These friends have said no way would they take a job downtown.
Westwood seems nice to me, but I only know the shopping areas and the Lifetime Fitness, so I can't speak to what it is like to live there. But it seems fairly convenient with the train station (including Amtrak). There's a lot of commercial stuff there.
Westwood is a great town and maybe Jayrandom will chime in here because he lives there and really seems to like it.
On a more macro level the town is divided up into Westwood and Islington. On a more micro level there are many many neighborhoods in Westwood like the Loop and the Maze just to name a couple. A lot of the neighborhoods have block parties and are very tightly knit (e.g. everyone knows each other). There are two commuter rail stations in town although neither are terribly conveniently located IMO. However as others have said, Westwood is a more convenient town for commuting than Sharon. The relatively new University Station shopping plaza added a lot of retail to the town when it opened and the Wegman's supermarket there is fantastic. There's a lot to like about the town.
Personally, I think the biggest negatives about Wetwood is no town center. Although I love the Toast Office (great restaurant) and the Keller Williams office in the center can't be beat . It's really just a short strip of stores and a library. Not really a hub of activity in the town.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chicagoliz
It seems to me that your Natick based realtor should be able to speak competently about Westwood.
Why do you say that? I can absolutely see a Natick based real estate agent not knowing a thing about Westwood. There are some agents I've dealt with that don't know much about anything outside of the town lines of the town they live in.
Regardless, this is a pretty big purchase the OP is making. They should have someone on their side who can actually be of help. I would hope the OP's agent is willing to put in the time to do the research to become familiar with Westwood. Personally, I try to avoid assisting clients in towns I don't feel I don't know because I can't be anywhere near as helpful. Some clients after I've talked with them about this still want me to help them though.
Why do you say that? I can absolutely see a Natick based real estate agent not knowing a thing about Westwood. There are some agents I've dealt with that don't know much about anything outside of the town lines of the town they live in.
Regardless, this is a pretty big purchase the OP is making. They should have someone on their side who can actually be of help. I would hope the OP's agent is willing to put in the time to do the research to become familiar with Westwood. Personally, I try to avoid assisting clients in towns I don't feel I don't know because I can't be anywhere near as helpful. Some clients after I've talked with them about this still want me to help them though.
I guess it's just because most of the real estate agents I've known have known a lot about multiple towns, and Westwood isn't really that far from Natick. I could see many people having both of those towns on their list of possibilities. Even if the agent knows most about Natick and is especially good for buying in Natick.
I don't know if OP has signed an agreement with their agent, but if Westwood is really a town that they think they want to be in, they might be better off with another agent.
I guess it's just because most of the real estate agents I've known have known a lot about multiple towns, and Westwood isn't really that far from Natick. I could see many people having both of those towns on their list of possibilities. Even if the agent knows most about Natick and is especially good for buying in Natick.
I don't know if OP has signed an agreement with their agent, but if Westwood is really a town that they think they want to be in, they might be better off with another agent.
Absolutely! Most real estate agents are perfectly capable of assisting their clients in multiple towns. Based on what I've seen (and what I know of my own activities), I would guess an overwhelming majority of Natick agents have never ventured into Westwood at least for business purposes. Most agents I know just limit themselves to a tighter geographic area.
Thanks for all the info. Do you think we can get a nice/relatively upgraded 2,300 sqft plus 2 car garage in the 750-850 range in Westwood on a non busy road? I saw a few good homes in that range sold last year, but haven't really seen much in the last few weeks/month since we switched our preference. All of a sudden in the last few weeks a bunch of good options came out in Natick. In Westwood it's been mostly $1M plus or horrible options in the 700-800 range. I'm sure it's early in the season and a bunch will start coming out. Have to figure out if we could stretch to 900 financially, but I know it wouldn't be ideal.
thanks all. Can anyone comment on the Jewish community in westwood? it's more my wife wants to get a better sense. obviously not as big sharon/newton/brookline, but want to get a sense. Still not seeing anything great in the 800's, but giving it more time to get a sense.
thanks all. Can anyone comment on the Jewish community in westwood? it's more my wife wants to get a better sense. obviously not as big sharon/newton/brookline, but want to get a sense. Still not seeing anything great in the 800's, but giving it more time to get a sense.
Don't know. I know there's a temple there. We went to a bar mitzvah for a friend's son there.
My daughter and son-in-law looked to buy in Westwood about 5 years ago. They couldn't find anything under $800k that didn't need renovating of some sort.
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. It's really just a short strip of stores and a library. Not really a hub of activity in the town.
