I'm new and in need of help! (Boston, Newton: low crime, homes)

[AEB52006]

Hello everyone,
I am a 30 yr. old married woman with a 2 year old little girl. We are currently living in a lovely Brownstone in the West Village in NYC. We love it here, but we would like to move to a more "family" type community for our daughter. We are looking in CT., PA., NJ, RI, MASS, and Long Island and Westchester in NY.
My husband is a surgeon, and I am a kindergarten teacher, so as long as there are good hospitals and schools nearby, we are not very limited on where we go. Now, for what we are looking for:

- We want to be close to the beach, we are big beach people.
- A clean, safe neighborhood with a low crime rate and great public schools.
- A fun place to raise kids. ie; a nice library, maybe a nice neighborhood pool, community events, nice parks
- a fairly affluent community. We are not snooty people, but we would like to live in an upper middle to upper class neighborhood where people take good care of their homes and lawns, are well educated, and are involved in their community.

Is there anything that would fit the bill? TIA!

[missionhill]

What-- the roving hoards of urinating bridge and tunnel revelers in the Village are getting you down?

Lots of nice towns near the water in MA; two of the best are Hingham and Newburyport-- check out the recent thread on Hingham posted by someone looking to move from Brooklyn. Both of these have nice downtowns, good schools, community events, etc. Hingham is more uniformly upper-middle class. Ditto Cohasset, next door. Another is Manchester with its beautiful Singing Beach. Ipswich has the magnificent Crane Beach.

Keep in mind that the warmer beach water temps you're used to in New York and New Jersey aren't happening in Mass north of Cape Cod. Conn, RI, and south-facing beaches in Mass on Buzzards Bay and Cape Cod are warm. Westport, MA and Little Compton, RI are both beautiful, rural towns with great beach access, but maybe too rural to have great schools. In Conn, look at Guilford, Branford, and Madison--"classic Connecticut", as they say, without all the traffic and overdevelopment of Fairfield County. No surf on the Conn shore, by the way, because it's Long Is Sound but you can drive to the RI beaches for surf.

[brightdoglover]

There is also a stunning lack of surf on most Mass. beaches (except the Cape). I'm from south Jersey, and besides the cold temperature of the water here, I was taken aback by how little surf there is. No crashing of the waves, etc. The ocean just sort of sits there in most places (harbors?)
That said, I think you'd be very happy in the North Shore towns mentioned- Ipswich, Manchester-by-the-Sea (changed its name to distinguish it from gritty Manchester, NH, or else to sound more... British...)
There is a commuter train from the North Shore that could get your husband into one of the many teaching downtown hospitals. NE Medical Center is on the subway Orange Line, Mass General, the Red line, Brigham & Women's is downtown, city hospital, and so on. The commuter train takes you into North Station, and then you can take a quick subway to the hospital. Driving into downtown Boston from anywhere is awful, long, and expensive. If you can choose a town you like where he can ride the commuter train, it'd be terrific.
Oh- Gloucester, on the tip of Cape Ann, is not upscale at all, despite the expensive areas of the eastern part. Good Harbor Beach is beautiful, but the town has a lot of downscale stuff going on, including major heroin problems.
Don't forget Marblehead, either. All of these North Shore towns are beautiful, cosmopolitan, and upscale in the good ways you mention.
Not sure about Beverly- maybe someone else knows more.
Good luck on your move- you should be able to find a job situation and home that really works for your family.

[ogre]

You didn't say anything about your housing budget, but be aware that most towns in MA that have been recommended so far are kind of pricey, but then, any town meeting your criteria is likely to be fairly pricey. Another town I'd add as a possibilty in MA would be Duxbury, on the South Shore.

[CaseyB]

I think you'd like Duxbury a lot. Duxbury, MA

[AEB52006]

For a house, we would be able to swing up to about 2 million. All of these town suggestions are great, thank you! We will research these further. Anyone know anything about Franklin or Burlington? Thanks!

[maggiekate]

Hingham, Scituate are near the water and are real nice- However the water is cold there. Where would he be working, althought Boston does have many hospitals.
Cape Cod also has beaches and cape cod community hospital.

[smarty]

Originally Posted by AEB52006

For a house, we would be able to swing up to about 2 million. All of these town suggestions are great, thank you! We will research these further. Anyone know anything about Franklin or Burlington? Thanks!

Burlington and Franklin is a little further from the beach. You did not mention how far from the beach and the kind of beach you're looking for (sandy, rock, ... etc.) For the price range you mention, you'll be buying at the top 0.001% for Franklin or Burlington. MA is much cheaper than LI or Westchester in NY (but I think they have much nicer beaches. )

Most people here already suggested the beach towns which are North (Manchester by the sea) or South (Hingham/Duxbury) of Boston. If you want to live west, I suggest Winchester, Lexington, Newton, Wellesley as suburb... Brookline if you like more city feel. Most beaches from towns I suggest are less than 1hr away.

I'm sure you've posted in RI forum, Newport beach and Narragansett Bay area is very pretty.

[brightdoglover]

For $2 million, you could do pretty much anything you like. Ocean view, or mega-house further away from the view.
But even with that kind of affluence, I imagine your husband would prefer not to have a nightmare commute. I'd still vote for commuter rail to a downtown Boston hospital.
Also, then if he wants to change jobs, there are plenty of places to look at in the same commuting area. That's not true of more sparsely populated areas (like the Cape).

[RESouthShore]

I grew up on the Cape and am a bit of a beach snob so I would recommend either Scituate (Minot in particular), or Duxbury (Duxbury Beach is beautiful). Plymouth also has some beautiful white sand beaches but the school system is not terribly good. Duxbury beats Scituate for schools but Scituate is still good. Hingham is a beautiful town but the beach is very sad - you would be swimming in the harbor and the sand/beach are not that nice at all. The town itself is lovely but if the main thing you are looking for is the beach - Hingham is not it - same goes for Cohasset.

With 2 million to spend you can find something wonderful in any of the towns I mentioned without a problem.

Please contact me if you want any more info -

Katie