In search of: Friendliest town in MA??? (Boston, Westborough: homes, good schools)

[smarty]

Originally Posted by lorilou

That's pricey, but I guess you get a break for much of the year when the weather doesn't require A/C or heat? I notice many homes don't have A/C, but I've heard it's humid and hot at times. Do people without a/c just suffer through that period, and how long does that period usually last? Thank you so much for "schooling" me; this is going to take some getting used to. lorilou

LL, I am not smart nor want to school you. Just want to share info.

As I said, it is for the cold months which is ~3-5 months (End Nov - Begin Apr depending on the year.) The remainder of the year usually just need 2-3 tanks. Last year, the price is less than $2. A few more years back was just 99 cents a gallon.

Summer is relatively short. Just July and August. We usually do not have more than 14 days above 90. Heat wave is when there are 3 consecutive days above 90F. Hence, a window air conditioner in many case will do for the few hot nights. Of course, whole house air conditioning is nice. It does get humid some days. Most of the newer houses built in the last 10-15 years have whole house air conditioning. If you have a shady tree nearby, you can really just suffer through the few days without air conditioning.

Electricity is pretty expensive here also (especially due to high oil price recent years). You can easily pay $200-300 a month if you have your air conditioning on every day.

[wpotsie]

BTW, the other town that regionalizes with Southboro at Algonquin is Northboro...if Southboro is a 9 on the POSH scale, Northboro is an 8.9.

Originally Posted by pma

Lorilou,

I only know Westboro from driving through it. It has a pretty center of town and has route 9 through it. Route 9 is one very long (i.e. the whole state) commercial strip - which is ugly, ugly but very useful if you need to purchase anything.
So Westboro probably has a little of everything - easily accessible to stores that you'll need and some New England countryside.

I had friends who lived in Southboro (they've since moved to a warmer climate.) They loved it and raised three kids there. Southboro is very beautiful and very posh. I must say that my sense of it has been that you'll not fit in unless you have the latest and greated car on an annual basis. My friends are great people but do have the most expensive toys (parents and kids alike) although on the flip side I found their friends to be very warm and nice. I guess if you're not likely to be intimidated by all the wealth then you'll find it a great place to be. The Southboro high school is regionalized i.e. - it's not all Southboro kids - so your children will not be necessarily going to school with children who are products of indulgent lifestyles. And, as I said, my friends' three children are three of the nicest young adults I know.

Thanks for your thoughts on the South Shore.

Good luck,
PMA

[wpotsie]

Thank. Lorolou. I was actually at the Blanco Cafe for Sunday Brunch. Great soft tacos, but ur right....DIVE! I'll check out the others, though. I don't think I'll be leaving anytime soon. THe food alone is enough to keep me here. (miss NE seafood and clam chowder, though)

Originally Posted by lorilou

wpotsie,
thought i'd make a few restaurant suggestions to you, there in S.A.:
The Blanco Cafe (best enchiladas, OMG!), Los Barrios(try the puffy tacos: they're 2Die4), Chris Madrid's (my mouth waters for their Macho Nachos), and Jacala's on Fredicksburg. These are all total dives, but damn good food. Enjoy your time there, and leave when they get on your nerves. Lorilou

[lorilou]

Originally Posted by smarty

LL, I am not smart nor want to school you. Just want to share info.

As I said, it is for the cold months which is ~3-5 months (End Nov - Begin Apr depending on the year.) The remainder of the year usually just need 2-3 tanks. Last year, the price is less than $2. A few more years back was just 99 cents a gallon.

Summer is relatively short. Just July and August. We usually do not have more than 14 days above 90. Heat wave is when there are 3 consecutive days above 90F. Hence, a window air conditioner in many case will do for the few hot nights. Of course, whole house air conditioning is nice. It does get humid some days. Most of the newer houses built in the last 10-15 years have whole house air conditioning. If you have a shady tree nearby, you can really just suffer through the few days without air conditioning.

Electricity is pretty expensive here also (especially due to high oil price recent years). You can easily pay $200-300 a month if you have your air conditioning on every day.

$200-$300/month sounds like a dream to a Texan! Our heatwaves last from May-October, average A/C bill per month=$500+. In short, nobody escapes this energy price explosion.

[smarty]

Originally Posted by lorilou

$200-$300/month sounds like a dream to a Texan! Our heatwaves last from May-October, average A/C bill per month=$500+. In short, nobody escapes this energy price explosion.

Good reason to downsize from your 5K sq ft house.

[lorilou]

Originally Posted by smarty

Good reason to downsize from your 5K sq ft house.

MA will take care of that for me, haven't seen one yet!

[Noodle]

Originally Posted by lorilou

MA will take care of that for me, haven't seen one yet!

We've got 5,000 s.f. houses. But they're a million bucks and the tax bill will be a about $15,000 a year. Someone has to pay for the socialism we have here.

[lorilou]

Originally Posted by Noodle

We've got 5,000 s.f. houses. But they're a million bucks and the tax bill will be a about $15,000 a year. Someone has to pay for the socialism we have here.

Well, it can't be me. Don't have that kind of pocket change! The socialism issue is a concern...I have a certain affinity for my own money. Take care, noodle. LL

[CaseyB]

Originally Posted by Noodle

We've got 5,000 s.f. houses. But they're a million bucks and the tax bill will be a about $15,000 a year. Someone has to pay for the socialism we have here.

Friends of ours have a house with about 3700 square feet, I don't know if they even have a full acre lot - their tax bill just went up to $14,000.

[smarty]

There is NO FREE lunch!

All the better school towns have high tax bills. To educate ONE child, it cost $5-7K a year. If you have 2 kids in school, you should be paying over $10K. If your tax bill is under $10K, that means someone else is subsidizing you!!!

If you want to check out where the good school towns are, just go to the website and select "Average Tax Bill" from the drop down menu. Please note which are the RED ($7.5-15K) and Orange ($5-7.5K) towns. Note Duxbury and Hingham have different colors when compare to Marshfield or Kingston in the South Shore. Then, go to check out the MCAS scores. You will notice the difference.

[url]http://merlot.caliper.com/maptitude/MassStatsNETVersion/(5noliqqz1ksnmf45kdkk2qfg)/Map.aspx[url]

BTW. The site has many interesting statistics presented in a graphical format including crime, housing, ... etc.