Towns within 495 with nice walkable downtowns and good schools (Boston: apartments, mortgage)

[G1..]

Franklin and Foxborough would fit your requirements..

[simplexsimon]

Originally Posted by G1..

Franklin and Foxborough would fit your requirements..

OP is commuting to Burlington and wants future access to Cambridge.

[thinkingotherthings]

OP here checking in. I want to thank everyone for the continued excellent suggestions and input. I'm sure this thread is helpful not only to me but to countless others as well.

I thought I should provide an update.

Originally Posted by thinkingotherthings

I will also mention that one other town we've started reconsidering – even though we had initially nixed it over school quality concerns – is Stoneham.

We ended up touring a nice house in Stoneham this past weekend. However, even though the Stoneham schools are rated decently, we weren't impressed with the neighborhood where the house was, nor did we love the downtown when we walked through it after the house tour.

After that tour, we decided to renew our focus on our initial list of top choice towns, with Winchester and Belmont at the top of the list. Both because we like the neighorhoods but also because we are not convinced that WFH is going to become a permanent fixture on a broad enough scale.

As for which criteria to compromise on, I've reluctantly decided that I can sacrifice being walking distance to the high school – and walking distance to the downtown, which wasn't a requirement but a strong nice-to-have before. Our new more modest target is to be within walking distance of an elementary school. I recognize that even that will become tougher to find in the fall and winter months, but we hope that this will open up the options just enough.

A quick note on Arlington, which a couple people have mentioned – Arlington does seem like it should check all our boxes, but for some reason we just haven't been super excited after any of the houses we've seen in Arlington yet.

[mwj119]

Originally Posted by thinkingotherthings

OP here checking in. I want to thank everyone for the continued excellent suggestions and input. I'm sure this thread is helpful not only to me but to countless others as well.

I thought I should provide an update.


We ended up touring a nice house in Stoneham this past weekend. However, even though the Stoneham schools are rated decently, we weren't impressed with the neighborhood where the house was, nor did we love the downtown when we walked through it after the house tour.

After that tour, we decided to renew our focus on our initial list of top choice towns, with Winchester and Belmont at the top of the list. Both because we like the neighorhoods but also because we are not convinced that WFH is going to become a permanent fixture on a broad enough scale.

As for which criteria to compromise on, I've reluctantly decided that I can sacrifice being walking distance to the high school – and walking distance to the downtown, which wasn't a requirement but a strong nice-to-have before. Our new more modest target is to be within walking distance of an elementary school. I recognize that even that will become tougher to find in the fall and winter months, but we hope that this will open up the options just enough.

A quick note on Arlington, which a couple people have mentioned – Arlington does seem like it should check all our boxes, but for some reason we just haven't been super excited after any of the houses we've seen in Arlington yet.

Winchester and Belmont are great towns.. Can’t go wrong.

[jayrandom]

I think you are making a good decision.

I should add that being in walking distance to an elementary school isn’t necessarily a great thing. We are just outside of walking distance to our elementary school (it’s about 1.5 miles) so we are eligible for bus service. Our friends just within walking distance aren’t and HAVE to walk their kids to school.

[r_p]

Originally Posted by thinkingotherthings

OP here checking in. I want to thank everyone for the continued excellent suggestions and input. I'm sure this thread is helpful not only to me but to countless others as well.

I thought I should provide an update.


We ended up touring a nice house in Stoneham this past weekend. However, even though the Stoneham schools are rated decently, we weren't impressed with the neighborhood where the house was, nor did we love the downtown when we walked through it after the house tour.

After that tour, we decided to renew our focus on our initial list of top choice towns, with Winchester and Belmont at the top of the list. Both because we like the neighorhoods but also because we are not convinced that WFH is going to become a permanent fixture on a broad enough scale.

As for which criteria to compromise on, I've reluctantly decided that I can sacrifice being walking distance to the high school – and walking distance to the downtown, which wasn't a requirement but a strong nice-to-have before. Our new more modest target is to be within walking distance of an elementary school. I recognize that even that will become tougher to find in the fall and winter months, but we hope that this will open up the options just enough.

A quick note on Arlington, which a couple people have mentioned – Arlington does seem like it should check all our boxes, but for some reason we just haven't been super excited after any of the houses we've seen in Arlington yet.

While choosing towns make sure you're comfortable with local rules/regulations and zoning laws etc. E.g., do you or your spouse intends to carry a firearm (not all towns will issue a LTC, see list here), do you plan on raising chickens in your backyard etc.

[htfdcolt]

Originally Posted by thinkingotherthings

OP here checking in. I want to thank everyone for the continued excellent suggestions and input. I'm sure this thread is helpful not only to me but to countless others as well.

I thought I should provide an update.


We ended up touring a nice house in Stoneham this past weekend. However, even though the Stoneham schools are rated decently, we weren't impressed with the neighborhood where the house was, nor did we love the downtown when we walked through it after the house tour.

After that tour, we decided to renew our focus on our initial list of top choice towns, with Winchester and Belmont at the top of the list. Both because we like the neighborhoods but also because we are not convinced that WFH is going to become a permanent fixture on a broad enough scale.

I'd give Winchester the nod. Great town center, decent dining, 2 commuter rail stations, very quick to Logan (under normal times), and closeness to Middlesex Fells & Mystic Lake for walks/hikes.

[panchilly]

Good luck. There is not much in those towns that will match your requirements (2+ bath, 2000sqft+, 4Bed, <= 1.5m) you will be competing with many others for these homes and may have to go 100k over ask. Realistically it may take you 6mo-1year to find a place you like and also win the bid. Who knows where prices will be then. It could easily be up another 15% then

[Amontillado]

Originally Posted by thinkingotherthings

To be honest before we started house hunting I thought we were in a great spot financially and just assumed that our budget would give us our pick of the litter.. But boy was I smacked in the face by these house prices when we actually started looking!

You have been casually accepting suggestions for buying in towns that are the most expensive locations in a very expensive region, and you're looking for features that will push prices higher still. The fact is that you want the same things that lots of people want, and the laws of supply and demand definitely apply. Have you compared desires with budget?

[MikePRU]

What about Burlington or Arlington? Burlington doesn't have the most exciting town center but it has one. Plus, there is tons of shopping and restaurants in town outside the center. Arlington has some very walkable areas too.