Sudbury - neighborhood question (Framingham, Billerica: real estate, how much, houses)

[roastpatoni]

Hi all,

I'm hoping someone can help me with this. We are moving to the Metro-west area soon, and, for a variety of reasons, have narrowed our search to Sudbury, MA.

My question is this... I keep hearing about the "bowker" neighborhood or area of Sudbury. Could anyone tell me a little more? Are there other "neighborhood areas"? This is the only one I've noticed that seems to have a name that I've found, and I'm not sure why it's named that.

Just curious. I've also noticed that a lot of real estate listing say things like "coveted north side location" - Why is North Sudbury better than South Sudbury. I'm not sure this will have a big impact on my house buying, but I am curious.

RP

[meltinjohn]

Naa, forget Sudbury. Move to Billerica. Theres upscale enough sections of Billerica now, and they are a bit cheaper than Sudbury.

[scarletfire]

The Bowker region of Sudbury is definately lovely but there are also other nice neighborhoods. I don't think you can go wrong in that town, north or south. The only area I don't really prefer is the houses off Hudson Rd called Summer, Spring, etc because they're tiny houses really close together but otherwise there's a lot to pick from. Prices are high, schools are very highly regarded.

[moveinmetrowest]

I lived in Sudbury for 5 years (wish we never left) but the Bowker neighborhood is great - very family oriented , lots of neighborhood activities. There are definitely some other nice neighborhoods in Sudbury but I can tell you as a previous Sudbury resident there is a bit of a snob factor with anyone living south of Route 20. I can't explain it because I do think there are some nice neighborhoods down there too. It's closer to Framingham where as the Bowker neighborhood is kind of right in the heart of North Sudbury.

If I were to give you advice I would say try and concentrate on neighborhoods north of route 20, you'll have plenty of great streets/neighborhoods to choose from.

[smarty]

As other says, Bowker neighborhood is great. However, I aways wonder how much neighborhood activities there are as the houses are fairly far apart in Sudbury. May be they all go to Camp Sewataro during summer. Many neighborhoods are just new streets with 10-20 houses. North side feel more rural than the south side.

Sudbury has 4 elementary schools. Haynes on the North side used to be in top 10 of all elementary schools in MA way better than other 3. However, Nixon is higher the other 3 in recent years. This shows things can change.

The not so nice neighborhood scarletfire mentioned is near Willis Lake. They used to summer cottage and now converted to full time homes.

[roastpatoni]

Thanks everyone.

That was the general sense I was getting. I did drive around the willis lakes area, which seemed very cute (in a lake house community kind of way) - but the houses were very close together and seemed to be a mish-mash of styles. There were a lot of kids playing though, which was fun to see on a hot summer day.

Driving through bowker on the same morning, all I saw were single ladies running and lots and lots of landscape folks. Still - it was a gorgeous neighborhood.

I did hear that not much is selling in bowker though (from a real estate agent) - Any thoughts on that? I had noticed that there is a lot of stuff that's been on for 150+ days (some stuff has been there almost a year). Is stuff just priced to high, or is it one of those "benchmark" things... since most houses seemed to be close to or over 1 million - maybe that price range is really soft right now? Or is it something else I am missing completely.

We looked at another house in a nice neighborhood - but it had too many problems for us to take on. I was almost willing to buy the house just for the neighborhood... almost.

RP

[laughing all the way]

I think it might be because it is an older 1950-70's vintage, neighborhood. Used to be the new section of town, no longer. For years, it enjoyed, the designation "desirable North Sudbury" by realtors, because other parts of town had not yet been developed. It's a nice area, but now there are much nicer areas than the Bowker, in other parts of town. There are some really beautiful new neighborhoods in central and south Sudbury. Check it "all" out.
Sudbury is a great town with exceptional schools that rival private schools. Families move here because of the outstanding schools and the lovely bucolic landscapes. It is the Massachusetts town that everyone wants to live in. Don't be turned off by the prices of houses. There is something for everyone there.