Marshfield, Scituate or anything else? (Cambridge, Framingham: fit in, real estate, crime)

[wendyf]

I've posted before asking advice on homes near Cambridge where my husband works. Now, he's curious about going further south and looking into Marshfield, Scituate or the surrounding towns. Commute won't be a problem as he has a flexible schedule going into work 3 times a week. I work from home. We really like the coastal atmosphere (we've lived in Florida before for 7 years-I am a native Floridian) but also wonder how our two girls ages 5 and 7 will adapt? Anyone have any advice on these or other similar towns and how a family such as ours may like it? Budget is under $450K.

[baystater]

QUOTE=wendyf;4671835]I've posted before asking advice on homes near Cambridge where my husband works. Now, he's curious about going further south and looking into Marshfield, Scituate or the surrounding towns. Commute won't be a problem as he has a flexible schedule going into work 3 times a week. I work from home. We really like the coastal atmosphere (we've lived in Florida before for 7 years-I am a native Floridian) but also wonder how our two girls ages 5 and 7 will adapt? Anyone have any advice on these or other similar towns and how a family such as ours may like it? Budget is under $450K.[/quote]

Marshfield, Massachusetts

Marshfield, Massachusetts

Welcome to Marshfield, Massachusetts




Figured some pictures may speak louder than words. But in General Marshfield is a good, solid, and safe town on the south shore. I grew up there for a little over 20 years. I have family there and still try to visit as much as possible.
I'd say now-a-days there is a mix of lower middle (blue collar) and upper middle class folks. And for baystaters I'd say most of the people are laid back. Granted this is by Massachusetts standards not Florida standards. The schools in marshfield are good in general. I wouldn't say they are top of the charts, but give a solid education over all. Heck my two siblings and I were educated enough to all get college degrees. As for crime it's pretty much Non-exist during Fall, Winter, most of spring. In the summer it pick up a bit with out of towner's coming in for summer vacations. But for the most part nothing really goes on. As for your kids. Well, I think the experience is the same for all new kids coming in. I don't think it's ever easy for the new kids coming in, but that probably will change quickly and they'll make friends soon enough. As for your budget housing budget. It's very doable in marshfield. I'd say you would get a good solid house in the town in general. I would though be very careful where you choose to buy a house. Trust me MA. as been rather lucky avoiding a major Nor'easter for a while. But I was there in 1991 in the hummer rock section of marshfield. And were had major league flooding because of our low lying topography.

As for other towns. There are plenty of great other town in the area. Sciuate (the other town you asked about) it very similar to marshfield in a lot of ways. I may now be higher up in stature now-a-days than marshfield, but in general I'd say there about the same. Other town surrounding that you should check out are Kingston, Plymouth, Duxbury, Hingham, and Norwell.

[lorilou]

Originally Posted by wendyf

I've posted before asking advice on homes near Cambridge where my husband works. Now, he's curious about going further south and looking into Marshfield, Scituate or the surrounding towns. Commute won't be a problem as he has a flexible schedule going into work 3 times a week. I work from home. We really like the coastal atmosphere (we've lived in Florida before for 7 years-I am a native Floridian) but also wonder how our two girls ages 5 and 7 will adapt? Anyone have any advice on these or other similar towns and how a family such as ours may like it? Budget is under $450K.

Hi Wendy,
just wanted to share a few thoughts with you. When we moved here 1-1/2 years ago, we seriously considered Marshfield. There are some lovely homes there, and it did seem that you could get more for your money than in other towns on south shore. And the market has certainly changed in favor of buyers since then. At that time, $450K would only get us a starter home that needed a lot repairs & updating. Maybe it's better by now? As indicated by the previous poster, the schools are so-so...but education can be elevated at home, so I don't put too much stock in test scores and ranking systems (but they are worth regarding, no doubt). We loved the schools in Duxbury & Hingham...but $450K is not going to get you there, most likely. One thing we really noticed was the ill-regard that towns like Dux & Hingham have for Marshfield. There is some bitter enmity, particularly b/w Marshfield and Duxbury...I don't know if it's a class-envy thing or a school sports thing...but it's there. We had friends who lived in Dux & Kingston, and they were "horrified" that we were considering Marshfield...so I think it's safe to say that they have been influenced by the affluent culture that surrounds them. It wasn't a problem for us, but it might have been weird for our kids, who are in high school. Your kids are young...it probably wouldn't affect them at that age. Try this: log onto Urbandictionary (dot.com), type in Marshfield MA, and read the discussions regarding the town. While not a scientific approach, it is certainly a mirror into the youth population and the prevailing attitudes you will be dealing with... Just like City-Data is, for adults. Best wishes! lorilou

[Chianti]

When I lived in Mass. i lived in Duxbury. Nice town. I wouldn't recommend Marshfield if your husband is a white-collar professional- you simply won't fit in. Its a very blue-collar town. The populace of Duxbury is extremely well-educated, very different than Marshfield.

[baystater]

[quote=lorilou;4676576] One thing we really noticed was the ill-regard that towns like Dux & Hingham have for Marshfield. There is some bitter enmity, particularly b/w Marshfield and Duxbury...I don't know if it's a class-envy thing or a school sports thing...but it's there. We had friends who lived in Dux & Kingston, and they were "horrified" that we were considering Marshfield...so I think it's safe to say that they have been influenced by the affluent culture that surrounds them. QUOTE]

Originally Posted by Chianti

When I lived in Mass. i lived in Duxbury. Nice town. I wouldn't recommend Marshfield if your husband is a white-collar professional- you simply won't fit in. Its a very blue-collar town. The populace of Duxbury is extremely well-educated, very different than Marshfield.

As we can see by the second post there are still issues between the towns. As I have been brought up on the "wrong side of the tracks" Let me just say that in the last 10 to 15 years or so Marshfield has become more of a mixed town. There are now more white collar workers living in the area now. Also there has always been Marshfield Hills, where the extremely wealthy live in Marshfield. While you will run into a lot of the dreaded blue collar people in the town, you will find most of the people relatively friendly, and you will find a sense of community among these people.
As for the sport thing (football). Well, it's just alot of fun to have that rivalry on thanksgiving day.

But hey. To any one interested in looking at any of the town on the south shore. You should just go and see the town and try to get a vibe on life there. I mean I have certain biases toward Duxbury and obviously there are some on the board here that have bias against Marshfield. So you may get some information about a town but it can be "colored" a certain way that may make you not even give a community a chance.

[wendyf]

Thanks for all of the input from everyone. Hubby and are middle of road blue collar/white collar people and pretty much get along with anyone. We're currently living in Framingham so you can't get much more blue collar than that (not a bad thing either!). We have the North/South Framingham competition, similar to the Duxbury/Marshfield, but ours is within the same town-pretty sad.

We're taking a drive over this weekend to check out Marshfield and some other towns. We like a close knit community and already checked out the school backgrounds in Marshfield, which I have to say are impressive. I think Eames Elementary was in the top 30 elementary schools in the state.

Thanks again for the link to the Marshfield pictures. They were very nice and the site was pretty informative. All feedback was very appreciated!

[BogieOrangeman]

This is actually a great weekend to visit Scituate. There's a town festival going on down in the harbor area so you can get a good feel for the populace. Most of the surrounding towns such as Norwell, Marshfield, Duxbury, Hanover, etc are all wonderful towns, and in my opinion you can't go wrong with any of them.

[wendyf]

Thanks for the information Bogie. We will wander over to Scituate also!

Wendy

[RLCMA]

I wouldn't recommend Duxbury unless you're looking to keep up with the Joneses. In all honesty, the majority of the people who live there are phoney. They'll spend $750,000 on a home and then can't afford to furnish it. People in Marshfield and Scituate are much more real and live within their means.

[wendyf]

We went and looked a few houses in Marshfield this weekend. Pretty nice but can't really find what we want yet in that area. Maybe new homes will come available when we're ready to move. Our house will be going up in a few weeks so we're not in a position to even bid on another one yet.

We took a ride back through Scituate and visited the Heritage Days event. Really cute and hometown-ish. I seemed to like Scituate more than Marshfield, not sure why. We looked through some real estate listings and drove past some homes we could afford and they seemed pretty nice. So, well see what happens after we sell our home in Framingham and if there are any left on the market we still like.

Anyone know anything more about Scituate they want to share? I have two children under eight and anything about schools (extended after school programs also), beaches, where to live, etc. would be appeciated.

tks
wendy