gay friendly towns with excellent schools -- Needham or Melrose...other suggestions? (Boston: condo)

[duncan123]

Greetings,

We're a gay married couple that is in the process of adopting an infant. We currently live in the city of Boston and are thinking of sellingo our condo to move out to the suburbs. Here's what's important to us:

1. A GREAT school system. We place a high priority on education, so we'd like our child to go to a school that offers some amazing opportunities to be successful.

2. A town (and school system) that is accepting of gay dads -- and our child.

3. A town that is close to Boston (<45 minutes away) and has a nice downtown area with shops, restaurants, and parks.

4. We'd like a single family home that is 1500+ square feet, on a quiet street, with a decent-sized yard. We're not huge fans of split level homes... we'd love a Victorian. We can pay in the 500k - 600k range.

Might you have any suggestions? We've been looking in Melrose and Needham? We love the homes in Melrose and it seems like we can get a lot more for our money there -- we're just not sure how good the schools are there. We like Needham a lot, too! We like Needham's town center and closeness to Boston, but the homes seem a bit more expensive there.

Do you suggest these towns? Are there any other towns that may be good? We've looked at Arlington, but there doesn't seem to be a high volume of available homes -- and it seems to be$$, too.

Thanks.

[scarletfire]

Needham is lovely and the school system is highly regarded. There aren't very many metrowest burbs with good town centers but Needham has a nice one, as does Wellesley (also very pricey with a strong school system). We live in Sherborn, which has one of the best school systems in the state & excellent walking trails, but lacks much of any downtown so I find myself in Wellesley often for lunch or shopping and have become fond of the area. People say it's snobby but I haven't found that so. None of my same-gender friends have school-age children so I can't speak to experiences with the schools but I would think in this area you wouldn't find a problem with acceptance (although perhaps you might in Dover, which is more conservative but I don't know for sure). Prices in Needham and Wellesley are pretty high though. You could find a lovely home but might find the yard is rather on the small side.

Anyhow, that's my two cents, for what it's worth! :-)

[Beantown_mama]

We have a few gay families living on our block and our neighbors are all very welcoming and open. The Melrose schools are very good and safe (if not top 10 like Winchester). It is a wonderful town with tons of parks and family activities.

[rdcsquam]

I went to high school in Needham, and I think it would definitely work for you. The schools are excellent, and as scarletfire mentioned, the town center is quite nice compared to other towns. People are generally very accepting, too. While I haven't encountered same-sex parents there, there were openly gay students during my time at NHS (03-07) who felt comfortable there.

[annajoe35]

i work in education and i find that people just see gay couples as just that a couple. we have a couple of students in our school system who have two dads or moms and no one seems to notice, they are just as welcome like everyone else because you are like everyone else. you love you child

[redpanda]

First of all, a big congratulations to you on your impending parenthood! How wonderful!

I agree with you and PP's that Melrose and Needham seem to be good towns. I also wouldn't be too quick to scratch Arlington off my list if I were you. With your budget and size requirements, I'm sure you could find something you'd like there. It really does meet all of your criteria, and is super-close to Cambridge, Belmont, Somerville, etc. where you'll find even more shops, restaurants, and parks. My favorite parks tend to be in either Arlington or Cambridge. Arlington also seems to have a LOT of young families and is very welcoming in general.

Good luck!

[meltinjohn]

Move to Lowell!