seaside suburbs (Boston, Plymouth, Salem: fit in, private schools, living in)

[weslv05]

I'm considering moving my family to the Boston area and am not sure where to start, so I was hoping to get some suggestions. If we do move to the area, I definitely want to be in a town on the ocean. Access to clean beaches, a marina, and a fairly picturesque small-med. town is important. We have young children, so schools are important, as is a family friendly environment. I work from home, so commute is not an issue. I don't have a preference for south or north of Boston, and am open to any suggestions.

Regarding housing prices, we know that the area is expensive, but are willing to spend what it takes to find a nice town ($1-2M+). We are moving from a notoriously expensive town in CT, so not much will shock us at this point. That being said, we do not like the attitude and pretentious atmosphere in CT. We'd love to find a nice town that has the amenities we're used to without the snobby attitude.

After a cursory glance, it looks like we might be interested in Marblehead or Hingham. Any thoughts on these places? And suggestions for other places, no matter how obscure, would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[scarletfire]

Marblehead and Hingham both are beautiful communities with well regarded school systems. Those I think would be your best choices. I don't know Hingham well myself (although I'm sure there are folks on the forum who do) but I don't find people from Marblehead snobby. Manchester by the Sea is also lovely with good schools and very welcoming people but quite small.

[weslv05]

I know traffic in Boston proper is notoriously bad - is it just as bad in these suburbs? What's the difference between communities that are north and those that are south of Boston? When you live in a town, do you tend to stay there and not venture out, or do they run together and you'd travel freely between them? I know that might be a case specific question, but any thoughts would be helpful

[scarletfire]

Are you commuting to Boston for work? You might check out the MBTA train routes. There are trains running from the north shore and south shore. MBTA.com > Commuter Rail Maps and Schedules

[capecodcathy]

Marblehead and Hingham are nice. Possibly Scituate? If commuting is not a huge problem, Cape Cod is lovely (I'm a li'l partial). May also consider the SouthCoast. Padanarum, Mattapoisett, Marion. All are about equidistant to Providence and Boston (an hour or so).

[weslv05]

Cape Cod is a little far, we actually spend summers there, so we're familiar with that area. We'd like to be closer to Boston though. Thanks for the suggestions though, I'll look into them.

Any other thoughts on north v. south shore? The sense I get from reading about them is that the north is more 'postcard New England', more historic and possibly more stuffy? And that the south shore is more 'normal suburban America'. Is that accurate?

[capecodcathy]

North Shore is much more densely populated. More historic when you hit Marblehead, Salem, Newburyport, Rockport. I'm a North Shore transplant. These North Shore communities are still pretty much an hour or so commute given traffic and congestion.

I've only had a few experiences in some of the South Shore communities. I found them to be stuffy.
I like Plymouth, though. That may be an option for you.

[ogre]

Your distinction between the North and South Shores may be right in a general kind of way, but it depends on the town. The scenery is different in the two areas as well. Boston and Mass. Bay mark a pretty definitive dividing line between rocky coastline to the north, though there are some nice beaches as well, and much more wide sandy coastline to the south.

Of the towns suggested already, one I wonder about is Manchester. I say this because you said you live in kind of a stuffy, pretentious area now and want to escape that. Well, take it with a grain of salt, because I'm not intimately familiar with the town, but, by reputation at least, Manchester fits the picture you might get of a town that used to be just plain Manchester, but a number of years ago chainged its name to hoity-toity Mahnchestuh By the Sea.

Something to keep in mind about some of those towns along the coast is that they can get pretty touristy during the summer. Marblehead and Hingham, for example, get their share of people from out of town showing up to hit the beaches or go boating. On the North Shore, a couple of other towns you might consider are Ipswich and Newburyport. Ipswich is an antique shop kind of town, and Newburyport is a nice affluent walkable kind of town. Both of them used to be a bit less jammed with summertime out-of-towners than some other towns are, but I hear that both towns may have become more of a destination for visitors than they used to be. Another North Shore town to consider is Rockport. Rockport is a funny mix of classically quaint New England rocky coastline little harbor town, complete with a collection of artists, and nice friendly small town. However, Rockport is another town that gets touristy during the summer.

On the South Shore, another town to consider, depending on what you're looking for in local character, is Duxbury. High-priced town, but with the housing budget you're talking about you should be able to afford Duxbury. However, though Duxbury is another town I'm not intimately familiar with, I hear that it's a spread out, sort of rural-suburban kind of town, where you'd have to get used to driving everywhere. Nice town, though, if that sort of layout appeals to you.

Speaking of driving eveywhere, regarding your question about traffic, well, you're talking about a large metro area here, and there is some traffic you'll encounter while moving around the area, but mostly you won't find any seriously heavy traffic in the suburbs outside of some main roads and their feeders during commuting hours. You would most likely learn fairly quickly which back roads use to avoid the heaviest traffic during the commuting hours. As for people traveling the area, each suburban town will tend to have its own individual character, but until you get well out to the outer fringes of the metro area, the towns kind of run into each other, so there is a lot of local travel for shopping, and often for work, all around entire sections of the metro area.

Okay, I've thought of another town for you to consider . . . Beverly. Beverly is a classic fairly walkable older kind of suburb that just happens to be located on the coast. They have a small harbor, but I'm not sure whether there is a local beach.

One final point to consider if you're looking at coastal living in the Boston area is that generally the ocean water is quite a bit colder north of Cape Cod than it is along the south side of the Cape and the rest of the southern New England coast. On the other hand, some beaches have generally milder water than others (mild being a relative term, however), and even at the same beach, the water temperature can vary from year to year, depending on how warm each summer is overall.

So, there's a bit more info for you to chew on. Best of luck with your search.

[Atlantica]

The entire south shore can be snobby. Materialism abounds. Even in low end towns, there is no escaping it. That being said, you can still find terrific people who will share your ideals and values. I often find that it is not those who have the most that are the snobbiest, it is those who want to appear to be that person who are.

Duxbury would be considered the snobbiest of the towns you are speaking of. Even people who live in the very affluent and lovely seaside town of Cohasset call it "Deluxebury". There are definite distinctions made about different areas of the town. I find all of it to be desirable but there are places considered "less desirable" and as such, so are it's residents.

Cohasset is a beautiful town as well with wonderful beaches and a quaint downtown area and excellent schools. It's worth looking into. (check out artist Donna Green and her hometown series online and you can get a feel for what Cohasset is). Hingham, while beautiful as well lacks good beaches that the latter two offer.

All 3 have terrific school systems but the most affluent families will send their children to private schools for at least high school. The preferred seems to be Thayer Academy in Braintree. Again, not neccessary but often done. The parents who I have known have done this for the good of their kids and not for status.

Good luck in your search. I'd highly suggest trying to come to the area and attend some local events. You can meet locals and get a feel for the tone of a town. My personal preference are sporting events like football. Those seem to bring out a good sampling of the entire demographic and one can get a first hand glimpse of a town's inhabitants in the wild.

PS I do not know much about the north shore but it is gorgeous!

[weslv05]

Thanks so much for the responses, this is really helpful information. One other question to add to the pile - are any of the areas (south or north, towns or regions) particularly transient and/or ingrown? Once again, I know that this is case specific and probably depends heavily on individual experience, but is it possible to make a generalization one way or another? I think we're hoping to find something in between - certainly not a town where you never fit in if you didn't grow up there, but also not a town where the entire population seems to turn over every five years. Thoughts?

Any other comments or suggestions about previous questions would be appreciated as well