where to live around Springfield, MA (Westfield, Amherst: neighborhood, elementary school, colleges)

[jonamoving]

My family will be moving to Springfield MA, and are looking for advice on where to live. We are in our mid-thirties with two daughters (9 and 7). We are looking to live in the suburbs in a family friendly neighborhood(Within a 30 min drive from downtown Springfield). Excellent schools are a must! We will be looking to spend around $400,000 on a home. We are currently living in Minnesota, but have mostly lived in the Pacific Northwest...so hints or tips on life in New England would be great. We love to camp, ski snowmobile and hike.

[lawmom]

Longmeadow has good schools, and I think you can find something in your price range, though it won't be anything great probably -- it's kind of expensive there. 30 minutes from Springfield, I think you could do Northampton or Amherst -- great areas -- Amherst schools are better, I believe.

[WineCountry]

East Longmeadow, Wilbraham, Longmeadow, and yes Amherst/northampton area.

Notice Springfield is not listed.

[western mass and love it]

i would also try West Springfield , Agawam , Westfield , the forest park and east forest park sections of Springfield and sixteen acres too. Ludlow is also a very nice place to live.please do not the Springfield haters scare you,it is not nearly as bad as these people make it out to be.

[FutureSoxFan?]

Originally Posted by jonamoving

My family will be moving to Springfield MA, and are looking for advice on where to live. We are in our mid-thirties with two daughters (9 and 7). We are looking to live in the suburbs in a family friendly neighborhood(Within a 30 min drive from downtown Springfield). Excellent schools are a must! We will be looking to spend around $400,000 on a home. We are currently living in Minnesota, but have mostly lived in the Pacific Northwest...so hints or tips on life in New England would be great. We love to camp, ski snowmobile and hike.

Pacific northwest to Minnesota to Springfield? STOP FOLLOWING ME AROUND!!!!!!

LOL, that's been exactly my path.

Agree with above postings. "Best" regional public schools are probably Longmeadow and Wilbraham. You should definitely be able to find a place in Wilbraham in your price range, Longmeadow is a bit pricier.

Amherst and Northhampton might be OK too but you will definitely be stretching your 30 minute commute time, especially with Amherst.

You could also think about towns in northern Connecticut (Somers, Enfield, Suffield). Decent areas and pretty quick run up the highway to Springfield.

[palmettobelle]

Western Mass is a very nice area with loads to do. My family and I lived in Longmeadow last year but decided to move back to the south due to job issues. Our children were both in elementary school. The education in Longmeadow is wonderful however, we found the children to be very judgemental and seemed to be only interested it what kind of car you have and the kind of clothing and cell phone you own. Crazy to me being they are so young. I have alot of family in Longmeadow, and Wilbraham. You will get just as great an education in the Wilbraham schools with probably more down to earth kids and adults for that matter. We never even met our neighbors while we lived in Longmeadow. That was strange, as we are from the south and very outgoing.
You will probably love New England as well. Our family just probably would have done better with more real people instead of fakers. Best of luck!

[Pioneer Valley Girl]

Palmettobelle, as far as Wilbraham goes, the attitude is pretty much the same. I enjoyed many aspects of living in Wilbraham in the past but the snobbery runs rampant. As of a few years ago, drugs were a major issue at Minnechaug. There were also a variety of structural problems with the school which hopefully at this point have been addressed. Again, this is not to say that Wilbraham is a horrible to live, I loved many aspects of it, but it does have many of the same problems as Longmeadow.

[Silli]

Wilbraham has been in the midst of deciding what to do about their high school- renovate or build new. I think they decided to build a new high school. I grew up in Wilbraham and found the school system to be much less rigorous than people assume, primarily because the population is not large enough to support a very diverse curriculum. Also, the town is more rural in feel and more isolated from activities taking place outside the community (i.e. Springfield/Pioneer Valley groups).
Longmeadow schools have a reputation for high stress and the snobbery mentioned above. My impression is though that they do a better job preparing kids for the elite colleges. Also Longmeadow has a more urban feel and is a short drive from downtown Springfield. I wouldn't want to close my kids off from the city entirely, however, that is just my opinion.