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Metro Boston will easily have the best public school systems. The towns are very socioeconomically segregated and have autonomous school systems. You will have no problem affording the bluest of blue chip suburban towns on internal medicine comp. With a 2 year old and a residency, you will be renting. Metro Boston also has higher medical compensation rates. Towns like Lexington are now very Asian white collar professional. The High School is 41% Asian.
A few things about Massachusetts:
There is a flat 5% state income tax. The state just adopted a millionaire tax but you’re unlikely to bump into it since it is inflation-adjusted.
Massachusetts has a property tax relief amendment to the state constitution. For the bluest of blue states, the property taxes are reasonable.
Off your list, Boston has the best public transportation with Philly a close second. The teaching hospitals are almost all near commuter rail or subway.
In the US, only the San Francisco Bay Area has a more educated population. It’s much more white collar than the other cities on your list.
During your three year residency, you’re not going to be able to afford the blue chip town but you won’t need the school system yet.
The Finger Lakes and the Hudson Valley are closer to the Philadelphia area, so that comment really isn't accurate.
Also important to consider that Philadelphia also has access to boatload of activities and natural destinations to its west and south, like the Laurel Highlands, Amish Country (which easily offers the best farmland in the Northeast), the Chesapeake Bay, Virginia Wine Country, Deep Creek Lake, etc.
Variety is absolutely not lacking in the Mid-Atlantic by any stretch, and Philadelphia is at the center of it.
I mean, I’m taking the variety in ocean beaches and towns, and islands, and hills, and mountains in New England. And I’m taking Greater Boston’s immediate access to it - as in, within the metro and surrounding areas - over Greater Philadelphia.
The point in my response was - You don’t need to go to Burlington or Acadia for it. And I’m sure the poster knows that. And the other point was, Jersey doesn’t have more variety than the ocean front found across RI/MA/ME, in equal distance from the two cities. That’s crazy talk. In fact, the variety in New England’s coast has been weaponized against it by Philadelphians in other posts. Can’t really go both ways.
End of the day, it’s like anywhere else in the United States, really. I’m choosing to live on the ocean, or next to it, vs not. I’d assume upwards of 1M+ people in Massachusetts live in a community located on the water. That’s a huge advantage, in my mind, for a city and metro like Boston. Forget the access to everything else. It’s easy for someone, who doesn’t live on the ocean, to say it doesn’t matter or ignore how important that probably is. But I can’t imagine, for those afforded the luxury to do so, you’d pick against it.
Tell someone from Hingham, or Beverly, or Newburyport, that they can move to a nice suburb inland. Even a move within Massachusetts. They’ll look at you like you have three heads and say… “Why would I ever want to leave the ocean?”.
The flip side is, Philadelphia is more centrally located for extended trips. And it sees longer seasons. It’s that much easier to fet to VA, or TN, or NC. That stuff matters. But when we are talking repeatable day trips/weekend trips/second homes/convenience of it all, again, New England for me in a runaway contest.
I mean, I’m taking the variety in ocean beaches and towns, and islands, and hills, and mountains in New England over the Mid-Atlantic. And I’m taking Greater Boston’s immediate access to it - as in, within the metro and surrounding areas - over Greater Philadelphia.
The point in my response was - You don’t need to go to Burlington or Acadia for it. And I’m sure the poster knows that. And the other point was, Jersey doesn’t have more variety than the ocean front found across RI/MA/ME, in equal distance from the two cities. That’s crazy talk. In fact, the variety in New England’s coast has been weaponized against it by Philadelphians in other posts. Can’t really go both ways.
The weird thing is you're the one who said being close to Vermont and Maine was a boon, but have now replied twice saying it doesn't matter lol. I picked Burlington just because it's the biggest place and there are a variety of mountains within distance. You can obviously pick places closer. Also in the grand scheme of other skiing/snowboarding, the fact that the pocono mountains are basically an hour north up the turnpike, I don't think anyone really cares because it's just for the night or day anyway. If you want to go bigger, you go further away and that holds true in Boston too. I have never heard anyone in my life say "Oh I wish we had the mountain access Boston has!"
But the beaches is what I want to talk about though, because that's actually what I compared. The beach culture in MA and the cape is one note. 1/3rd stuffy-rich, 1/3rd country redneck, 1/3rd touristy. Feel free to correct me, but ascetically too, there is little variation beyond the New England shingled houses that dot the coast line. The NJ/DEL/MD beaches are way more diverse and you can be in a little low plains coastal town that might as well be Eastern North Carolina by the way it feels. Or you can go to actual cities on the beach. Or massive boardwalks bigger than you have ever seen. Want to go to Myrtle Beach and party? Don't have to, you can just go to OCMD and do the same thing. Provincetown isn't it ha.
I could find more pictures, that would back up my comment. I've lived in two cities, and visited Minneapolis many times. It's the lakefront downtown, and other areas of Milwaukee that are reminiscent. The pics you chose could be anywhere in the Midwest.
I agree to an extent that the last two shots resemble a lot of different places in the Midwest or Interior Northeast. I also think it's true that they look a lot more like Chicago than they do Minneapolis.
Completely forgot about Conshy, which is an old industrial town that got an edge city grafted onto it when a major freeway interchange was completed just outside it.
I guess that, all those apartment buildings along the Schuylkill notwithstanding, I still don't think of Conshy as a place to live but rather a place to visit. Guess I need an attitude adjustment.
Shopping's weak in Conshohocken, but King of Prussia's just up the road from it, and it checks off all the other boxes (though commuting by rail from it to U-City takes you through Center City despite its location).
Yes, I just feel like geography is a more important point than was being made. Clayton fits the definition of an edge city well. A place that will even assume the name of it's principle city. For instance, just looking at the map, the "Four Seasons - St. Louis" is in Clayton. It's an adjacent municipality to the principle city that has it's own history but also has benefited from an increased employment base due to it's geography. It's a place, a corporation might relocate their HQ even though it's a suburb.
The weird thing is you're the one who said being close to Vermont and Maine was a boon, but have now replied twice saying it doesn't matter lol. I picked Burlington just because it's the biggest place and their are a variety of mountains within distance. You can obviously pick places closer. Also in the grand scheme of other skiing/snowboarding, the fact that the pocono mountains are basically an hour north up the turnpike, I don't think anyone really cares because it's just for the night or day anyway. If you want to go bigger, you go further away and that holds true in Boston too. I have never heard anyone in my life say "Oh I wish we had the mountain access Boston has!"
But the beaches is what I want to talk about though, because that's actually what I compared. The beach culture in MA and the cape is one note. 1/3rd stuffy-rich, 1/3rd country redneck, 1/3rd touristy. Feel free to correct me, but ascetically too, there is little variation beyond the New England shingled houses that dot the coast line.
In response to the top paragraph, respectfully, I can all but guarantee less people in Boston say “I want the mountain access” or “access to nature” that Philadelphia has. And that’s really the point. New England gets a messss load of PA/NJ license plates year around. Be it Newport, RI, or Bar Harbor, ME, or Burlington, VT, or anywhere in between. Again, I can say with real confidence, that more people head this way for destinations, than vice versa (speaking specifically on ocean/lakes/mountains/hiking).
I know a lot of people from Eastern Massachusetts - having spent much of my youth and post collegiate life - that have been to the Outer Banks, or the Smokey Mountains, or even Annapolis. I know few, if any, that took trips to the Poconos or the Jersey Shore. It just is, as they say, what it is.
Now, as far as the second paragraph, I don’t really disagree. When you say variety, you seem to be focusing on architectural variety and the “approachability” of the mid Atlantic seashore. Which is where this conversation usually ends up. And to that I’d say, I definitely think that’s true.
I was viewing variety as in uniqueness of the towns/cities/topography within a days window from each.
In response to the top paragraph, respectfully, I can all but guarantee less people in Boston say “I want the mountain access” or “access to nature” that Philadelphia has. And that’s really the point. New England gets a messss load of PA/NJ license plates year around. Be it Newport, RI, or Bar Harbor, ME, or Burlington, VT, or anywhere in between. Again, I can say with real confidence, that more people head this way for destinations, than vice versa.
I know a lot of people from Eastern Massachusetts - having spent much of my youth and post collegiate life - that have been to the Outer Banks, or the Smokey Mountains, or even Annapolis. I know few, if any, that took trips to the Poconos or the Jersey Shore. It just is, as they say, what it is.
Now, as far as the second paragraph, I don’t really disagree. When you say variety, you seem to be focusing on architectural variety and the “approachability” of the mid Atlantic seashore. Which is where this conversation usually ends up. And to that I’d say, I definitely think that’s true.
I was viewing variety as in uniqueness of the towns/cities/topography within a days window from each.
When I say variety I mean things to do, things to see, things to eat, places to stay. Variety. Which if you drew a 90-120min circle around Boston, it's almost all exactly the same. It's nice, it's quiet. Feels like the northern Philly suburbs, just replace the boat culture with horse farms. I have been to every place you mentioned lol. It is what it is as they say
When I say variety I mean things to do, things to see, things to eat, places to stay. Variety. Which if you drew a 90-120min circle around Boston, it's almost all exactly the same. It's nice, it's quiet. Feels like the northern Philly suburbs, just replace the boat culture with horse farms. I have been to every place you mentioned lol. It is what it is as they say
When it comes to coastal towns, or mountain towns, or wine country, or anything in between… What are the top 5/top 10 places that come to mind in that 90/120 minute window of Philadelphia?
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