Considering moving to Boston from Silicon Valley (Cambridge, Waltham: best towns, loan)

[CrystalClearWave]

My husband (then boyfriend) and I moved to the Bay Area about 10 years ago, and enjoyed nice weather, beautiful scenery, great outdoor activities, as well as tremendous career opportunities (we are both in high tech) in the past. However, after having 2 kids, I just don't feel it is the right place to raise family because I always wanted a nice big house to raise kids, but house conditions in South Bay (Cupertino/Sunnyvale/San Jose, etc) are not only expensive but rather old (lot's of ranch style houses). With our combined salary of $250k and a decent downpayment of $500k+, we could afford a somewhat big house (2000 sqft) in a good school district in Cupertino, but the house was 40+ years old and I really don't like houses that old (less than 20 years maybe ok, but 40 years...). Besides, that house would still cost us around $1.2 million and we would still carry almost $700k loan. So with so much financial pressure and poor living standard, I really don't see the point of living in the Bay Area any more.

As my husband and I both came from Canada (Toronto area), so initially we were considering moving back to Toronto for better quality of life and being close to extended family/relatives, but we still feel that U.S. offers better job opportunies and higher salaries. Also, with the recent Canadian$ rally and US$ going to trash, Canada becomes a too expensive place for us to return giving that all our assets are in US$. As an alternative, we are considering moving to the Boston Area, and have some questions about the area:

1. Which outskirt areas in Boston have the most high tech jobs?
2. How's salary in Boston comparing the the SF Bay Area?
3. I heard Boston is also expensive, but by just briefly looking online, I found houses there are a lot more affordable than the Bay Area. Can $800k-$900k get me a pretty decent newer house with good public schools there?
4. I heard Boston's public schools are not that great. Is that true? Which areas have better schools?
5. Any recommendations on other areas in the U.S. where there are lots of high tech jobs, good public schools, great culture, open minded people, and reasonable cost of living?

[brightdoglover]

Friend,
$800K-$900K will get you almost anything you want in most towns with incredible schools! You sure have been looking at Bay area prices for too long. If you really have that much to spend, you have many great choices.
High tech jobs, clusters in different areas. Cambridge is one. Lexington (yes, where "the shot heard 'round the world" came from) is very convenient to tech in Bedford/Burlington/Hanscom AFB, and is one of the best towns in the world for community spirit and family and schools, or so I hear.
Tech is sort of clustered along Rt. 128 (north of, and including Waltham) and along I-495, largely from Rt.2 north into southern New Hampshire. Again, with your budget, you could choose almost anything. Boston itself is not convenient to any tech jobs, and there are no schools that would interest you. With that budget, if you lived in Beacon Hill or Back Bay, you'd happily be able to pay private school- but commutes to tech jobs would be lousy.
Consider historic Concord/Walden Pond! (or adjacent Lincoln). Beautiful, historic, community, schools.
I'd vote for a strong look at Lexington. It's so wonderful, and very well located to different highways for different jobs, and even a relatively easy drive into Cambridge if need be.
There tends to be less tech south of the Boston area/Mass Pike. It's mostly north and west. There are many companies along Rt.128 in Waltham, and Lexington would be an easy hop from there.
Oh, consider Belmont. Adjacent to Waltham and Cambridge, superb schools, great access to everything, lovely old homes and greenery, and great location for many mentioned tech areas.
I am posting from night job in Belmont right now. People who work here come from miles around in every direction. It's very centrally located.
I'd wish you good luck, but with your budget and IT skills, you have many choices. As for salaries, I think they're roughly the same, but don't have current info from techie friends. (Any guy I meet who lives west of 128 is usually some kinda engineer geek).

[brightdoglover]

"Any recommendations on other areas in the U.S. where there are lots of high tech jobs, good public schools, great culture, open minded people, and reasonable cost of living?"

P.S. probably nowhere. Maybe Austin? (way too hot...) No one has culture like Boston or San Francisco. I think you could happily come to metro Boston (north/northwest of the city, that is, out Rt.2 West and maybe a little down to the Mass Pike to Westboro).

[smarty]

Originally Posted by brightdoglover

"Any recommendations on other areas in the U.S. where there are lots of high tech jobs, good public schools, great culture, open minded people, and reasonable cost of living?"

P.S. probably nowhere. Maybe Austin? (way too hot...) No one has culture like Boston or San Francisco. I think you could happily come to metro Boston (north/northwest of the city, that is, out Rt.2 West and maybe a little down to the Mass Pike to Westboro).

With vague terms like "great", "good", "lots", "reasonable"... it could be anywhere.

Her "reasonable" 2000ft house is $900K. My reasonable 2000ft house is $300K.

[ChunkyMonkey]

1. Which outskirt areas in Boston have the most high tech jobs?
Clusters of high tech are around Rte 128. Highest concentration probably Cambridge, Lexington, Bedford area.

2. How's salary in Boston comparing the the SF Bay Area?
Probably not as high as SF as cost of living is much lower in Boston as compared to SF. So try to find a job first.

3. I heard Boston is also expensive, but by just briefly looking online, I found houses there are a lot more affordable than the Bay Area. Can $800k-$900k get me a pretty decent newer house with good public schools there?
As someone mentioned, with that budget, you're be ok almost everywhere.

4. I heard Boston's public schools are not that great. Is that true? Which areas have better schools?
Boston public schools don't perform as well than other schools in the state, but there are good schools such as Boston Latin. Schools in Massachusetts are among the best in the nation. The latest Nation's Report Card ranked MA number 1 in the country. So, you should be ok. From your post, you should look into Weston, Wellesley, Hopkington area. They have large mansions and are close to tech companies like EMC.

5. Any recommendations on other areas in the U.S. where there are lots of high tech jobs, good public schools, great culture, open minded people, and reasonable cost of living?
Not really. SF and Boston are the top 2 clusters for high tech. You also have Raleigh, which does not have great culture or good public schools but they do have a cheap cost of living. So, you can safe your money to fly somewhere else for culture and pay for private schools

[smarty]

Originally Posted by ChunkyMonkey

14. I heard Boston's public schools are not that great. Is that true? Which areas have better schools?
Boston public schools don't perform as well than other schools in the state, but there are good schools such as Boston Latin. Schools in Massachusetts are among the best in the nation. The latest Nation's Report Card ranked MA number 1 in the country. So, you should be ok. From your post, you should look into Weston, Wellesley, Hopkington area. They have large mansions and are close to tech companies like EMC.

Boston is a city. Just like San Francisco, the city public school is not good. To solve the problem, Boston created exam school (Like Boston Latin) where you have to take an exam to get in (7 and 9th grade). Like San Franciso, there are many great private K-12 schools also. A good kindergarten is harder to get in than Harvard. The suburb public school is almost as good as Cupertino.

"High Tech" is a very broad term. What specific area are you looking for? As you know, the big high tech companies out west are very small here. Examples are Cisco and Intel. However, we do have EMC and Raytheon. There are definitely more opportunities out west than in MA.

Boston area is fairly small. Look at a map of Boston. From downtown Boston, a 40 mile radius is about it for most "high tech" company. You already in another state. As someone says, Take a look at the job market first.

[CrystalClearWave]

Originally Posted by smarty

The suburb public school is almost as good as Cupertino.

"High Tech" is a very broad term. What specific area are you looking for? As you know, the big high tech companies out west are very small here. Examples are Cisco and Intel. However, we do have EMC and Raytheon. There are definitely more opportunities out west than in MA.

Are there any websites that ranks public school in Boston suburb area?

As for "high tech", my husband and I are both in networking/data communication. Although I did work for big companies like Cisco before, it doesn't have to limit to companies of that size. In fact, my husband is more interested in small start up companies where there are more innovations and dynamics, which was one of the reasons we moved to silicon valley to begin with.


I think brightdoglover is right about me looking at bay area price for too long, and now my definition of "affordability" got lifted up big time. Nevertheless, if I can get a house that meets my expection for less, I'd still prefer not shooting up to the $800k-$900k range.

[scarletfire]

schooldigger.com
bostonmagazine.com (I'd look in archives or special reports)
boston.com/realestate/community
MCAS - Boston.com

Re: picking a town, there's also a funny article at The Best Places to Live - Boston Magazine (http://www.bostonmagazine.com/articles/the_best_places_to_live/ - broken link) you might enjoy. I don't agree with all of (for ex, I wouldn't live in Chelsea ever!) but some points are interesting.

[smarty]

Just beware MCAS scores just like other scores are biased. MA Depart of Ed do not rank. Newspaper here tries to rank. Rank can change quickly from year to year. No1 this year could be 15 next. It is that little difference. Scores tracks well with education level and income of parents. It does not mean your kid will have that score. Also, if a town has high number of english as second language students or special needs students, it will affect the scores.

As to high tech companies, I do not know the network area. I thought many leading smaller companies were bought by Intel and Cisco a few years ago. I'm sure there're more innovative companies now. Hence, I suggest look for a job first. It is not easy to get VC money. Many startup companies went out of business. Here's a good website to start looking.
Mass High Tech: The Journal of New England Technology: Local Business News

[MagicTouch]

There are high tech companies out here in MA, just depends on what you are looking for and the salary range. You may not make what you made in Silicon Valley. I just moved here from MA and do contract Network Security. I contract with Apex Systems, Inc. and I am currently contracted to MIT/LL. Besides them you have Raytheon, Boeing, Mitre Corp, Hansom AFB and others.

I wish both you in your husband the best in finding a new job in MA and your possible relocation.