Good Suburbs??? (Boston, Lynn, Newton: houses, transfer to, buy)

[tmwds]

Hello,

Contemplating a move from Seattle to work in downtown Boston. Have 2 young boys (5&7), and would like a large house (4000+ sq ft) with a little bit of land (privacy).

Is there anywhere within reasonable commuting to downtown (30-45 minutes) that has good schools? Can go up to $900k.

Thanks!
Tom

[snatale1]

Originally Posted by tmwds

Hello,

Contemplating a move from Seattle to work in downtown Boston. Have 2 young boys (5&7), and would like a large house (4000+ sq ft) with a little bit of land (privacy).

Is there anywhere within reasonable commuting to downtown (30-45 minutes) that has good schools? Can go up to $900k.

Thanks!
Tom

900k gives you a lot of options you could almost live anywhere. Land gets tricky in a lot of areas but I would suggest Lexington, Concord, Wellesley, Wayland or Sudbury. The further from Boston you get you'll get more land and more importantly for you good schools. The only other thing that may filter towns is how will you be getting into Boston everyday. If your out of your mind enough to drive, it doesn't really matter. If you'll be taking the commuter rail, I'd pull up a map on the T's website and start there. Again, you have MANY choices in your situation so it's very hard to make suggestions. Do you know anything about the Metro Boston area? Any requirements for your new town?

[kmann-sherborn]

Are you planning to take the train? If so it would be good to know where your office will be located to recommend which towns are best based on the train line. For ex, if you're close to Back Bay or South Station suburbs west or south would probably be best.

[kmann-sherborn]

More info in the meantime:
Best Places to Live - Boston Magazine

Best Schools 2010: The Rankings - Boston Magazine

Identifying the Top Massachusetts Public School Systems: Which Ones Make the Grade?

21 Massachusetts schools made the U.S. News & World Report’s annual list of Best Public High Schools, including Lexington, Medfield, Millis, Needham, Wayland, and Wellesley High Schools, which were all recognized as Silver Medal Schools, and Hopkinton and Weston High Schools, which both received honorable mentions.

[gf2020]

$900K would get you pretty close to your requirements in Reading and Lynnfield. Winchester would be another choice, but the lot sizes are typically a bit smaller.

[DreamworksSKG]

Try Arlington heights or Winchester

Winchester is an excellent town with commuter rail into Boston, amenities right in town, lots of great youth programs, music program, sports, etc etc.
after school programs, etc. one of the top school systems in the country.
etc. Nice Quaint New England style downtown.
Lots of cool events like Town Day, and Enka Fair.
Free Summer movie nights and concerts on the common.

You might check out Arlington heights too
Arlington is on the route of Paul Revere's ride, and has a bike path in town.
good schools, youth programs, etc.
good transit into Boston
busses to Davis Square, and Alewife, and alewife "T"
(red line)

Winchester also has the Middlesex Fells reservation for nature, outdoors, right in our backyard.

[NotAPrincess]

The sticking points in your price range will be square footage and land. Land will trade off with commute time.

You can of course buy a beautiful house for that price in this area, but if you're going to look in the more popular towns, (Newton, Lexington, Winchester) you'll be getting more like 2000-3000 sqft. And, probably not the privacy you want.

Concord might hit the sweet spot for land and commute, plus they have excellent schools. For 900K in Concord you'll get a nice house, but maybe smaller than you want. BUT the concord commuter rail goes into North Station, which means you'd have to transfer to get downtown (though it depends what you mean by downtown....if you could clarify where your office is it would help).

If you really want the space indoors and out, then towns like Reading or Lynnfield would be more suitable. Good luck!

[holden125]

Originally Posted by snatale1

900k gives you a lot of options you could almost live anywhere. Land gets tricky in a lot of areas but I would suggest Lexington, Concord, Wellesley, Wayland or Sudbury.

I don't know if 900k gives you a lot of close in options for a 4,000 square foot house. Most of us here live in far smaller houses than the rest of the country. I doubt you'd get 4,000 square feet in Newton or Wellesley for under a million. Certainly not with sizeable land. You definitely do better as you go out, but be careful with the commute. You'd want to be near the train, make sure that train station has suffcient parking, and check how long it takes to Boston. Don't forget to factor in how far the office is from the train station in Boston. A commute by train takes much longer, door to door, than the listed time on the train schedule.

[Massmailinator]

As others have said, you will have to look a little farther.

Personally I don't think you are going to get much of either in Lexington or that area without it being old and on a small lot, but I could be wrong.

As others have said, I would look at North Reading, Reading, Middleton, Lynnfield, Andover.

Commute time will be closer to the hour mark during rush hour though.

North reading seemed to have more 1+ acre lots with your square footage and land requirements as well as newer homes. Pretty sure these numbers dont include basements and garages. Google them and you will find the listings.

114 Flint Farm Rd Middleton, MA 01949 900k
20 OLDE COACH Rd North Reading, MA 01864 999k 3841 sqft
16 Olde Coach Rd North Reading, MA 01864 879k 3200 sqft
6 Mentus Farm Ln North Reading, MA 01864 774k 3200 sqft
12 Deerfield Pl North Reading, MA 01864 950k 4360 sqft