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Old 03-06-2012, 11:49 AM
 
Location: Charlton, MA
1,395 posts, read 5,075,242 times
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I'm hoping that my friend will come over here and read some of this stuff herself eventually. I've gotten some more information. They're expressing a like for what they are seeing in Franklin, MA. Their budget is $350 & under. I think they are interested in having good Catholic schools available, but may want to try out the public schools first. I know they wouldn't want to be in an area where the public schools weren't desirable. It's always nice to have options especially when you have 5 kids.

Thanks for all your responses so far. I am passing the info along.
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Old 03-07-2012, 12:02 PM
 
404 posts, read 824,393 times
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Ok, so they need to be at Northeastern daily for $350k with a yard. Catholic schools are everywhere but I would also error on the side of decent schools. Northeastern is by the Ruggles commuter rail/subway stop. The three suburban lines that stop at this station directly are the Needham line, the Franklin line and the Providence/Stoughton line. The further you get away from Boston the more expensive the train pass is, to contrast Roslindale is 15 minutes (zone 1) and costs $135 a month while Franklin is zone 6 and costs $223 a month and you may have to pay to park ($4/day at commercial lots) at the station unless you can walk. So that needs to be factored in. Almost anywhere within a half-hour train ride is going to be tight on $350k.

Needham line: West Roxbury & Roslindale you might be able to wait it out and score a fixer upper but it will not be large. If they need to go to public schools these communitys are in Boston Public and it is lottery system and grim. Once they are old enough they can test into a good magnet in the Latin schools though, so you could get away with only paying for catholic elementary. Other communities on this line are not affordable.

Franklin line: Walpole, Dedham, Norfolk and Franklin may all work. I know that Walpole and Franklin have the better schools, Walpole has a prison which may not be to someone's likeing, and some issues with proximity to the debated new development of a casino in Foxboro.

Providence/Stoughton: They could get something small in the bedroom community of Sharon, excellent public schools. Sharon is known for the density of it's jewish population so I am not sure that there would be a catholic school right in-town. Canton would be similar in affordability; the schools are less good than Sharon, but they are still good. Both of these communities are a very decent half hour or so commute on the train with lots of paid parking available. Mansfield would be another community to look into, I don't have first hand knowledge.

Once they have exhausted exploring those options you could look at Malden, it is affordable and rather gritty but close in to town and has an orange line stop that they could ride to Ruggles in 30 minutes, additionally there are commuter rail lines that run north that stop in Malden that would allow him to get off and wait in Malden for the orange line to Ruggles. This would add 10-15 fallow minutes of waiting to the commute, but open up the communities of Reading, Melrose and Wakefield. Reading having the better schools of those three but each are fine. Melrose being the more dense and urban, Melrose also has a bus that takes you the Oak Grove orange line stop in Malden from which he could get to Ruggles.
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