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My husband and I are looking to move to Bedford. One of us works in Boston & the other in Waltham & we are planning on starting a family soon so we feel like Bedford is a good town for us. We are looking to spend 650-700k. We are finding that in our price range there is only really a lot of raised ranches. We've seen some beautiful raised ranches but have decided it's not the style home for us. We recently saw a beautiful house that hits every mark for us except it's on a main road (Chelmsford Road) so we won't have the "neighborhood feel" once we have children. For those that live in Bedford do you advise us to stay away from Chelsmford Road? Just not sure we will find a house that hits all of our must haves (4 beds, central air, gas, 0.5 acres, turn key) on a side street in our price range unless we get a raised ranch!
My husband and I are looking to move to Bedford. One of us works in Boston & the other in Waltham & we are planning on starting a family soon so we feel like Bedford is a good town for us. We are looking to spend 650-700k. We are finding that in our price range there is only really a lot of raised ranches. We've seen some beautiful raised ranches but have decided it's not the style home for us. We recently saw a beautiful house that hits every mark for us except it's on a main road (Chelmsford Road) so we won't have the "neighborhood feel" once we have children. For those that live in Bedford do you advise us to stay away from Chelsmford Road? Just not sure we will find a house that hits all of our must haves (4 beds, central air, gas, 0.5 acres, turn key) on a side street in our price range unless we get a raised ranch!
Never buy a house on a road with a line painted down the middle of the road.
Never buy a house on a road with a line painted down the middle of the road.
If road noise bothers you, stay away. If you're worried about your kids running into traffic or want a quite side street for them to play on, then stay away. If all of the downsides of busy street don't bother you, though, I don't see why you have to avoid these properties.
I know a lot of people say, "those houses are going to be hard to sell". They're also harder to sell right now, which means you can get them at a discount. If you don't discount the house as much as the market does that's a great opportunity. It's certainly easier to overpay for such a house, so you have to be careful when purchasing near a busy street, but there's no reason to uniformly avoid these houses.
Every once in a while a nice raised ranch, redone, with smartly done lower level does come up
Our house is a tri-level raised ranch. The bedrooms are half a level up from the living areas(kitchen, living, dining, den, upper garage) Entry on the main level. Basement has guest room, huge gym, huge family room/playroom and lower garage within its 1800sq ft. It's super versatile and it's great to have guests and kids crap completely separated from my more formal living areas.
My point is to give ranches a chance. They aren't all created equal
The only reason I would stay away from Chelmsford Rd or that end of Bedford is the 10-15 minutes it will take you to get to 128 during peak commuting times on Rt 4/225.
Personally, I wouldn't own a home on a main road. That's just me.
I like the area of Bedford closer to route 62 and Great Meadows Wildlife Refuge. There are always dog walkers and families walking and cycling around there. It is a short bike ride to Concord center and more convenient to the West Concord train stop should the Boston commuter decide they prefer not to drive to Boston some days. There are also back roads near there for getting to Waltham.
Bedford makes me think Burlington is very under valued
15 years ago Bedford, Burlington, Tewksbury, Billerica, Wilmington were similarly ranked. Bedford was regarded as a town of struggling military families. There were areas filled with trailers outside the base. As Hanscom became more commercialized, Bedford became more of a yuppie Concord alternate town. Tewksbury and Wilmington once had many more employers. When these two towns lost jobs, they became less well regarded. As Burlington continues to gain major employers and shopping areas become updated, it becomes the sleeper of the group.
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Like everything, it depends
