Questions about North Shore

[konfetka]

Originally Posted by superleggera

Konfetka
I got your point. Compare to Lowell, Beverly is quite a decent town for families. Happy to hear all the wonderful activities that are not exclusive to the Beverly residents. You have truly picked the best town for your family.

This forum's purpose is to provide information about towns for people who have no idea about them. Not sure why you have so much personal animosity towards Beverly, that you have to put down their schools and start personal attacks, but your statements completely misrepresent the town. I don't know may be you are jealous of all their "new gadgets and buildings" or that's what makes you feel better about your own town and yourself.

It fits OP's budget and she doesn't even need schools.

Lowell is about the worst performing school district in Mass. Beverly is a 6 on greatschools, which means it is better than the average in Mass. Since Mass is number 1 in the country, it means that it is better them most schools in the US. As I have shown you their SAT's are not that far behind Swampscott's. It gets 200 out-of-district students.



When I had originally asked questions about Beverly I was talking about the renting market and low-income families, which is quite different from 'working class,' since some of those families would not even be working.

Beverly has a lot of singles, young couples and retirees, because of it's walkability and available rentals close to train, downtown and beaches.

Since I have done my research, it turns out that Beverly schools are underestimated on paper, because it has to educate more low-income kids than an average homogeneous small town. Research in Massachusetts has shown that only 13% of student achievement can be attributed to a school, and the rest is demographics, which makes sense because in Mass there is universal curriculum.

Post#16 //www.city-data.com/forum/bosto...l#post24290873

"We do it on one income, as many of my friends do, too.*There are towns here for many different income levels. There are inexpensive towns with many recent immigrants and blue collar working class like Revere, Lynn, Salem and Peabody.*Then there are towns with a mix of some blue collar and middle class, like Beverly and Danvers. They have a lot of affordable houses and good, not the best schools.*Then there are towns further away, which are relatively affordable because of a longer commute, and good, but not the best schools, such as Ipswich, Georgetown and Newbury.Sorry, I am only talking about the North Shore, because that's what I am most familiar with, but I am sure you will find the same south and west of Boston.House price is really a factor of school quality and distance to Boston. Considering Massachusetts has the best schools in the country, good schools here could be better than best schools somewhere else."

Sounds like you admitted that Beverly has a bad reputation for school. You really get what you pay for.

Thank you for putting your words in my mouth, but you should re-read it again. I said "Beverly has good, not the best schools", and "Beverly has a mix of blue collar and middle class."

That is different from what you said: "I would rule out Beverly because the reputation of It's school system and most of the areas in Beverly are working class."

You are clearly the one who are discriminating against the working class. My own husband is 'working class' and he makes more in two months that I did in a year with my masters degree.

[bookdoctor]

Thank you everyone for all your contributions to my original question! For the record, I don't have anything against living in a working class or lower-middle class area. I mentioned that I have lived in middle/upper-middle class parts of the cities I mentioned to contextualize my expectations of crime. There are lots of car break-ins and the occasional stabbing and mugging in my current middle/upper-middle class neighborhood - everything got worse once the recession hit us really hard.

Not having lived in any of the places everyone has been discussing, it's really helpful to see the multiple perspectives on different areas. Having gone up to North Shore this weekend, I'm leaning towards Salem, specifically around the Common, McIntyre District, and the Derby Wharf area. Since I'm looking for a 2 bedroom condo, I think I can find something well under by budget constraints.

[rasengan]

Lynn has some really nice places . I will admit though that the downtown area is a bit rough.

[bookdoctor]

I just wanted to thank everyone who advised me on this thread. I bought a place in Salem, right by the water and by the common and I could not be happier!