Need The Right "Kind" of Boston Suburb - Can you help? (Acton: closing, live)

[Brave Stranger]

The talk about McMansions in greater Boston tends to set people off a bit. I have a classic 1950s ranch in Arlington on the Lexington town line. When I purchased it several years ago I got into a slight bidding war with a builder who was going to put up a million dollar McMansion on a street with an average home price of about 550k.

Now....the bad is the house cost me 20k more than I wanted to pay for it. The good is that he went the next street over & put up a million dollar house on a run-down property that he knocked down. Helps my property values. There's a gray area with this: it improves the neighborhood, but it hurts the middle class family as another 500k ranch or cape is gone forever.

There's no easy answers to this issue. Heck...first thing I did to my ranch is add on an addtion. Every town is different. This building of McMansions is helping Arlington, or at least Arlington Heights where my property is IMO. Arlington used to be a town where once the kids reached school-age people moved to Lexington or Belmont & Winchester if they could afford to....these days not so much.

Nice thing about the Heights is aside from a McMansion here or there the builders are, in general, gutting existing homes without adding more square feet. In the case of Arlington, between replacing all the schools with new buildings, and having a lot of new housing stock has really pushed the town into a different place.

I get why people in Lexington are getting sick of McMansions. In East Lexington, on the Arlington town line near Busa farm they have built these huge homes on very small lots....it just hits you in the face. Lexington was already one of the top communties in the state. McMansions being added into the mix is not doing that much for the town. Mike is having a whole different experience in his town.

[NickF2219]

If you're considering the south shore too I would certainly check out Duxbury, Hingham or Norwell too.

[MikePRU]

This was a fun thread from a few months ago. Sunny, did you ever find a house? I'm sure everyone would love an update.

[tribechamy]

I was thinking about you too, Sunny. News please!

[495neighbor]

Sunny, looking forward to hearing where you landed.

[donewithpretty]

Did someone PM Sunny? Most people don't subscribe to threads, but PMs generally go to email accounts.

[MikePRU]

I did not PM her. My hope was that if I bumped the thread she would see it, but according to her profile page she hasn't logged on to the site since the beginning of November.

[SunnyHoney]

Howdy kind folks!

I've been off the forum for a while, with the moving and settling and all! So here's our update:

We bought a lovely home in....drumroll please....Sudbury! We could not be happier with our decision of town, home, and neighborhood. We found the absolute perfect fit for a GREAT price. We love the school, the neighbors, and every square inch of our home and lot.

Okay, so there is very little diversity here, but of course we expected that to be the case. I doubt that there is any less diversity here than in many of the neighborhoods we've lived in during the past decade. The important thing is that we've found what we were looking for: kind, welcoming, down-to-earth, fun, family-oriented people. And Sudbury has more than its fair share of them. Race has not been an issue at all so far, though I'm not so naive as to think that it never will...but that is a reality and would be anywhere we'd live.

So our fairytale has a happy ending, and all is well in the kingdom.

The input, discussion, and even debate on this thread were all invaluable in helping us make our ultimate decision, and I thank you folks immensely!

It's so cool to think I may have met a couple of you in person by now. If you live in Sudbury, you're not likely to miss us because we're quickly getting assimilated into the community. Not to mention, we're probably the only chipper Black family that has moved in recently!

Cheers!

[MikePRU]

Thanks for coming back to let us know how things turned out! Personally, I like that you are adding a little diversity to Sudbury. If more people had your pioneering spirit the suburbs around here might not be so uniform.

[495neighbor]

Originally Posted by SunnyHoney

Howdy kind folks!

I've been off the forum for a while, with the moving and settling and all! So here's our update:

We bought a lovely home in....drumroll please....Sudbury! We could not be happier with our decision of town, home, and neighborhood. We found the absolute perfect fit for a GREAT price. We love the school, the neighbors, and every square inch of our home and lot.

Okay, so there is very little diversity here, but of course we expected that to be the case. I doubt that there is any less diversity here than in many of the neighborhoods we've lived in during the past decade. The important thing is that we've found what we were looking for: kind, welcoming, down-to-earth, fun, family-oriented people. And Sudbury has more than its fair share of them. Race has not been an issue at all so far, though I'm not so naive as to think that it never will...but that is a reality and would be anywhere we'd live.

So our fairytale has a happy ending, and all is well in the kingdom.

The input, discussion, and even debate on this thread were all invaluable in helping us make our ultimate decision, and I thank you folks immensely!

It's so cool to think I may have met a couple of you in person by now. If you live in Sudbury, you're not likely to miss us because we're quickly getting assimilated into the community. Not to mention, we're probably the only chipper Black family that has moved in recently!

Cheers!

Parsec and Town of Sudbury 1 | Rest of the People on Massachusetts C-D 0

Sunny, I think many of us wish you picked one of our towns instead. I'm certain your positivity will bring cheer to everyone around you. Congratulations and an official welcome to Massachusetts.