Moving from burlingame CA to Boston area (Newton, Waltham: condos, houses)

[freetea]

My husband has taken a job offer and will be working in Waltham. We had pretty much decided on lexington but looks like not many houses are on market within our price range and our requirements.

We have two kids 2.5 and 5.5. My daughter just started kindergarten so good school is very important. We love walking to school, shops, library, in fact we can do most everything without getting into the car over here.

Our budget is 1.2 mil. We can go a little over but would love to stay within 1.2.

We had thought about Newton but the schools although performing well seem to be very old (from the reviews in this site). I would hate to move her from brand new school with smart boards to a school which doesn't even have proper classrooms. Are there any areas in newton that are are walkable to shops and school but still has a newer school and within our budget?

I'll be visiting the area soon and would like to make the best of it. I would include Newton in my home search if I could find out if all schools in newton old and dilapidated or if there are some newer schools there?

[sweetvenom1986]

I also wanna move to Boston and posted a question and got no answers I think the people are rude.

[MikePRU]

Originally Posted by freetea

My husband has taken a job offer and will be working in Waltham. We had pretty much decided on lexington but looks like not many houses are on market within our price range and our requirements.

What are your requirements? Is it that you want something new(er)? New construction starts closer to $1.5M in Lexington.

Originally Posted by freetea

We have two kids 2.5 and 5.5. My daughter just started kindergarten so good school is very important. We love walking to school, shops, library, in fact we can do most everything without getting into the car over here.

A lot of the folks who live in the 'burbs of MA spend quite a bit of time in their car. If you can find a town with a developed town center then you'll be able to walk more. The suburbs of Boston came about in a completely different manner than the suburbs on the West Coast. They're not as well organized and they weren't planned but rather slowly evolved.

Originally Posted by freetea

We had thought about Newton but the schools although performing well seem to be very old (from the reviews in this site). I would hate to move her from brand new school with smart boards to a school which doesn't even have proper classrooms. Are there any areas in newton that are are walkable to shops and school but still has a newer school and within our budget?

Many of the elementary schools and middle schools in Newton are pretty old and many have written here (and you can also read about this in the local press) that the schools are quite crowded. I believe they just passed a tax override in Newton in order to raise money for a number of infrastructure issues in town and supposedly some of the money is going toward helping with the school facilities.

Newton North High School is a relatively new building opened 2-3 years ago. I believe it was the second most expensive public school building ever built in the country. It's often referred to as the "Taj Mahal" of high schools and I'm sure has the smart boards, etc you mentioned. This being said . . . many of the pundits believe the quality of education is higher at Newton South High School which was renovated and expanded a number of years ago but is definitely not nearly the facility that the new North High is. My point . . . you can get a great education in a building that's not brand new.

Anyway, it's hard to give a recommendation for a part of Newton you may like because you haven't mentioned what kind of house you're looking for. You did give us your budget though which helps. Ironically, 99% of the people who come here for help give us oodles of details about the house they want but always leave out the budget. You've done the opposite.

West Newton is a very walkable area of town, but the housing that's in the most walkable areas is mostly multi-family homes and condos. Not a ton of single families that I would want to pay $1M+ for. Newton Center has a great village center and the housing which is walkable to that area is more likely closer to what you seek.

Originally Posted by freetea

I'll be visiting the area soon and would like to make the best of it. I would include Newton in my home search if I could find out if all schools in newton old and dilapidated or if there are some newer schools there?

You might also want to add Needham to your list. Good schools, a walkable town center, and your dollar will go a bit further than Newton or Lexington.

[ogre]

With your housing budget, I'm surprised you can't find much in Lexington. Lexington is an affluent town with fairly pricey housing, but that's a good-sized budget. I'm thinking of Wellesley as a possibility, but if you're not finding much within your budget in Lexington, there may be even less in Wellesley, which is one of the most expensive suburbs. Still, maybe it's partly about what's available in each town at this time. If you can find some choices at the right price there, Wellesley may be worth a look. A pretty good chunk of Wellesley is within walking distance of shopping, the library, and such.

I'm not sure how "new" the schools are. In much of the Boston area you may not find schools that are literally new, as in built very recently. This area's growth is slow and steady, not like the explosive expansion of population in parts of CA. In the Boston area you might do well to consider the features you want in a school, aside from a spanking new building, which you'll find only infrequently, and check about which towns' schools have those features.

Will your husband be driving (probably, if you've considered Lexington and Newton, but just asking to be sure), or taking public transit to work? How long a commute can he deal with? If he'll be driving to work, depending on how long a commute he can handle, you might consider Needham, which is down the road just a bit from Waltham, not a long, long commute, though definitely not right next door like Lex. and Newton. If you'd prefer to continue being able to walk to the library and some of your everyday shopping, you might consider the Natick Center or South Natick sections of Natick(with Natick Ctr. especially convenient for walking). Farther from Waltham, so it depends on preferred commuting time, Concord might be a possibility. If you wanted to continue being able to walk places, you'd want to focus on neighborhoods right in the vicinities of the Concord Center or West Concord commercial districts, as the rest of Concord is quite spread out and semi-rural.