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My family of five are planning a move up to the Boston area within the next three months. My husband will be working in Watertown and is okay with a 30 to 40 minute commute. Our kids are ages 5, 6 & 7, so great schools are high on our priority list. I have dug through the forums here, which has been helpful, but I still need help deciding what town would best suit our needs. My husband will probably leave for work around 6:30am and will leave work around 6pm each evening. Can someone tell me what the commute would be like from Sudbury, Acton and Sharon around those hours. Also, I went to a few open houses up in Sudbury, Acton and Concord and I got the sense that people (some Realtors) were really pushing Acton and Concord and were very indifferent to Sudbury. I couldn't figure out why?? I loved the drive through Sudbury. I am not too familiar with the "Open Choice" school system in Acton and was wondering if I could get some feedback how that plays out in terms of building neighborhood friends for my kids. And is it hard to get into the school you choose? We are looking to spend between $700 to $800k on a house and would prefer some land. Diversity would be nice, but it is not a deal breaker...it is 2013 and I realize that if you're nice to people they are nice to you. We are a mixed race family and I can't help but worry about my kids. Any and all feedback would be much appreciative. Thanks!
All three towns in my opinion are really nice. Some do not love Sudbury because they feel there is no good highway access, [for example my husband]. We are actually in the process of buying near Acton and love the area, so I would say go with Acton. As for the school choice-from what I heard it does not really ever happen and the school in Acton would need available seats that just do not occur for other students not form Boxborough/Acton to go there. I would call the school district to double check.
I live in Acton. At 6:30am, your husband would be just ahead of the morning commuters. Commute to Watertown would be 45min to an hour. The good thing is that there are many ways to get here from there. I sometimes ride the early train from West Concord into town, and there are only a few other drivers on the main roads at that time.
You should be able to get quite a home in your price range. Good places to start would be the areas around the library, town hall and Acton Arboretum, Nashoba Road and also West Acton around Summer Street. Acton is regionalized with Boxborough, so you could look there too. You may be able to get a home within walking distance to one of the grammar schools.
Diversity, people in this town really walk the talk. There are a number of mixed face families already here although noone thinks of them as the mixed race families. They are just families.
There is an active group of parents called Acton Family Network. You can search for them online or on FB.
I will leave it to an Acton parent to give you more specifics around the individual schools.
A lot of people don't like Sudbury because it doesn't have good highway access and real estate taxes are very high. The lots are also spaced pretty far apart with 1 acre lot minimums and sidewalks are rare. This is because the town selectmen are hell-bent on keeping its semi-rural charm. For example we have a community preservation committee with 9 members who study the needs of the town and decide on the best way to preserve land/trails and the historic nature of the town. They have a budget of over $6 million per year which is funded by the community preservation surcharge in our real estate taxes. For a typical $800k house, taxes will be about $14,000 of which $1000 is allocated to the preservation fund. Another reason real estate taxes are high is due to the good schools. 75% of the real estate taxes goes towards the school budget.
If you stay at home and your husband will be commuting into Watertown, you probably don't need easy access to highways. He will just take Rt-20 the whole way into Watertown which is about 30 min w/o traffic and a little over 1 hour in peak traffic. I'm not even awake at 6:30am so I couldn't tell you what traffic is like at that hour, haha. But just a tip: Tomorrow at 6:30AM go to maps.google.com and search for Sudbury then click on the traffic overlay button. You will get a good idea how clogged up the local roads are.
BTW, if you will be staying at home then Sudbury might be a better fit. Acton tends to have more dual-income families, whereas Sudbury has more stay-at-home moms.
Sharon is a nice town, but I would definitely cross it off the list. The commute from there to Watertown is just longer than necessary. Sudbury and Acton would be easier commutes to Watertown.
I don't know tons about Acton, but I think Sudbury is a lovely town. As Parsec said, they really go out of their way not only to maintain their outstanding school system, but also the town's historic (Sudbury's zip code is 01776 after all!) and semi-rural charm. Despite the semi-rural feel of the town, it does have multiple supermarkets and a decent amount of shopping and good restaurants. I also discovered a few years ago that there is a cigar bar in town if anyone in your family is into that sort of thing. If the local shopping isn't enough for you, it's an easy drive from almost anywhere in town to the Golden Triangle area of Framingham/Natick. If you can't find what you're looking for in the Triangle then likely it doesn't exist. So, Sudbury really offers a little of everything except . . . easy highway access and public transportation options. In order to get to RT 128 you would have to drive through both Wayland and Weston to get there. From 128 you can pretty much get anywhere. Also, there is no rail or bus service in town.
Homes in Sudbury on average are a decent amount more expensive than homes in Acton, but over the last five years Sudbury has held it's value a bit better. I also find there is a ton of building going on in Acton which seems to have contributed to an over abundance of homes for sale over the last few years.
I think you should also add Wayland (north of Rt-20 if you prefer more land) to your list. It will shave a good 20-30 minutes off your husband's round-trip rush hour commute and is very similar to Sudbury. There are homes in your price range of $700-800k, but you get less house for your money than in Sudbury. For example in your price range you may get a smaller 2400 square foot colonial in Wayland vs a 2800 square foot colonial in Sudbury.
As for the school choice-from what I heard it does not really ever happen and the school in Acton would need available seats that just do not occur for other students not form Boxborough/Acton to go there. I would call the school district to double check.
Thanks so much for responding, I will call the school district to get a better idea. Good luck with your move.
I think you should also add Wayland (north of Rt-20 if you prefer more land) to your list. It will shave a good 20-30 minutes off your husband's round-trip rush hour commute and is very similar to Sudbury. There are homes in your price range of $700-800k, but you get less house for your money than in Sudbury. For example in your price range you may get a smaller 2400 square foot colonial in Wayland vs a 2800 square foot colonial in Sudbury.
Excellent idea. I wanted to rep you for this post, but the system won't let me.
You should be able to get quite a home in your price range. Good places to start would be the areas around the library, town hall and Acton Arboretum, Nashoba Road and also West Acton around Summer Street. Acton is regionalized with Boxborough, so you could look there too. You may be able to get a home within walking distance to one of the grammar schools.
Diversity, people in this town really walk the talk. There are a number of mixed face families already here although noone thinks of them as the mixed race families. They are just families.
There is an active group of parents called Acton Family Network. You can search for them online or on FB.
I will leave it to an Acton parent to give you more specifics around the individual schools.
Great tips! It was hard to get a feel of Acton and where the town center was while driving around. We love the town we live in and were hoping to replicate it up in the Boston area. There are tons of apple orchards, farmers markets, pumpkin patches. Pool & tennis clubs, great restaurants, the lists goes on. We drove by some new construction on Quarry and saw the park at the end of that street that was nice. I will check out the areas you mentioned. My boys all play sports and I am also looking for a good parks and rec with a great variety of sports. Anyhow I know I am probably asking and looking for a lot, but we are open to change and new experiences. I really appreciate your reply.
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