Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
DL- I appreciate the info about taxes. I had noticed that Acton taxes are high. I have a friend in West Concord who loves it there. She's as unpretentious as they come, so I'm not too worried about living in snobville. We'd be at the low end for Concord- around 700k and we'd put about $150k down. Hopefully that can help us live fairly comfortably within our means (we will make approx 140k per year). I want somewhere where we can put down roots. It might end up being Natick/Needham or Hingham or Melrose (other towns we liked when we visited), but Acton/Concord area was my favorite. Which is why I'm scoping out preschools there
We were just warning the original poster about your background. The regular posters here know that your opinions sometimes fall on the extreme side of the spectrum.
The OP seemed taken aback by DL's post. I was just trying to explain where he was coming from so that the OP could see that DL's post likely wasn't intended to seem as aggressive as it did.
Quote:
Originally Posted by sfkane
I want somewhere where we can put down roots. It might end up being Natick/Needham or Hingham or Melrose (other towns we liked when we visited), but Acton/Concord area was my favorite. Which is why I'm scoping out preschools there
If you end up refocusing your home search on Natick & Needham, these are towns I'm in everyday (especially Needham since I live there). I'm happy to answer any questions you may have about living here or in Natick.
I am sure that both Concord and Acton offer district all-inclusive preschool in both towns. Those are sometimes harder to get in as they can be very good and much cheaper than your regular private or co-op variety. Not sure how popular are these two, but thought you should know that there are some options.
Thank you kingeorge. With his October birthday- my little guy will just miss the cut off for the Public preschools. Maybe the following year. MikePRU-how's the commute to Cambridge from Natick/Needham? I feel like there's car or commuter rail options from Concord/Acton. It seems less convenient from Needham/Natick. Maybe I'm wrong?
Thank you kingeorge. With his October birthday- my little guy will just miss the cut off for the Public preschools. Maybe the following year. MikePRU-how's the commute to Cambridge from Natick/Needham? I feel like there's car or commuter rail options from Concord/Acton. It seems less convenient from Needham/Natick. Maybe I'm wrong?
I'd say they are all fairly similar commutes, but it depends on where you need to go in Cambridge. Let's say you are working in technology and need to go to Kendall Square. Concord and Acton both have trains which go into Porter Square, then about 15 minutes on the red line to Kendall. Natick and Needham both have trains which go into South Station, then about 15 minutes on the red line to Kendall. The actual train ride from any of those 4 towns will vary from 40-50 minutes (just a guess). That's at least 1 hour 15 minutes door to door including driving/walking to the station, transferring from the commuter rail to the red line, and walking to your office.
Another factor to take into consideration is whether you want to live within walking distance to the train. If you have to drive and pay $3-4 to park everyday on top of the $225-$275/mo train pass, that can add up to quite a bit over the course of the year. Not to mention downtown Natick has no parking and the South Acton & West Natick lots fill up extremely early.
I think that advice to aim being closer to train station is very solid. You can save little fortune by not needing to drive and park. Concord still owns its MBTA parking lot (not sure about Acton), so fees are pretty reasonable if any. I like that Concord seems to clean its sidewalks better than some other communities in the area so for the most part it can be walkable even in snow.
Last edited by kingeorge; 12-17-2013 at 02:53 PM..
I think that advice to aim being closer to train station is very solid. You can save little fortune by not needing to drive and park. Concord still owns its MBTA parking lot (not sure about Acton), so fees are pretty reasonable if any. I like that Concord seems to clean its sidewalks better than some other communities in the area so for the most part it can be walkable even in snow.
I like the West Concord lot best. It is closer to where I live in Acton than the South Acton train. It is better lit and there are businesses open when I get off the train, more safe feeling.
Thank you kingeorge. With his October birthday- my little guy will just miss the cut off for the Public preschools. Maybe the following year.
My husband and I have been really happy with LEAP. They have a school in Concord and your child could probably go into the 3s program (my daughter had a boy with an early Oct. birthday in her class). LEAP also offers a transitional kindergarten program that our daughter did and our son will do next year- great program for kids near or just past the cut-off.
MikePRU-how's the commute to Cambridge from Natick/Needham? I feel like there's car or commuter rail options from Concord/Acton. It seems less convenient from Needham/Natick. Maybe I'm wrong?
My wife actually commutes into Cambridge so I can tell you the commute from Needham/Natick is not so different from the Concord/Acton commute. The commute from Needham is fairly similar to Concord in distance from Cambridge and Natick lines up fairly similar to Acton. A lot is going to depend on where in Cambridge you're working. If the job is right in Porter Square and you can take the commuter rail only to work then your commute from Concord/Acton would be much shorter than the commute from Needham/Natick. If you have to switch to the red line to get to another part of Cambridge that really adds to the commute from Concord/Acton and levels the playing field so to speak. Coming from Needham/Natick the commuter rail will leave you at South Station where you would have to change to the red line to get into Cambridge. So, once you have to make that same switch coming from Concord/Acton it's going to significantly eat into any time difference there might have been.
A lot will depend on where you're starting out and where exactly you're ending up. For example, Natick doesn't sound so bad compared to Acton but if you're starting from South Natick that's not going to shorten the commute as you'll be pretty far from a train station or highway.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
