Moving from Long Island NY to massachusetts (Boston, Worcester: condo, townhouse)

[mv_2014]

What are the pros and cons of moving to Massachusetts? I heard winters are bad. I am in IT. I think NY does have a better IT market than MA overall. What else?

[mmyk72]

MA is much much much better.

Seriously, what info are you looking for?

[mv_2014]

I am looking in terms of

1) Winter - how bad
2) IT job market
3) New construction homes in Greater Boston Area.

In terms of 3, I already know MA is better. Why do you say MA is much much better?

[mmyk72]

#1 - If you survive NY, then you should be fine here. It's not like the difference is huge (maybe more snow sometimes)

#3 - The closer you get to metro Boston, the fewer new construction homes and the more expensive. Example, driving around Needham (20 mins from Boston), I'd see many lots where an old house has been torn down and construction underway for brand new houses. If you have over $1 to 1.5 mil, then you shouldn't have problem buying into these. If you want a cheaper price, then either have to move further out (away from Boston) or look into condo/townhouse/duplex type homes. Without a budget, location, etc., hard to say much more than this.

I was being sarcastic about MA is better. Really does it matter what someone else thinks is better? IMO, there are 2 types of people:
1) people who think where they live is the best place on earth (no reason needed), or
2) people are bitter and want to be out of here even if they will never physically make the move in reality - grass is greener somewhere else.

It sounds like you need to do some job hunting, instead of asking a broad question about the IT job market. Who knows if you are highly desired in your field or if the thousands of college kids graduating each year will compete head to head with you.

[Parsec]

Originally Posted by mmyk72

#3 - The closer you get to metro Boston, the fewer new construction homes and the more expensive. Example, driving around Needham (20 mins from Boston), I'd see many lots where an old house has been torn down and construction underway for brand new houses. If you have over $1 to 1.5 mil, then you shouldn't have problem buying into these. If you want a cheaper price, then either have to move further out (away from Boston) or look into condo/townhouse/duplex type homes. Without a budget, location, etc., hard to say much more than this.

I was looking at his post over at the LI forum. He's looking for a 3 bed, 2.5 bath new construction house for $500-600k in a good school district. I'll be the first to tell you that's what you're looking to spend on an OLD house in a good school district if you want to live within an hour commute to Boston. If proximity to Boston isn't important then you should be able to find what you want in some of the towns along I-495 like Grafton or Tewksbury.

[mv_2014]

My budget is 500k- 600k. I am looking for less than 1 hour by train to Boston with good school district. I saw couple of houses in Acton MA online under by budget. How is Acton, Littleton?

[CaseyB]

Originally Posted by melvis_vaz

My budget is 500k- 600k. I am looking for less than 1 hour by train to Boston with good school district. I saw couple of houses in Acton MA online under by budget. How is Acton, Littleton?

They are good towns. You wouldn't be able to narrow down a place to live until you know exactly where you'd be working. Many of the IT jobs would be in Cambridge or in the suburbs.

[massnative71]

I assume if one was looking to get out of NY, it would have something to do with either high taxes/COL, traffic, crowds, bad government/nanny state politics, and yes the cold. Why would one look to move to MA of all places, a state that has all those same drawbacks (give or take a few)? I guess what I'm saying is that whatever you are trying to leave behind, you will find it here as well.

Now to answer your other questions, CaseyB is right in that you would need to know where you'd be working first. For instance there are many IT jobs at the various HQs in the Framingham/Westborough area. If you land one of those, you could live in eastern Worcester County where there are lots of what you are looking for in your range (and also avoid much of the traffic nightmare that is Greater Boston). Towns like Grafton, Mendon/Upton, Uxbridge, possibly Shrewsbury or Northborough.

If you commute to Boston, from Acton or Littleton there is a train (which may put you slightly over an hour). I'd be surprised that there's any decent new construction around there at that price, but then again I don't really know the market around there. It is generally considered a very nice area. Also look south in maybe Mansfield (again that will be pushing your price cap) or one town further Norton (a little cheaper but will have to catch the train in Mansfield). North Attleborough and Plainville would be worth a look too. All of those would put you within an hour of Boston (driving time/train combined).

[brightdoglover]

Littleton has a bit of new construction. It's like one house here and another there. A contractor either buys an empty lot or buys a teardown (and they really are teardowns, not decent smaller houses). It appears that these new houses go for about $500K and they do look quite nice. Also, the commuter rail has a nice new little station to replace the spot in the middle of a field where the train used to stop. You have to drive to the station, but there's parking now. I think Littleton would be a fine choice for OP.

[cwaggy]

Manchester / Essex and Ipswich have top-rated schools, mixed costs and types of houses, on commuter lines less than an hour from Boston and great coastal access, close to NH. If your job prospects are in the 495 or 128 areas then the commute could be bearish but people do it for the overall QOL those towns offer.