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.
Greetings,
My husband and I have loved living in Santa Cruz, CA for the past decade but will be relocating to the western Mass area this summer. We're sad to be leaving our community and the beauty of the Monterey Bay, but so excited to experience a different type of beauty in New England!
Autumn, farmer's markets, historic buildings, red barns, maple syrup, and lush nature...
I have never been to the area and it's hard to get a "feel" for it just by google photos and Craigslist ads. That's where you come in!
What are your favorite things about the area? What don't you like? Any tips or advice on where to live affordably? We have a couple of connections in Greenfield and Hatfield already, so we'd like to live about 30 minutes radius from there.
We are in our early 30s and both feel comfortable in smaller communities. My husband is from Fort Wayne, IN and I am from Lind, WA and grew up in Rifle, CO. Santa Cruz, CA (pop. 62,864) is the largest city we've lived in as adults.
I'm an artist/doula/quilter and my husband is a jazz/funk keyboardist. We're looking forward to starting a family in the next year. We love to support our local businesses by shopping local (music stores, book stores, record stores, thrift shops), buy organic at farmer's markets and health food stores, walk our dog in nature, and try new things. We enjoy camping, the library, movie theaters, cafes, good coffee, festivals, bike-friendly communities and friendly neighbors. We miss swimming and playing in fresh water lakes, rivers, and waterfalls (the Pacific averages 55 degrees year round here).
Although we have become accustomed to "West Coast" culture, we're both looking forward to people who keep their word, say what they mean in a straightforward manner, and show up on time. I realize that this may sound stereotypical. No offense intended.
Thank you for your response in advance!
Last edited by moonglow82; 06-16-2014 at 10:32 PM..
It's hard to know what to tell you. How are you going to support yourselves? Jobs are hard to come by in WMass and the COL is fairly high.
I'm from WMass but moved away. The people are nice, friendly, mostly well educated. There are five colleges, as you probably know. Winters are cold and snowy, summers are hot and humid.
A lot of things you mention can be found in Nothampton, the county seat. What you won't find is good swimming unless it's in a pool. Wmass has the Connecticut River and it's used for boating but for swimming it has strong currents. There are no lakes that I can think of. If you want salt water, the closest ocean beach is probably Hammonassett in Connecticut, maybe an hour or two away. The water is fairly warm and there are waves for jumping over and it's a nice sandy beach. There are beautiful beaches in the state of Rhode Island and there are beaches on Cape Cod but those aren't a day trip away.
What did I like? That everything was there and so close together. All the things you mention. I liked the rim of blue "mountains" that frame the view everywhere you look. I liked the farmland, the cows, the barns. Beautiful drives like rte 47 and driving out to the west into the hilltowns. If you like high culture and classical music, you are not that far from the Berkshires and Tanglewood--you can go and come back in one day.
I love Deerfield and that's where I would live. I love the history there--you must visit Historic Deerfield and get caught up in the Indian massacres and the survival of the little settlement back in the early 1700s. It really really helps if you like history and if you appreciate architecture and old houses, not modern, cheaply built cookie cutter houses. There are all sorts of things to do and I can actually say that I was never bored.
Northampton is smaller than Santa Cruz and has a busy and fun main street and it's kind of funky and artsy. It's far too expensive for most people so people tend to move to Easthampton or, to the north, Greenfield. A lot of people moved there from somewhere else so you won't be the only newbies in town.
I don't know what else to say. It's a good place for families and students. Be prepared for students everywhere and competition for housing from students. It's best to get housing before the students come back. I think you'll like it. It has a good feeling and spirit about it.
I live in Northampton and agree with most of what's said, above, by in_New England. However, there ARE fresh-water places to swim; there's even one (Musante Beach) in Northampton (in the Leeds section). I wish there were more, but one of my favorites is about a half-hour away in the small country town of Goshen (it's called DAR beach).
If you can handle the winters and the employment issues (maybe I could jam with your husband; I'm a part-time pro musician!), we'd love to have you here.
Can't imagine how you chose Western Mass. but good luck with your move. I would probably stick with the Northampton and Amherst area for proximity to employment opportunities.
I think you will fit right in in Northampton. The State Park system offers several places to swim in fresh water. One close to Northampton is the DAR State Park: DAR State Forest
However, there is more affordable housing outside of Northampton: eg, Hadley, Greenfield, Easthampton, Williamsburg, etc.
Last edited by goldenage1; 06-17-2014 at 05:36 AM..
The COL in Santa Cruz is ridiculous but actually less expensive than Northampton. We're looking to live outside the area where it may be more affordable. Already noticing the student competition, but it's the same here with UCSC. Rents are mostly $1000 per bedroom near campus.
We're moving there so my husband can play in a touring band with musicians of a higher caliber. He will be touring right away, but I'll be looking for work ASAP. I'm noticing the lack of opportunity already but trying not to get worried. I've been a self-employed doula for the last few years and am looking into midwifery schools in the area.
Best wishes to you, Moonglow! I was born and raised in Santa Cruz and still here! Our daughter will be moving out to Medford, Mass. to attend Tufts to get her Master's in Occupational Therapy. After living in Santa Cruz all her life and then San Luis Obispo for college, she's looking forward to experiencing the east coast. Good luck to you and your husband!
You'll love it, Western Mass and Burlington are the west coast of New England. There could easily be a Portlandia-style show about all the wonderfully delusional kooks making the Happy Valley an interesting place to live.
You should consider Greenfield. I always plug it on this forum, and I'm sure some are sick of it! it's cheap, just artsy enough, and easy to get to the other, greater towns - south to Amherst/Northampton, or north to Brattleboro VT, all in 20 minutes. Students haven't even heard of Greenfield so that keeps the prices low and competition for housing non-existent. Local everything downtown - Great restaurants serving local food, a record store, coffee shops and local roasters, instrument shops, several bookstores, bike shops, a food co-op, America's last small-town downtown department store, Farmer's Markets, a processing center for local farmers' foods is in town and supplies local salsa and pickles and stuff, two breweries and a mead and kombucha producer are in town, local arts and music festivals, swimming holes on the Green and Deerfield Rivers, easy access to hiking in town at Poet's Seat Ridge or in neighboring towns. Has New England's most active contra dancing scene (traditional New England folk line dancing with incredible fiddle music) too. You two would fit right in with the musicians and community-minded folks around here. And this just begins to summarize Greenfield, often considered the Pioneer Valley's "crappy" outpost (it's really not too bad, except for the recent heroin epidemic among townies, and the lack of jobs - chicken or egg, which came first, the heroin or the lack of jobs?). Remember, by "settling" for Greenfield's "crappiness" outlined above, you are getting the best real estate and rental prices of the Valley's 'big' towns, plus you get to easily enjoy whatever's going on of course in Greenfield, OR Northampton and Amherst in 20 minutes - and you get the added benefit that living there also puts three more great little towns at your fingertips (20 min or less) - Brattleboro VT, Turners Falls, and Shelburne Falls - three places that are at least a moderate hassle for Northamptonites to consider enjoying regularly, so you have that advantage.
With all due respect to previous poster, gf2020 - whose comment intro is forgivable because it's just a mirror to the reflexive, unintentionally condescending perspective the rest of MA has towards Western MA (captured well in "can't imagine how you chose Western Mass!") - let them keep thinking Boston suburbia is the height of civilization. It's not. On the flip side of that coin, from my (un?)intentionally condescending perspective, I can't imagine how people choose suburban Eastern Mass. I can understand wanting access to Boston, as the city itself plus its urbanized inner core places like Cambridge and Brookline are great and vibrant. But all these ridiculous outer suburbs with their $800,000+ entry price into Snoozeville so you can sit in hellish traffic every day to return home to a damaged facsimile of nature just doesn't seem worth it. Plus, the rare and endangered middle class can still afford to live well out west (2-bedroom apts as low as $750-900/month or a house for under $200k in Greenfield!). Western Mass is uncrowded, friendlier, and there is SO SO SO MUCH MORE TO DO in the Valley culturally and creatively than anywhere in the state besides Boston/Cambridge itself, with the added benefit of classic New England farms and scenery are all around you, all the time, and have yet to be turned into condos or a Cheesecake Factory! In short, don't take no stock in those who instinctively wonder why anyone would EVER choose western MA and turn up their nose at us from 80 miles away, while every hub town in the Valley has a whole lot more going on than their boring overpriced suburb. End rant.
The tradeoff is it's hard to find a job, but with your unique backgrounds I have no doubt you will make it work!
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.
I realize that this may sound stereotypical. No offense intended.
