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Old 09-04-2014, 07:18 AM
 
787 posts, read 777,153 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MidwestRedux View Post
Based on your preferences and budget, I would strongly recommend my soon to be former hometown of Westborough.

It is about 35 miles from Boston, but has decent commuter rail access. From where I live, within 15-20 minutes you can walk to the train, the grocery store, the gym, library, about a dozen restaurant and more. The town is ridiculously safe, has excellent schools, some diversity and is politically balanced, especially by Mass standards.

You can find decent ranch and cape style homes in town for under 350k. We just sold our 3 bed 2 bath for well under that. If it weren't for the pull of family, we would never leave.

At least on the surface, I think we were looking for the exact same thing you are. We lived in Somerville and loved it but had to move for some space and schools. Anything inside 128 that was nice enough was too expensive. That sent us out to 495 and that's how we found Westborough. It proved to be the perfect compromise for us.

I looked at most of the other places that have been mentioned. If you really want urban and generally safe, Quincy would fit the bill. I was underwhelmed by the reasonably priced homes in Wakefield, Melrose, Hopkinton, Newburyport etc. but they are all nice towns. Northampton is a very interesting suggestion. Its a neat little town and you will get plenty for your money, but you will also be a full 100 miles from Boston.

Yeah, I just moved here. It's a little unusual for a 20-something to move to a town 29 miles west of Boston, but I wanted my own space and it's 6 miles from my job. The money I don't spend commuting a lot for work I spend in the city on the weekends. I can get into Boston in 35 - 40 minutes on the weekend which is not too bad. Westborough has some good schools even though I don't have kids, heh. I love being able to walk to all the restaurants near the center of town. I feel totally safe here too. If I don't want to go into Boston there's always Worcester which is about 12 miles west. Worcester is no Boston, but it does have some stuff going for it.

Yes, Westborough property taxes are very high for the state of Massachusetts.

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Old 09-04-2014, 08:27 AM
 
Location: RI, MA, VT, WI, IL, CA, IN (that one sucked), KY
41,938 posts, read 36,838,343 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dm84 View Post
I'm the first person to say that Boston is a relatively safe place, but your statement is very misleading. There are definitely cities and neighborhoods in the Boston area that would meet most reasonable people's definition of dangerous or unsafe.

Some neighborhoods, perhaps, but even those comared to the dangerous neighborhoods of say Philly, Detroit, Chicago, Memphis, LA, etc are very safe relatively. Our bad areas of Roxbury or Mattapan aren't bad for a city our size by any statistical measure.
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Old 11-19-2014, 12:17 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Louisville Slugger View Post
Yeah, I just moved here. It's a little unusual for a 20-something to move to a town 29 miles west of Boston, but I wanted my own space and it's 6 miles from my job. The money I don't spend commuting a lot for work I spend in the city on the weekends. I can get into Boston in 35 - 40 minutes on the weekend which is not too bad. Westborough has some good schools even though I don't have kids, heh. I love being able to walk to all the restaurants near the center of town. I feel totally safe here too. If I don't want to go into Boston there's always Worcester which is about 12 miles west. Worcester is no Boston, but it does have some stuff going for it.

Yes, Westborough property taxes are very high for the state of Massachusetts.
This is an excellent chart on property taxes across the towns, can you please source it for me. I would like to get a print out of it.
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Old 11-19-2014, 01:25 PM
 
787 posts, read 777,153 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CircleOfLife View Post
This is an excellent chart on property taxes across the towns, can you please source it for me. I would like to get a print out of it.
Highest and Lowest Property Tax Rates in Greater Boston
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Old 11-19-2014, 06:12 PM
 
Location: Columbia SC
14,224 posts, read 14,642,943 times
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Hmmmmmm...would I rather live in Worcester versus Wayland based or Haverhill versus Andover based on tax rates? I need to think about this....not.
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Old 11-20-2014, 08:19 AM
 
787 posts, read 777,153 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by johngolf View Post
Hmmmmmm...would I rather live in Worcester versus Wayland based or Haverhill versus Andover based on tax rates? I need to think about this....not.
Don't base where you want to live on property taxes. That's only one thing to consider.
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Old 11-21-2014, 07:14 AM
 
837 posts, read 1,221,394 times
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What's interesting in glancing at that link is that it's not necessarily less expensive tax-wise to live in a town with a huge source of tax revenue (i.e., a mall). Yes, Braintree's tax base is lower than the surrounding towns because of the South Shore Plaza, but it's not that much lower. Ergo, what my FIL said about moving to a town with a mall doesn't necessarily hold true anymore.
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Old 11-21-2014, 07:25 AM
 
Location: 42°22'55.2"N 71°24'46.8"W
4,848 posts, read 11,779,762 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by xo_kizzy_xo View Post
What's interesting in glancing at that link is that it's not necessarily less expensive tax-wise to live in a town with a huge source of tax revenue (i.e., a mall). Yes, Braintree's tax base is lower than the surrounding towns because of the South Shore Plaza, but it's not that much lower. Ergo, what my FIL said about moving to a town with a mall doesn't necessarily hold true anymore.
I don't base my decision on where to live based on tax rates due to this reason. Sure, I look at what my monthly cost will be based on my mortgage plus escrows, but the actual tax rate means nothing. For example Wellesley has a relatively low residential tax rate, but the homes are so expensive that it's actually in the top 10 in terms of average annual tax paid. This is despite the fact that there is a large commercial tax base in town. Some towns just have a much larger operating budget for various reasons, with the school budget being the largest expense for any town with a decent school system.
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Old 11-21-2014, 08:52 AM
 
Location: near bears but at least no snakes
26,650 posts, read 28,557,937 times
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The people who recommended Northampton missed out on your statement about wanting to relocate to Boston. Northampton is nowhere near Boston, it's in the western part of the state. It's a nice enough place but it usually takes me about two hours to drive to Boston and there is no T connection, no public transportation at all except buses for the college students.

The suburbs of Boston are known as metrowest and they are very expensive. You'd need at least double your amount to afford anything, I would think.

Some of the other cities and towns that were mentioned might qualify for you but it will be nothing fancy. Wakefield and Melrose--you might get a house but it will be on a small lot. Beverly or Danvers too. The town with which I am most familiar is Wakefield. It has a small but walkable downtown along the main street with a great library, some shops, a few restaurants, a large grocery store and there is usually something going on. They have a huge lake that is not for swimming but people are always out walking their dogs or just jogging around it. There are craft fairs and free concerts on the lawn next to the lake. Wakefield is very family oriented and runs the gamut from highly educated to blue collar. The T goes to Wakefield and it's fairly easy and fast to get to Boston.
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Old 11-24-2014, 04:42 AM
 
Location: Pacific Northwest
2,992 posts, read 3,402,735 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by xo_kizzy_xo View Post
What's interesting in glancing at that link is that it's not necessarily less expensive tax-wise to live in a town with a huge source of tax revenue (i.e., a mall). Yes, Braintree's tax base is lower than the surrounding towns because of the South Shore Plaza, but it's not that much lower. Ergo, what my FIL said about moving to a town with a mall doesn't necessarily hold true anymore.
Ditto with Quincy. More commercial base also means more roads, infrastructure and kickbacks to maintain. A basic residential town isn't really that expensive to maintain besides schools.

And walkability of your dinky town becomes seriously overrated when it's winter and you live close enough to Boston. The number of people I see walking around in the small towns drops sharply once the temps hit 30s. I mean Wellesley downtown is rated high in walkability, but how many times do you really need to walk to the same Jeweler, antique, mortgage company and paper store? I do most of my walking when I'm in Boston/Cambridge and I live just 15 min away from the city.

The only real place I care to walk to from my home is a fresh produce grocery, and thankfully I have one of that within an 8 minute walk.
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