Arlington real estate prices getting close to Lexington, Winchester, Belmont (Boston: rent, condo)

[Bbqtim]

Originally Posted by 495neighbor

So you are basing this on scores provided by a website, not observation and experience?

495- bingo! Why use real life experience when you can rely on niche and other websites all day?

[jayrandom]

Originally Posted by Bbqtim

495- bingo! Why use real life experience when you can rely on niche and other websites all day?

Forget that anecdotal evidence can be misleading, the believability scales goes like this for most people:

1) Personal experience
2) someone else you trust
3) website with "objective" scores
4) someone you know
5) random internet person who agrees with you
6) random internet person
7) random internet person who disagrees with you
100000) someone selling something

[495neighbor]

Originally Posted by jayrandom

Forget that anecdotal evidence can be misleading, the believability scales goes like this for most people:

1) Personal experience
2) someone else you trust
3) website with "objective" scores
4) someone you know
5) random internet person who agrees with you
6) random internet person
7) random internet person who disagrees with you
100000) someone selling something

When someone merely bases their opinion of a town from a stat provided by a website, I'm highly inclined to believe the person may rarely or never have visited an area or town in person.

[jayrandom]

Originally Posted by 495neighbor

When someone merely bases their opinion of a town from a stat provided by a website, I'm highly inclined to believe the person may rarely or never have visited an area or town in person.

I don't frequent either Lexington or Arlington but I used to live nearby and have friends that live on the border and I'd agree with his assessment. Parts of Lexington are as walkable as parts of Arlington, but on the average Arlington is more walkable than Lexington. It seems like that is consistent with what you said and what he said.

And when someone cites a source I usually don't assume they have no idea what they're talking about, I usually assume they don't just expect everyone to take their word for it. That difference could be because I'm a scientist by day and that's what I had drilled into me in school.

[timberline742]

Originally Posted by jayrandom

I don't frequent either Lexington or Arlington but I used to live nearby and have friends that live on the border and I'd agree with his assessment. Parts of Lexington are as walkable as parts of Arlington, but on the average Arlington is more walkable than Lexington. It seems like that is consistent with what you said and what he said.

And when someone cites a source I usually don't assume they have no idea what they're talking about, I usually assume they don't just expect everyone to take their word for it. That difference could be because I'm a scientist by day and that's what I had drilled into me in school.

I follow your line of thinking, but that said I figure from living it in (briefly) and next door (a long time) the walkability of Arlington has all to do with the Mass Ave corridor, which is decisively different from something like Belmont which has centers, Belmont Center, Waverly, Cushing, etc. It makes sense to me though. Mass Ave is a huge linear strip which touches on most everything.

[chicagoliz]

We looked at all these towns and more when we were in the throes of our home search. We found many homes in Lexington that were not really walkable to anything. And while we really liked all of the 3 centers of Arlington along Mass Ave, and would have loved to find a house that was walking distance to one of them, it seemed like almost every house we saw and would seriously consider was not near any of the commercial areas and again, weren't walkable to anything.

There was a house we very nearly purchased in Needham, which, if I'm not mistaken has a lower overall walkscore than does Arlington. But this house had a walk score of 82 -- that was the factor that made us gaga for this house, even though there were a couple other major negatives for us with that house. Every house we saw in Needham had much more walkability than the houses we saw in Arlington, which struck us as ironic, given what we were expecting in that realm.

We also loved how close Arlington was to Alewife station. We liked how Belmont had the train, and Winchester even had 2 train stops, but Lex had none, so for us Lexington just kept falling down notches on our list.

We ended up in Newton, and while there aren't tons of things we can walk to, we are ecstatic that we can walk to the T. Of the towns in this thread, the only town where that was even a possibility was Arlington.

I think its walkability, access to public transportation, and its proximity to Cambridge will keep Arlington housing prices on an upward trajectory for a while.

[semiurbanite]

Originally Posted by 495neighbor

So you are basing this on scores provided by a website, not observation and experience?

Both, I have been to most parts of all of these towns, but if you haven't noticed I prefer data to anecdotal observations. I do find walkscore to be pretty accurate especially the color graded heat map.

[BostonMike7]

I've always thought Arlington was underrated. About 10-15 years ago I thought it would be an ideal place to live, but unfortunately it's location never really fit in well with where I needed to be and my commute. Glad to see it's finally getting some of the recognition I always thought it deserved.

[angler80]

Arlington recently did a study on enrollment and projected out to 2025 or 2030. Over the next few years these are the main projects:
1.) Refurbish Stratton, the last of 7 elementary schools to be rebuilt or combined refreshed. Stratton has a low student/teacher ratio compared to the others so imagine that's part of the reason why it is last. Work is supposed to start in the fall.
2.) Addition to Thompson, another elementary school in town
3.) Reopen Gibbs School, a school building owned by the town currently leased by a private school and some other organizations. Plan is to have a single 6th grade similar to how they do it in Needham. Ottoson Middle School would be used for 7th and 8th grade.
4.) Rebuild the high school - The town has already gone through the initial steps with the state. I bet the timeline is 5-6 years away.

My wife and I live in town and have a 6 month old so I can't comment heavily on the schools. That said, I'm impressed that people in town recognize the importance of quality schools and have started looking at enrollment trends now.

[masshawk]

Originally Posted by BostonMike7

I've always thought Arlington was underrated. About 10-15 years ago I thought it would be an ideal place to live, but unfortunately it's location never really fit in well with where I needed to be and my commute. Glad to see it's finally getting some of the recognition I always thought it deserved.

I agree. If money were no object, and if my partner didn't feel so strongly about having a larger lot and garage, Arlington would have been my top pick with Brookline a close second. I'd choose it over Belmont, Winchester, or Lexington. Although now that I've lived here for a bit I think I actually prefer being along the river. Watertown would be top of my list now if their schools keep trending up.