Moving from NJ to Boston (Cambridge, Newton: apartments, for rent, condos)

[richa_bds]

Hi, Me and my husband are planning to move from Edison to Boston. I am planning to do my Masters in Suffolk Univ. My Husband will have job around Needham/Deedham. We are looking to move a nice, clean and safe area preferably having indian restaruants, movie theateres, easy commute or apartments close to train station. looking for 2 bedroom with 2 bath aroung 1500/mo. I would have to take train and my husband can drive.

We were trying to short list places like Waltham, Newton, natick etc.

Can you suggest us some places/apartments which can fulfill these things.

Has anyone of you moved from NJ?

What was your experince in Boston?

Hows the traffic of 93/95 circle?

Any suggestions and thoughts are very much appreciate.

Richa

[baystater]

Originally Posted by richa_bds

Hi, Me and my husband are planning to move from Edison to Boston. I am planning to do my Masters in Suffolk Univ. My Husband will have job around Needham/Deedham. We are looking to move a nice, clean and safe area preferably having indian restaruants, movie theateres, easy commute or apartments close to train station. looking for 2 bedroom with 2 bath aroung 1500/mo. I would have to take train and my husband can drive.

We were trying to short list places like Waltham, Newton, natick etc.

Can you suggest us some places/apartments which can fulfill these things.

Has anyone of you moved from NJ?

What was your experince in Boston?

Hows the traffic of 93/95 circle?

Any suggestions and thoughts are very much appreciate.

Richa

Actually living in Nutley right now. Honestly haven't been to Edison myself so I can't say what town would be close to what know.
Newton is a good choice if you can find a apartment on the cheap side. You may want to look a Watertown, Weston, and Brookline as well. I can't speak on Natick itself.
Forget Waltham My brother lived there for a couple of years and though he like the connivance of everything being close to him. He didn't like that he constantly had to worry about leaving anything out in his car. For fear of it getting broken into.

[brightdoglover]

Heavens, Waltham isn't so crime-filled. It's actually, I think, a very diverse and convenient area. Right at the Waltham/Belmont line, there's a commuter train into Cambridge/Boston. There are certainly Indian restaurants (and all other kinds) in the main street area, near the very cool Waltham movie theater.
Yes, downtown Waltham has some rough edges, but nothing like a real city. A lot of my co-workers live in and around Waltham (job is in Belmont) and it is a fine urban/suburban area accessible to many highways and downtown Boston. A lot of new condos and many of them for rent. As a single woman, I wouldn't hesitate to live there.
Dedham is off 128, right? Waltham is next to 128. Not sure what you're asking about the 93/95 circle, but if it's north where those highways coincide, it's nightmare traffic.
Good luck. I moved up here in ... 1974! at the age of 20. Kept leaving town and country to find the "right" place to live and finally noticed that I kept coming back to this area. I would not ever want to live in south Jersey again, although I gather the hyper suburb I'm from has gotten excellent restaurants and real culture and different kinds of people, especially south Asians. A far cry from the early days.

[holden125]

Originally Posted by brightdoglover

Heavens, Waltham isn't so crime-filled. It's actually, I think, a very diverse and convenient area. Right at the Waltham/Belmont line, there's a commuter train into Cambridge/Boston. There are certainly Indian restaurants (and all other kinds) in the main street area, near the very cool Waltham movie theater.

Yes, downtown Waltham has some rough edges, but nothing like a real city. A lot of my co-workers live in and around Waltham (job is in Belmont) and it is a fine urban/suburban area accessible to many highways and downtown Boston. A lot of new condos and many of them for rent. As a single woman, I wouldn't hesitate to live there.

My girlfriend has worked in Waltham for about 10 years, lives in Belmont, and I agree about Waltham. There is an older, denser core which is more blue-collar and urban, but has plenty of character. There are other parts of the town that are quite suburban and leafy, near Lexington and along Beaver and Forest Sts. You get relative bargains there, but the flip side is that the town is less well regarded than just about all of its immediate neighbors and the schools not rated as highly.

Waltham to Needham is 20 mins or so without traffic, but traffic on the 128 loop is pretty bad, at least at rush hours. Still shouldn't be unbearable. Newton is very nice, but is expensive for what you get. There are some mega-mansion areas and some older, more urban-like areas. You might find something in your range in West Newton, but not with 2 bath. A lot of stuff in Newton and Waltham, particularly near the train, is older, but with great charm and period details in many cases. For a new condo type thing with 2 baths, you'd do better in Natick. Natick also has a nice downtown. There is also Needham itself.

My dad, brother and sister live in Central NJ now and it is pretty different just in the sense of being so built up in NJ. Expect to have everything close a lot earlier and to have less in the way of Route 1-style shopping options, though Natick is one the area's closest equivalents. If you go out from Boston the same distance that Edison is from NYC, expect it to be very, very quiet and woodsy. There are Indian restaurants around, but don't expect it to be anything like Edison. There is just not the same level of Indian population, though there are some Indians in Lexington and some other towns.

Risking censure from my people here, but there are almost no good bagels and little good pizza available in Massachusetts. There are some places that are good, but you have to wait a long time at many of them to sit down and order a pie. The walk-in-off-the-street-and-get-a-good-slice-to-go-out-in-the-suburbs thing basically does not exist.

[haberstroh]

Originally Posted by holden125

Risking censure from my people here, but there are almost no good bagels and little good pizza available in Massachusetts. There are some places that are good, but you have to wait a long time at many of them to sit down and order a pie. The walk-in-off-the-street-and-get-a-good-slice-to-go-out-in-the-suburbs thing basically does not exist.

We moved up from Northern NJ to the Boston area last summer. The two areas are actually pretty similar regarding culture, architecture, weather, style of living, politics, cost of living etc. (at least to me, a German immigrant hi hi). Maybe MA has more natural beauty and some more old history. But the two "big" differences are Shopping (or lack thereof) and good Pizza. I am not even a big Pizza fan but have not eaten a good slice yet. We probably tried 20 different kinds and they were all just average, some downright bad....my husband calls it fake pizza