Relocating within Metrowest (Worcester, Framingham, Shrewsbury: home, neighborhood, best schools)

[Osiris1975]

Hello,

We're Framingham residents who have outgrown our home and become dissatisfied with the schools due to our son's experience in one of them. We are putting our home on the market in 2 weeks and looking to relocate to one of the following towns in the area:

• Ashland
• Southborough
• Westborough
• Shrewsbury

The factors that we care about are (not including house-specific details) in no particular order:

1. School system, as we have 3 children who will go through some part of it.
2. The viability of my wife's family day-care business in whichever town/neighborhood we move to.
3. Distance from a commuter rail station (trying to say within 15 minute drive) for a 2-3 day per week commute.
4. General diversity and tolerance as we are in a minority demographic.
5. Family-friendliness.
6. Things to do.

Would anyone living in any of those towns mind commenting on some of these factors? You're input will help us in making our decision!

Thanks in advance.

[trevor0101]

My wife, and I had looked into these towns other than Shrewsbury. Here's some (very) high level notes:

Ashland:
- Good schools
- Reasonably good location
- Watch out for Superfund site proximity (https://cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/cu...cfm?id=0100948)

Southborough:
- Good schools, but can be far from high school since they're regionalized
- Good location
- Can be loud due to commuter rail, 495, 90, rt9 proximity

Westborough:
- Good schools
- Sort of "out there" as a location, since outside 495, but decent commuting location
- Good shopping
- Some interstate proximity / noise concerns

Wishing you all the best in your search!

[Osiris1975]

Thanks! Especially helpful about the Superfund sites, didn't know there were any in Ashland, and hadn't considered noise pollution really. We live pretty close to Route 9 so we've kind of gotten used to it!

[scorpio516]

Shrewsbury isn't Metrowest, but central Mass .
besides that:
no T stop. It's technically in Grafton, but about 100 yards south of the town line. You can get to it from anywhere in Shrewsbury in 10 minutes outside rush hour. I've driven there a couple time from the Worcester/Shrewsbury line in 10 minutes.
Low taxes. All the retail means a lot of commercial tax.
All the retail. There's a whole lot (not Framingham level obviously, but a lot for central MA )
Probably the best schools in the area. Not that Westborough or Northborough are much worse. Or Holden, but don't look there.
Like Westborough, there's a very large Indian community. A couple really good Indian grocers on route 9. But there's not much diversity beyond White and Indian.

[airunxc]

Lots of towns have supefund sites and cleanup. Ashland is fine.

[Shrewsburried]

Originally Posted by scorpio516

Shrewsbury isn't Metrowest, but central Mass .
besides that:
no T stop. It's technically in Grafton, but about 100 yards south of the town line. You can get to it from anywhere in Shrewsbury in 10 minutes outside rush hour. I've driven there a couple time from the Worcester/Shrewsbury line in 10 minutes.
Low taxes. All the retail means a lot of commercial tax.
All the retail. There's a whole lot (not Framingham level obviously, but a lot for central MA )
Probably the best schools in the area. Not that Westborough or Northborough are much worse. Or Holden, but don't look there.
Like Westborough, there's a very large Indian community. A couple really good Indian grocers on route 9. But there's not much diversity beyond White and Indian.

Shrewsbury's tax rate and town operated utilities are worth considering, particularly when cross shopping Westborough. Last I checked, it had the lowest rates in MA ... both in terms of prop tax and kw rates.

If my budget allowed, I might be inclined to choose Southborough first, purely because of it's location and attachment to metrowest, but of the remaining towns Shrewsbury provides the best value (IMO).