Understanding Newton (Boston, Waltham: apartment, crime, lawyers)

[FormerNewYorkers]

Hi All
We moved up to this area a few years ago and settled in a town well outside Boston. Turns out it was not the right move for us for a number of reasons (commuting time, lack of diversity, schools not as good as we had been led to believe).

In trying to understand what areas might be more suitable for us, Newton seems to have all the right characteristics. However what we don't yet understand are the different villages within Newton. Are there significant differences between them? Do they have distinct characteristics? What makes one more or less desirable than another.
For point of reference we are probably looking at moving next year, we have 2 children (one going into middle school and the other going into 2nd grade) neither of them are athletically inclined so school sports aren't really important, and our budget would be around 1.2M
Thanks!

[brightdoglover]

I'll defer to people who know more than me about Newton, but my experience there was that different villages have different socio-economic levels and you can often see that from the type of housing and condition of it. I wouldn't say there is any village or area that isn't pretty good! But some are more modest than others, like having modest not-recent apartment buildings or frame houses, like 2- and 3-family houses.

I lived in Newton at the hospital dorm a long time ago- 1981- and often went back and through Newton to meet with friends and so on. My observations are therefore rather anecdotal. But I'd still be real surprised if there was any village that was a "bad" neighborhood in any way whatsoever. Best wishes on your move. I think it's a really good town overall.

[yesmaybe]

The areas that are far away from the subway are less desirable. I would also say that the area directly bordering Waltham is less desirable, although you still would have to pay big.

[id77]

The individual villages themselves are mostly for local walkable shopping/dining and determining which schools within Newton one is going to attend. Home values are obviously going to be affected by proximity to desirable services.

In my home hunting in Newton, I've found that the "best" neighborhoods I'd live in are right by the reservoir, Newton Center, or Chestnut Hill, close to either the C or D line. Desirability starts to fall off sharply after that since walkability fades.

It's going to depend on what you want out of Newton. If you're just wanting in Newton for schools, any neighborhood should be passable. If you want city living in a suburb, you're going to need to stick to the areas I listed above. If you want proximity to a specific place (NW Hospital for instance), look around there.

[Dm84]

The villages don't really mean anything on a functional level. The difference is in appearance of the neighborhoods. None of them would meet a reasonable person's definition of "cheap" although some neighborhoods are certainly more expensive than others.

[bugelrex]

I would pick the newton village which is more suitable to your lifestyle.

If you never want to interact with your neighbors then choose areas with larger lots. If you drive to work, then choose according to freeway access (as traffic within Newton can be bad). Also some locations give your kids walking distance to all elementary, middle and high school which is really handy

Observing the newton nextdoor website(invite only), it definitely leans to the left politically..(think, rich white liberal telling others how to think)

I'm unsure if the education is living on reputation or reality. It once had the best highschool in the country decades ago. Maybe the school has shifted to emotional well-being than academics (which is a valid concern). But since most kids have a better gene pool (upper middle class, kids of college professors, drs, lawyers) they will do well anywhere.

I would certainly prefer my kids to have them as a peer group rather than rolling the dice in a mediocre school district (I'm sure someone will find this statement somehow racist )

Crime seems to be extremely low, but sometimes i do fear the left leaning politics of the city may start tolerating some forms of crime(car thefts, burglarly)

Its location will help hold values 'relatively'. Observe 2008 crash relative to other towns

[yesmaybe]

Be kind of annoying to live in Newton Center/Exit 17 area. That street that connects to the Pike is an extra special disaster.

[chicagoliz]

We've lived in Newton for several years, and looked at basically every house that was in our price range. So we looked all over. I would have been happy in any of the villages, although my happiness would have stemmed from different things. Some parts of the city are much more urban-feeling -- most streets are multi-family, closer to commercial areas, and others are more suburban feeling, with larger houses with larger lawns and a quieter feel.

There was a traditional 'bias' against areas north of the pike, as those were considered more 'working class,' I guess and tend to have more areas that are more densely populated. But with the prices overall in Newton being sky high, that is largely out the window. There is a similar old-time bias that exists between the high schools, Newton North and Newton South, with North being seen as not as 'good' or not as academic. But again, with the prices now in Newton, that does not seem to exist anymore, either. (Plus, Newton North was rebuilt a few years back and is physically a beautiful school.)

I love living in Newton and again, would be happy to live in any of the villages for different reasons. Before we moved to this area, we lived in an exurb of another city and we hated it. And we were traumatized by the horrendous commute times to get into the city. We like going into the city, but in our old location, it was such a PITA to go there that we didn't do it very often. Now, we go to the city all the time. (Or we did before Covid, but we went last week into the seaport and aquarium area and just walked around. It was nice because we just figured we'd go in and see how it was, and if there were too many people, we'd just leave, and it wouldn't be a big deal.) When we moved, my older kid was in 6th grade and my younger one was in K. I was worried about the older one's transition, but it was great, and he was very happy with the middle school.

[Urban Peasant]

Originally Posted by yesmaybe

Be kind of annoying to live in Newton Center/Exit 17 area. That street that connects to the Pike is an extra special disaster.

Newton Corner you mean. I hate it when I when I get on the wrong lane and end up on the ramp leading to the Pike westbound, then have to boomerang back at the next exit. Newton Corner is a nice place but that traffic circle is very poorly designed.

[brightdoglover]

I do think most of Newton is upper-income Jewish, and maybe some areas/villages more than others. If that matters in any way to OP. I personally liked it, because I grew up in a similar (lower income!) suburb outside Philly.