Best towns north of Boston for young families. (Lowell, Cambridge: rent, how much)

[robr2]

Originally Posted by WCNewby

Thank you all so much... Ultimately it will depend on where I ultimately take a job, currently interviewing at a few places. These ideas will give me a good start to look into. In answer to MWJ's question above, my preference is to be surrounded by forests and fields but I'd settle for not being able to see my neighbors right out the window :-) And to Robr, yes, given the apparently lower tax rate compared to where we were looking in Westchester county NY, we might bump up our budget some.

I was speaking in terms of tax rates in comparison to some of the other towns mentioned:

Andover - $15.01
Lexington - $14.05
Reading - $13.95
Bedford - $13.18
Arlington - $11.06
Burlington - $9.64.

Chappaqua is $20+ I believe.

An $800K house in Andover will cost about $4,300 more in taxes than one in Burlington. That's an extra $350/month that could be put to the mortgage.

[mwj119]

Originally Posted by BostonBornMassMade

Honestly, Westchester seems a bit more youthful than the Boston suburbs.

I don't know If I'd call Westchester more youthful than Middlesex county, where they are looking. Do you mean human age and vitality? Because cities like Waltham, Cambridge, Somerville, Medford are reinventing themselves and have become quite appealing to young parents/post grads. Middlesex is also substantially larger, so maybe it just has more within county lines.

But yeah, in my opinion, there's very little about Westchester that feels youthful.

[OutdoorLover]

Andover and Reading are both pretty nice towns, not too dense, and for this area, not too exhorbitant, and they're located along I-93 like Medford, for that Saturday commute to Medford for Japanese supplemental school. Andover is a little more diverse.

[BostonBornMassMade]

Originally Posted by mwj119

I don't know If I'd call Westchester more youthful than Middlesex county, where they are looking. Do you mean human age and vitality? Because cities like Waltham, Cambridge, Somerville, Medford are reinventing themselves and have become quite appealing to young parents/post grads. Middlesex is also substantially larger, so maybe it just has more within county lines.

But yeah, in my opinion, there's very little about Westchester that feels youthful.

Southern Westchester is more populated than inner Middlesex or inner Norfolk county. Southern Westchester is very dense suburban with many young families. But maybe OP is from northern Westchester but I’ve not been up there at all. I’ve only been to southern Westchester.

When I was talking Boston suburbs I meant more traditional suburban environments. That was my thinking- but of course those other areas are more youthful but I wouldn’t say Cambridge and Somerville have many young ‘families’ so much as they do singles and couples.

[MassVt]

Add Brookline to that list. Quite a few Japanese people in Brookline, and the high school has SEVERAL Japanese language teachers..

[jayrandom]

Originally Posted by MassVt

Add Brookline to that list. Quite a few Japanese people in Brookline, and the high school has SEVERAL Japanese language teachers..

Brookline is WAY out of OPs budget.

[WCNewby]

Thanks again all. A couple updates/responses.

Mwj--these are awesome recs and sites, pretty cool! And yes to your statement "Sounds like you'd like a more bucolic, transient, white collar, relatively diverse, progressive-leaning town within 45 minutes of Medford.". Exactly.

As for traveling to Medford from Acton, it's once a week, saturday mornings--not exactly rush hour so that hopefully stretches the distance we can cover in 45 minutes out to Acton. Actually just 10 or so minutes north from Acton it looks like there are some properties similar to what we were hoping to land in Chappaqua (bigger houses, bigger lots of land).

As for Boston Born--driving time from Acton to Montpelier VT is about 90 mins less than from Westchster county---certainly significant, though we would be moving primarily for lower COL.

[mwj119]

Originally Posted by WCNewby

Thanks again all. A couple updates/responses.

Mwj--these are awesome recs and sites, pretty cool! And yes to your statement "Sounds like you'd like a more bucolic, transient, white collar, relatively diverse, progressive-leaning town within 45 minutes of Medford.". Exactly.

As for traveling to Medford from Acton, it's once a week, saturday mornings--not exactly rush hour so that hopefully stretches the distance we can cover in 45 minutes out to Acton. Actually just 10 or so minutes north from Acton it looks like there are some properties similar to what we were hoping to land in Chappaqua (bigger houses, bigger lots of land).

As for Boston Born--driving time from Acton to Montpelier VT is about 90 mins less than from Westchster county---certainly significant, though we would be moving primarily for lower COL.

WCNewby, you may be referring to Westford which is where we ended up. People on this forum are probably tired of me talking about the town in detail on these threads, so we can trade direct messages.

I would drive through Carlisle, Westford, and Acton, and just see which you like the most. You are correct, all are within 45 minutes to Medford on Saturday morning. Carlisle by cutting through Bedford to 95, Westford via 3 to 95, and Acton via Route 2 to 95. Looks like Carlisle is 30, Westford 31, and Acton 34 with current traffic.

Homes in the $700s do pop up in Carlisle, though most are $1.5M+. The town meets your description almost perfectly. Concord Carlisle is a great district. Both beautiful towns, tons of open space, farms, country roads, large homes. In looking at Chappaqua homes and prices, this will be the most apples to apples within reason. Places like Weston, Lincoln, etc. are probably the true apples to apples comparison with New Castle, but they will not have anything under $1M.

Acton and Westford will be similar to each other, with a few homes in $1-$2M, but the sweet spot being $600k-$900k. Both districts are 20%+ Asian. As per that NY Times graph, both top performing districts.

https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fa...etts/PST045219

[MikePRU]

My first thought was Acton especially if you want a more wooodsy feel. Great town with a great children's museum. 25%+ Asian population according to the last census.

Originally Posted by mwj119

I can't imagine Asian/White children feeling out of place in a good majority of suburbs north/northwest/west. What kind of town? Sprawl? Walkable? Mix?

If you want a material % Asian population (~10%+), great schools, and relative proximity to Medford/Boston, I would include:

Lexington
Belmont
Winchester
Newton

I think you missed the part about an $800K budget.

[mwj119]

Originally Posted by MikePRU

My first thought was Acton especially if you want a more wooodsy feel. Great town with a great children's museum. 25%+ Asian population according to the last census.



I think you missed the part about an $800K budget.

And I think you missed the second part of that post.