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as someone who has split time between Boston metro and the Mid Atlantic for more than 50 years IMO there is little difference in levels of traffic congestion and weather between NOVA and Mass. You'll get more snow in New England but also more heat and humidity than many would figure. There have been more than 20 days of temperatures at 90 or above in Boston already this year. Don't let anyone tell you that you don't need AC in the northeast.
I have no illusions that Massachusetts is an arctic climate, but the data I've looked at gives me confidence I'll have a fairly less likelihood of Virginia Halloweens where it's been more often than not 80+ degrees and 90% humidity.
OP, since you've checked back in, one question is what field you work in. The debate on this thread about where the major suburban employment centers are located has taken place without info about your field. That may have some influence on the best location for you. Different industries have concentrations of suburban employment centers in different areas. For example, Waltham and Burlington, which have been mentioned as suburban employment anchors, have historically been especially big centers of the electronics/computer industry.
As far as weather, you're right that summertime here is not like the Arctic. It's much milder than you have in VA, and you're more likely to have cool to chilly weather on Halloween than 80's and humid. Just be aware that it does get hot and muggy in the Boston area, albeit with a lot less of that weather than you have in VA.
Some respondents to this thread have kind of disparaged the springtime here, even saying that spring is not exactly a real season. I happen to like the springtime in MA. The weather can be very changeable that time of year in MA. You can have a high of 80 one day and cold rain the next, or even snow in early spring. Occasionally you'll get a day during spring that's actually kind of hot. The weather can go in the other direction as well; raw, chilly, gray days here and there are not unusual even well into May, on rare occasions even in early June.
Still, overall the springtime weather in Greater Boston is moderate. As long as you don't expect long stretches of balmy weather and are okay with generally temperate weather with a lot of fluctuation, springtime in the area is fine. However, the real peak of spring, classic springtime scenery with flowers bursting out everywhere, is brief in the area. Maybe a week or two in early May, though there are some flowering plants blooming a little at a time all through April.
It rains a fair amount during a typical spring, but it doesn't pour every day by any means. As long as you're okay with weather that shifts around a lot, and can be chilly a fair amount of the time, but seldom gets either really hot or really cold, and as long as you don't expect a long, glorious three months filled with flowers everywhere, the generally moderate weather during the spring is fine.
On another subject, to clear up the information that Natick has a lot of big warehouse stores, that is correct. But in another part of town Natick also has a nice downtown area.
Someone asked whether Framingham, right next door to Natick, had a nice downtown. The answer is no. Framingham's major economic center is a mass of strip malls and office parks. The old downtown area is rather faded, and mostly characterized by chintzy cut-rate little businesses. I don't quite understand this. Downtown F'ham seems as if it would be ripe for gentrification, especially because the train station, which lies along a commuter rail line, is located right downtown, and the bones of a once-thriving small-city downtown are still there. So far, a shift to a thriving-again downtown has not happened in F'ham. Downtown Natick, though, is very nice.
One issue with Natick could be housing costs, especially given your desire for a four-bedroom house. Natick has become a hot town in recent years, moving up from middle class and a little bit blue collar to becoming more and more affluent. The (relatively) moderately priced properrties are found largely on the north and west sides, in old post-WWII subdivisions of three-bedroom ranch houses. Some of those here and there have been added to and converted to two-story colonials. If you were to luck into one of those, that might be your best shot at a house within budget in Natick that would meet your preference for four bedrooms. That would be a matter of luck, though. Most of the houses in those less expensive sections of Natick are still three-bedroom ranches.
I'll second one suggestion made above for a town: Acton. Acton is a clean, affluent exurban town with well-regarded schools, that somehow seems to maintain modest (for the area) housing costs. As long as you're fine with a short drive to a downtown with a decent collection of the basics, from Acton you can get to that in the nearby towns of Concord and Maynard.
One big possible drawback to Acton is traffic. Rt. 2, which would be the major artery toward employment centers in the aforementioned Waltham and Burlington, can get congested during rush hours.
That leads to a final point. No one can really make sound suggestions for towns that might fit without knowing where you'd be working. At least knowing what field you're in could narrow it down to some likely locations where suburban centers in certain industries are concentrated. To really pin down the towns where you'd have a manageable commute, people here would need to know specifically where you'd be working. As in the D.C. area, traffic in parts of Greater Boston can be gruesome. Knowing specifically the town where a workplace is located helps in pinning down the towns that meet other criteria, and from which you could have a reasonable commute to a particular workplace.
OP, since you've checked back in, one question is what field you work in. The debate on this thread about where the major suburban employment centers are located has taken place without info about your field. That may have some influence on the best location for you. Different industries have concentrations of suburban employment centers in different areas. For example, Waltham and Burlington, which have been mentioned as suburban employment anchors, have historically been especially big centers of the electronics/computer industry.
As far as weather, you're right that summertime here is not like the Arctic. It's much milder than you have in VA, and you're more likely to have cool to chilly weather on Halloween than 80's and humid. Just be aware that it does get hot and muggy in the Boston area, albeit with a lot less of that weather than you have in VA.
Some respondents to this thread have kind of disparaged the springtime here, even saying that spring is not exactly a real season. I happen to like the springtime in MA. The weather can be very changeable that time of year in MA. You can have a high of 80 one day and cold rain the next, or even snow in early spring. Occasionally you'll get a day during spring that's actually kind of hot. The weather can go in the other direction as well; raw, chilly, gray days here and there are not unusual even well into May, on rare occasions even in early June.
Still, overall the springtime weather in Greater Boston is moderate. As long as you don't expect long stretches of balmy weather and are okay with generally temperate weather with a lot of fluctuation, springtime in the area is fine. However, the real peak of spring, classic springtime scenery with flowers bursting out everywhere, is brief in the area. Maybe a week or two in early May, though there are some flowering plants blooming a little at a time all through April. It rains a fair amount during a typical spring, but it doesn't pour every day by any means. As long as you're okay with weather that shifts around a lot, and can be chilly a fair amount of the time, but seldom gets either really hot or really cold, and as long as you don't expect a long, glorious three months filled with flowers everywhere, the generally moderate weather during the spring is fine.
On another subject, to clear up the information that Natick has a lot of big warehouse stores, that is correct. But in another part of town Natick also has a nice downtown area. Someone asked whether Framingham, right next door to Natick, had a nice downtown. The answer is no. Framingham's major economic center is a mass of strip malls and office parks. The old downtown area is rather faded, and mostly characterized by chintzy cut-rate little businesses. I don't quite understand this. Downtown F'ham seems as if it would be ripe for gentrification, especially because the train station, which lies along a commuter rail line, is located right downtown, and the bones of a once-thriving small-city downtown are still there. So far, a shift to a thriving-again downtown has not happened in F'ham. Downtown Natick, though, is very nice.
One issue with Natick could be housing costs, especially given your desire for a four-bedroom house. Natick has become a hot town in recent years, moving up from middle class and a little bit blue collar to becoming more and more affluent. The (relatively) moderately priced properrties are found largely on the north and west sides, in old post-WWII subdivisions of three-bedroom ranch houses. Some of those here and there have been added to and converted to two-story colonials. If you were to luck into one of those, that might be your best shot at a house within budget in Natick that would meet your preference for four bedrooms. That would be a matter of luck, though. Most of the houses in those less expensive sections of Natick are still three-bedroom ranches.
I'll second one suggestion made above for a town: Acton. Acton is a clean, affluent exurban town with well-regarded schools, that somehow seems to maintain modest (for the area) housing costs. As long as you're fine with a short drive to a downtown with a decent collection of the basics, from Acton you can get to that in the nearby towns of Concord and Maynard.
One big possible drawback to Acton is traffic. Rt. 2, which would be the major artery toward employment centers in the aforementioned Waltham and Burlington, can get congested during rush hours.
That leads to a final point. No one can really make sound suggestions for towns that might fit without knowing where you'd be working. At least knowing what field you're in could narrow it down to some likely locations where suburban centers in certain industries are concentrated. To really pin down the towns where you'd have a manageable commute, people here would need to know specifically where you'd be working. As in the D.C. area, traffic in parts of Greater Boston can be gruesome. Knowing specifically the town where a workplace is located helps in pinning down the towns that meet other criteria, and from which you could have a reasonable commute to a particular workplace.
Thanks for the thoughtful, thorough response.
Above all else, I've moved my search to North Shore towns only thanks to the feedback on this thread. Influenced by the great combination of quaint residential towns, outdoors, schools, beach proximity, and NH/ME mountain access. I should probably start a new thread on this topic.
I'm in the tech field - UX design. I've done work in UX (e.g. websites and apps) for a variety of industries - finance, banking, health, insurance, retail.
Spouse has employment range in financial lending, pharma marketing, and bank marketing.
Totally okay with sloppy spring time. Nothing about your weather description bothers me.
To your point about commute traffic concerns, I can't imagine any scenario of making this move without either my spouse or I have a 100% (or near 100%) remote job. I'd bet on my industry/job having that option before hers.
If your work involves direct employment by tech companies and you did do any commuting, it could be a tough commute from the North Shore to the big suburban tech centers. Of course this depends on your definition of North Shore, and how far inland you'd be willing to live while generally north of Boston. Or if you'd be working in the tech division of another industry rather than a tech company per se, the work might be located elsewhere than the concentrations of tech employers. And of course if you work from home completely, that's not an issue.
It sounds as if your wife might be employed in the downtown Boston financial district. That too could be a tough commute by driving, but commuter rail could be an option. At the in-town end, a rail commute from the north would involve either a bit of a walk from the train station (though doable if your wife doesn't mind a good walk), or a subway ride on the T.
Though you said that your wife is less likely than you to be able to work completely from home, if both of you could swing that, then you'd be in the enviable position of looking anywhere in the metro area that suited your other needs.
Don't be fooled about traffic in Greater Boston just because you looked up some suburbs with lower population density than your current area. My impression is that Washington's suburbs have something approximating an even, average suburban density throughout. Not precisely, but maybe more balanced density than you find in Greater Boston. In the Boston area you have more of a combination of dense old cities and leafy suburbia/exurbia, with a few more typical suburbs scattered here and there. The population is distributed differently than it is in D.C., but the population is still there.
This means that there is plenty of traffic in Greater Boston. That's why the usual advice on this forum is to find out where your work will be located and then find a place to live that meets as many of your other preferences as possible while offering a sane commute.
Nothing wrong with finding out what's available ahead of time, but be aware that some flexibility may be needed if you want to avoid going crazy from the commute. Of course if you and your wife both end up being able to work from home, then when it comes to meeting as many residence criteria as possible, you're gold!
I have no illusions that Massachusetts is an arctic climate, but the data I've looked at gives me confidence I'll have a fairly less likelihood of Virginia Halloweens where it's been more often than not 80+ degrees and 90% humidity.
It snowed on Halloween last year.
I have lived on the North Shore for over 30 years, happy to provide feedback.
I have lived on the North Shore for over 30 years, happy to provide feedback.
I was out on my boat on November 8th in a long sleeve shirt. I hauled my boat on November 10th and the boat yard guy who pressure washed the bottom was wearing shorts. You can have 30 degree temperature swings at that time of year. A few northern New England ski areas make snow and open at higher elevations many years at Halloween but it’s usually much more mild in southeastern New England.
I was out on my boat on November 8th in a long sleeve shirt. I hauled my boat on November 10th and the boat yard guy who pressure washed the bottom was wearing shorts. You can have 30 degree temperature swings at that time of year. A few northern New England ski areas make snow and open at higher elevations many years at Halloween but it’s usually much more mild in southeastern New England.
The Cape especially I would consider to be moderate snowfall.
Witty Data,
Curious to hear if you ended up on the North Shore. I was born and raised here, went to another New England state for undergrad and actually had hopes of moving to NYC after that, but found myself right back here on the North Shore after getting a job in Boston. I guess maybe it took leaving for four years to realize how much I appreciate it after all and I can't imagine living anywhere else now.
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