Coastal/Near Coastal Family Town (Boston, Cambridge: house, transfer, to buy)

[bricka]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

On this thread topic, I think the OP should focus on the non soul-crushing commute as the priority. They can always buy a vacation home once the market corrects.

could not agree more.

for me the prospect of a 1.5-2 hour commute to cambridge twice a day would weight much heavier on my decision than some perceived notion of neighbors' personal politics.

if you spend 4 hours in commute every day, trust me, you won't have time to discuss politics with your neighbors, let alone even see them lmao.

what do they call it? a hierarchy of needs?

[jayrandom]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

To quibble, the South Coast is the towns on salt water from Westport to the canal. None of those went Trump.

On this thread topic, I think the OP should focus on the non soul-crushing commute as the priority. They can always buy a vacation home once the market corrects.

Totally agree. I wouldn't avoid the South Shore because it's conservative, but because you can find something that works better to Cambridge.

As a transplant, I would say 99% of the choice of where to live should be based on location (i.e. commute) and price (i.e. are you buying near the town median price, not too much below, not too much above). The cultural differences between North and South Shore are real but coming from somewhere that is actually different than Massachusetts, all Boston suburbs are about the same.

[Remy11]

Yep, agree on considering the commute over the politics. Marblehead is beautiful and one of the closer coastal places on the north shore to Cambridge. However, as someone mentioned, unfortunately it’s in somewhat of a remote location, so the commute would probably be about an hour each way (perhaps more on days when there are accidents or road work happening, which both can be frequent occurrences). There are train depots in nearby Salem and Swampscott tho, so at least public transportation would be an option.

[Remy11]

As a non-transplant from the north shore, I’m curious to hear what transplants feel are the cultural differences between the north and south shore. No wrong answers here—just genuinely interested!

[OutdoorLover]

When looking at the North Shore - if you look at Newburyport relative to e.g. Beverly down by the water, it looks like you'd save 30-40 minutes (or more) on the Cambridge driving commute by living in Beverly. Not so. It takes a good while to get from the waterfront neighborhoods in Beverly out to Rte 128 and then out to Rte 1 South. In Newburyport, it only takes 5-10 minutes to get to I-95, which you can reliably drive 75mph on down to that Rte 1/Rte 128 junction, which you reach in about 25 minutes from my house in Newburyport's North End. It only ends up being *at most* about 10 minutes longer to commute in from Newburyport versus Beverly waterfront. Salem is a similar deal. Where those towns win is on the commuter rail in to North Station, which does save a good deal of time versus the train at Newburyport.

[jayrandom]

Originally Posted by Remy11

As a non-transplant from the north shore, I’m curious to hear what transplants feel are the cultural differences between the north and south shore. No wrong answers here—just genuinely interested!

This is probably worth its own thread. Don't want to hijack the OPs search any more than we already have.

Originally Posted by OutdoorLover

When looking at the North Shore - if you look at Newburyport relative to e.g. Beverly down by the water, it looks like you'd save 30-40 minutes (or more) on the Cambridge driving commute by living in Beverly. Not so. It takes a good while to get from the waterfront neighborhoods in Beverly out to Rte 128 and then out to Rte 1 South. In Newburyport, it only takes 5-10 minutes to get to I-95, which you can reliably drive 75mph on down to that Rte 1/Rte 128 junction, which you reach in about 25 minutes from my house in Newburyport's North End. It only ends up being *at most* about 10 minutes longer to commute in from Newburyport versus Beverly waterfront. Salem is a similar deal. Where those towns win is on the commuter rail in to North Station, which does save a good deal of time versus the train at Newburyport.

It's worth noting that while it's a lot easier to drive or take a bus to Cambridge from the North Shore, the commuter rail is much more of a wash, depending on exactly where in Cambridge they are heading to. The financial district commute will be easier by commuter rail from South Shore towns.

[bricka]

Originally Posted by jayrandom

It's worth noting that while it's a lot easier to drive or take a bus to Cambridge from the North Shore, the commuter rail is much more of a wash, depending on exactly where in Cambridge they are heading to. The financial district commute will be easier by commuter rail from South Shore towns.

agree that commuter rail access to cambridge is effectively useless for all lines except for fitchburg line.

if you are getting to cambridge via train, the last leg of the trip basically has to be the red line.

if you are taking the commuter rail into north station, that means adding a half hour each way: switch to green line and then switch to red line.

if you are driving then you can choose to drive into alewife or a southern redline stop and take the red line from there.

the only realistic way you can take the commuter rail into cambridge without having to do 2 more train changes is by taking the fitchburg line, which stops at porter square, where you can very easily switch right on to the red line and you are one stop from harvard. This is the best way to commute into cambridge from the suburbs IMO.

[lrfox]

Originally Posted by jayrandom

It's worth noting that while it's a lot easier to drive or take a bus to Cambridge from the North Shore, the commuter rail is much more of a wash, depending on exactly where in Cambridge they are heading to. The financial district commute will be easier by commuter rail from South Shore towns.

It's absolutely easier to drive or take a bus to Cambridge from the North Shore than from the South Shore. If driving is the only option and the the commute is anywhere near peak hours, I'd completely rule out anything on the South Shore beyond maybe Hingham. And even then, that's not a fun trek to anywhere in Cambridge. The Financial District is easier, but still a hike from anywhere south of Hingham/Weymouth.

The Commuter Rail potentially opens up some additional doors from the South to Cambridge, however, as it's an easy transfer to the Red Line at South Station (or JFK/UMass) which connects directly to the majority of Cambridge's business districts (Kendall, Central, Harvard, Alewife). But the further reaches of the Greenbush or Kingston/Plymouth lines are still easily well over an hour from most of Cambridge door to door with the transfers. Even for someone with an office in the Financial District within walking distance of South Station, it's comfortably over an hour door to door from the end of either line.

For that reason, I wouldn't definitively call the Financial District "easier" from the south. It really depends on where on either shore you're commuting from and where your destination within the Financial District is. For example, if you're in One Boston Place, it's going to generally be an easier commute from Beverly than Hingham as either trip involves a 10-15 minute walk or a subway transfer. Even Manchester-By-The-Sea will be a better commuter rail trip to that part of the Financial District than almost anything south of Hingham or Weymouth. But if you're at One Financial Center, then almost anything from the South is going to be better since it's immediately adjacent to South Station whereas a North Shore commuter is going to have at least one subway transfer or a ~20 minute walk.

The problem with the North Shore to Cambridge Commuter Rail commute is the limited rail connectivity from North Station to much of Cambridge. East Cambridge (Cambridgeside/Cambridge Crossing) is easy enough on the Green Line to Lechmere. There's also the shuttle from North Station to Kendall, but it's not particularly quick. Otherwise you're looking at an additional two subway lines (Orange/Green to Red) or a 15 minute walk to the Red at Charles/MGH. Not ideal. Personally, I can deal with a longer commute if it's relatively direct - like a 40 minute train ride with a 10 minute walk on either end. But once you start adding multiple transfers, it gets exhausting.

[tcalloway4]

Thank you!

Commute is 100% a major factor, we had a similar experience by living South of Charlotte where the drive was a taxing 1.5h each way.

I never should of said the word liberal to be honest, I feel like it may of swallowed this post, sorry about that - I am new here lol. it is NOT our number 1 priority, we have just had a rough few years living in the South, so I wanted to cover my basis.

But my MAIN bucket list that Marblehead seemed to have..
- seaside town
- great schools
- access to summer camps and after school care (I noticed a YMCA and my little guy currently attends their camps now)
- small town feel
- seems to be a family friendly community based on reviews? Hopefully more down to earth?
- some housing in our range

I think the swampscott rail station seems to be a bit more accessible when I mess with the google maps and departure times but of course google maps is not as reliable as living it! we were hoping to stay in the 45-1h by rail max range so this may be the thorn in the side for it.

[bricka]

if you are used to a 90 min commute then maybe commuting in from the south shore to cambridge is not that big of a deal. everybody has a different tolerance for these things.

i only go into the office once a week and i still couldn't stomach more than 60 min door-to-door.