nice neighborhoods near Boston?

[3boymthr]

Working in Cambridge I'd definitely look north and/or northwest of the city. Your budget will be tight at that price and that distance. But a little further out definitely doable. And definitely look for properties on the Commuter Rail. For frame of reference, I live halfway between Boston and Providence (27 mi in each direction). I worked in Boston (right next to Allston/Brighton Tolls on the Pike) and in normal traffic my commute was about an hour and half from my house. OTH I worked downtown on High Street and lived further south and my commute was only an hour as I was taking the Commuter Rail to South Station and walking to my office. Either way if I had to go to Cambridge I would then have another half hour to 45 minute commute to get across the city on subway.

 

[ProudMommyof2]

My sister lives in North Attleboro. Great school system and housing in the ballpark of what you are looking at. About 20 mins by car to Providence and probably 60 mins on the "T" to Cambridge.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Here is a map of the Commuter Rail (lines in Purple), not to scale, but to give you a general idea where the towns are located in relation to Boston.

http://mbta.com/schedules_and_maps/rail/

Perfect. Best would probably be to look along the Fitchburg line. This would offer theoption to transfer to the Red Line at either Alewife or Porter Square to get directky to many lo ations in Cambridge.

 

[MEM]

I live in a suburb West of Boston and commute into the city every day
via an express bus. My DH purchased the house when he was single but its not my dream house or location. It is, however, convenient. As others have said, there will be trade-offs. The house the OP is describing would run from $700K on up in a town with great schools and near Cambridge.

One colleague of mine purchased a house recently in Reading plus my hairdresser also lives in that town. Their incomes are vastly different so it sounds to me like Reading has something for everyone.

A another colleague of mine recently moved here from the Western U.S. and wanted her kids to go to school in Brookline. A house was out of the question so they are renting a 2 bedroom apartment that allows pets - I can't imagine what she pays - somehow they managed to make a third bedroom (her kids are of opposite gender) by using partitions from Ikea. It sounds tight but they make it work.

 

[JYL13]

When we moved away from MA. I started by searching for the best school systems, then went to realtor.com or zillow.com and looked at the real estate in the towns I was interested in. You can also look at crime, etc. Also keep in mind most towns have more expensive areas and less expensive areas. I wouldn't just choose a town by the name or distance from work.
I grew up in Wayland, a great school system about 20 miles west of Boston, I don't know what the real estate market is there now.

 

[DebMcDonald]

You may want to consider the 495 area, further out than the 128 area for that price and land. Anything outside of the immediate T area would require taking the commuter rail into town. I'm a zone 4 commuter rail pass and pay $228 a month not including the $4 a day for parking, so consider that also when considering housing and also if you live North Shore your husband would commute into North Station, if your more South Shore you'd commute into South Station, right off the redline which he would then take up to Cambrige. The South Shore would probably be a quicker commute. Living in this area an hour door to door is considered normal.

 

[winterwhite]

I have a couple rental properties in the Lowell area and really like it. I am not sure that you could find something with a yard here, unless you went out into Tewksbury or Andover, with corresponding higher prices. Both my places are very close to the commuter rail to north station (rode it every day to work while I lived in my condo) and property is very reasonable here, with high rents making property generally a good investment even if you don't continue to live in it.

We're now considering property in New Hampshire since I am returning to work in the Boston area, but that really depends where in the Boston area you are working.

 

[wallawallakids]

Stoneham, Reading, Belmont, Wakefield, Melrose. All have pretty good schools. I grew up in Wakefield. I have family in all those other towns listed as well. There are a lot of good school choices in MA.

 

[nugov2]

We have family in Sudbury. It is beautiful there and they rave about the schools. They do commute to the city.

 

[RyAndBraysMom]

I grew up in Melrose which is about 7-10 miles North of Boston. My brother and his family still live there and my parents have since moved to Reading. Both are very nice towns to raise a family. However, the lots are small and the houses are close together. I live in S. Maine now with a much larger house and a nice big lot. If we ever decided to move back to the greater Boston area, we probably couldn't afford something comparable to what we have now. We would have to settle for a much smaller house on a much smaller lot and would probably pay a lot more for it than what we would be able to sell our current house for. With that said, Reading has a commuter rail that could take your husband into Boston for work daily. It has a beautiful high school with amazing athletic fields. It has a YMCA and lots of nice shopping areas nearby. Melrose/Malden is the last stop on the orange line of the MBTA system. Melrose is between Route 1 and Route 93 which gives you great access in or out of the city. Good luck with your decision

 

[mjkacmom]

Friends are relocating from here due to a job change, and were very interested in good schools. They chose a home in Needham, and according to my friend, they have to downsize from their 1800 square foot home that they have here, to afford to live there, and their current home is probably worth about $450,000.

At least they will pay less in property taxes!

 

[trinchick]

OP, I'm afraid you're going to have to put in a lot of time to do your own research on this, as I'm sure each individual family's criteria are very different. Many of the communities others have suggested, I would not consider highly desirable in terms of schools, etc.

Wayland and Sudbury have both been mentioned, and with your budget I agree that they'd be good places to start your research.

Cambridge is a tough location in terms of commute. I live south of Boston, and it would be a total bear to get there everyday, but I have a pretty reasonable commute to downtown Boston with a 25-minute ride on the Commuter Rail available in my town (though I choose to drive).

Like many have said, the housing market is a bit crazy here. We watch House Hunters and drool over what people can buy elsewhere with relatively small budgets. We live in a fairly average colonial with a 1960's kitchen, and for what we paid, we could have a mansion in some other parts of the country (but of course, not everywhere).

Also, property taxes can be high here and vary greatly from town to town. I grew up in Sharon, where schools are excellent and property values are relatively reasonable. Property taxes are quite hefty, though, which of course goes hand-in-hand with the quality of the schools.

 

[leebee]

Peabody, Salem, Marblehead, Swampscott, Lynnfield, Wakefield, Middleton, Danvers, Reading, North Reading, Andover, N. Andover, Winchester, Beverly. There are commuter buses from Peabody and Woburn. Subway is available by driving to Salem, Revere, Malden… probably even further out, but I haven't seen an MBTA map in awhile. Commuter train runs to Salem and beyond, up to Gloucester.

Avoid Lynn, Revere, probably Saugus, probably Malden. I have family and friends in all these cities, and I'm not saying they are bad places, but they are CITIES, not suburbs.

Here's the catch: Housing is expensive. I grew up in Peabody, in a 3 bedroom ranch with 1.5 bathrooms, 1400 sq.ft., 1 car garage, 1/3 acre, built on a slab w/radiant heat. In 1957 they paid $16,900. The location is about 18 miles north of Boston, and I'd leave the house at 7:15am, drive to Revere and park at Wonderland, and take the T into Boston to be to work in Kenmore Square by 9AM. We owned that house for 27 years, adding on two bedrooms w/baseboard heat. It sold in 1984 for $142,900 but the heat pipes in one of the bedrooms had ruptured, so there was a significant heating system repair to be done. In 2003, this house sold for $498,000. However, I just looked at realtor.com and a similar house (but only 3 bedrooms) in a similar neighborhood (about 5 minutes from where I grew up) is listed at only $379,000. Good luck with your search; I loved living just outside Boston, and wish we'd never sold that house!

 

[Judyat]

We have friends who just moved to Roslindale. It's a nice town with lots of charm that they can walk to. They live less than a mile from the commuter line which ends to Needham. Once on it's a short 20 mile trip. Nice but they really had to downsize. House is small and old and needs some updates.

 

[casjen]

I recommend the suburbs west of Boston. Needham will be pricier than Framingham or Hopkinton. Natick is good too. Framingham/Natick are on the commuter rail so easy in and easy out. Sudbury can be pricier but nice. Wayland and Weston will have tiny houses for 450,000.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

I recommend the suburbs west of Boston. Needham will be pricier than Framingham or Hopkinton. Natick is good too. Framingham/Natick are on the commuter rail so easy in and easy out. Sudbury can be pricier but nice. Wayland and Weston will have tiny houses for 450,000.

All good choices, but a few of these communities are VERY expensive (I lived in one of these towns for several years).

 

[OKW Lover]

His work will be in Cambridge... and we already know we can't afford to live there We will be talking to a realtor eventually if we move forward, we were just trying to figure out if there is ANYWHERE nearby that we could possibly afford and have the type of house/property/schools we would like. Whether it is worth even pursuing.

Depending on just where in Cambridge the work would be, you might want to look at the MBTA system map and follow the redline out to the northwest from there and concentrate on the towns in that neighborhood. That would make commuting via MBTA fairly easy since he wouldn't have to change lines.

 

[KBoopaloo]

I'd also recommend some of the NW or metrowest towns for commuting to Cambridge. I am north of Boston in the Melrose/Wakefield/Saugus (less than 15 miles from Cambridge) area and work in Cambridge and my commute requires at least one switch (from a bus to a subway or from one subway line to another) and generally takes 1.5 hours using public transit, sometimes a little less. Driving would be quicker but my job does not have parking.

 

[OLIVIA'S DADDY]

Winthrop is nice, and right on the water, has a commuter rail... Belmont and Arlington, and Winchester are nice and really close but not sure with that budget if you could get what you want for your budget. But, it doesn't help to try!To get what you want you would probably need to go north and west of the city which then gives you an aweful commute. But, towns like Reading, Andover, Stoneham, Wakefield, Danvers, Burlington, Billerica, Lincoln, Lexington, Chelmsford.

Places to stay away from would be Dorchester, Roxbury, Hyde Park, Jamaica plain and roslindale. I would not want to raise kids in any of those places.

 

[leebee]

Places to stay away from would be Dorchester, Roxbury, Hyde Park, Jamaica plain and roslindale. I would not want to raise kids in any of those places.

I agree with Olivia's Daddy!

Get a street map of the greater Boston area (try to find one that has the MBTA map superimposed). Look at the towns that fall between the I95/128 loop and the I495 loop. These are your "Boston bedroom" towns, with lower housing prices and generally better neighborhoods/schools. You'll probably have to drive to a commuter rail station, commuter bus station, public bus station, or the MBTA (the T… subway), and then commute into Cambridge. Traffic in the Boston area during rush hour is NOT trivial, and whether you drive or commute, or a combination, you are probably looking at adding 1.5 hours commuting time on each end of your workday. When we lived in N. Andover, DH worked in Woburn (right at the 128/93 interchange ). He could leave the house at 7:30 or 8:30 and get to work by 9. The difference was the traffic; leaving earlier meant more time sitting in traffic. If he left at 8:30, he could drive straight to work with no traffic back-up at all.

Good luck. I really loved living on the North Shore and only wish we could get jobs back there again; I'd move in a heartbeat!