Short commute to Brighton (Boston, Cambridge: condo, houses, schools)

[ASBERB]

My husband will be starting a job in Brighton soon and we're looking for a good town for our family of three. Ideally, my husband would spend no more than 30 minutes commuting each way. We really like Acton because of its great schools, ample conservation land, and active community members. Unfortunately, I've heard that although the GoogleMaps drive time is 40 minutes, the commute is easily double that with traffic.

Right now, we're a single-income family so we're looking at 300-350k. I know that won't go far, but we'd rather have a small place with a good community than the other way around. We'd prefer a single family but we would consider a condo.

Based on schools, library use, and GoogleMaps drive time, we are considering several towns: Burlington, Bedford, Concord, Lincoln, Lexington, Winchester, Arlington, Belmont, Sudbury, Weston, Cambridge, Wellesley, Newton, Brookline, Dover, and Westwood. I know many of those towns are way out of our price range, but are any of them possibilities? How about their green space? And community activism or parental involvement? How's the real commute time?

Are there any other towns to consider?

Thanks so much for any input you can offer!

[holden125]

If you're open to a condo you might be able to find something in Belmont or Arlington. For a single family it would be very tough, but that's largely true of most of the towns you've listed. Arlington and especially Belmont offer a short commute to Brighton once you've learned the back streets.

The other towns you've listed vary greatly in terms of green space, etc. Newton, Wellesley and Winchester are fairly built up suburban towns. Weston, Lincoln, Sudbury, Westwood and Dover are mostly woodsy in feel. Concord as well but less so. Lexington less so that Concord, but not as filled-in as Newton. Burlington and Bedford also are fairly suburban, though not as built up as Newton. Near 128 there are office parks and malls there. I'd say Burlington is more generic suburbia than most of the other towns you've named. Bedford has retained more of a woodsy feel than Burlington IMO.

Brookline is a real mixed bag. The northern part is quite urban, then there's an area that's upscale suburban, not unlike parts of Newton or Wellesley, then there's a fairly woodsy estate area in the southern reaches of town.

Cambridge is the true outlier. It's a city, by far more urban than just about everywhere else you've identified.

A lot of these places are probably more than 30 mins commute because there's heavy traffic on the Mass Pike and on 128 heading toward the Pike or Route 2. In a lot of these towns your budget also is unlikely to go far. They're some of the most expensive towns in Mass.

Have you thought about Natick or Wayland? Northern Framingham also is nice.

[ASBERB]

Thanks for the detailed info, holden. I know I can cross Dover and Weston off our list and probably several others. I'm giving Wayland another look as well as Needham and Lynnfield.

Are there any towns commutable to Brighton? It's difficult to identify commutable towns because of the traffic variable. Are there particular routes that have less traffic than others? Or should we just accept the fact that he'll have a 45 minute commute?

[ogre]

Yeah, the reality is that if you figure in the effect of rush hour traffic on driving time you have to get more than half an hour from Brighton to have many options for towns like Acton, with woods and fields all around. The less densely populated areas that are fairly close to Brighton tend to have very high housing costs.

If you are prepared to compromise on having the low-density, woodsy character of a town like Acton in favor of a relatively quick commute, Holden's suggestion of going the condo route in either Belmont or Arlington is a good one. I think Holden's description of Burlington as "generic suburbia" is right on. This means houses with yards, but not a lot of wide open space in the way of woods and fields. A town I find very similar to Burlington in general look and feel is Dedham. If generic suburbia is something you could consider, you might take a look at Dedham, which is in a location that's most likely within a shorter commute to Brighton than Burlington is. The one question I would have about Dedham is the schools. I'm not familiar with Dedham's schools. I haven't even really heard much about the school system there by word of mouth. I'm not saying the schools are bad there. They might be fine. I just don't know. Otherwise, Dedham is a town that could work for you if generic suburbia will work.

Regarding your mention of Lynnfield, I would have thought you'd have difficulty finding a property within your price range there, except that we have a user who posts here occasionally who moved to Lynnfield a few months ago, into a house that cost well below what I would have expected in Lynnfield. So, Lynnfield could be worth a look. If you can find properties within your price range there, you may want to seriously consider Lynnfield. It's an affluent suburban town with schools that have a good reputation. Not as much open space as Acton, but overall a nice town, with some pretty good yard space with many of the properties.

The possible issue with Lynnfield may be commuting time. I'm not personally familiar with the commute from that area, but, from my general knowledge of commuting patterns in the Boston area, the commute from north of Boston is tough, and it may be difficult to get through the local roads to Brighton once you get in fairly close to Cambridge and Boston. My guess is that this would be a tough commute.

If you're ready to accept a longer commute as reality, I'd suggest also taking a look at Hopkinton and Holliston. You may find some decent properties in your price range in those towns, especially Hopkinton, and both towns have that woodsy character. The issue, again, is the commute. From both towns you have to do a fair amount of driving on local roads to get to the main highways. In fact, Holliston and Hopkinton are such nice towns that I have a hard time figuring out why they have the modest (for Boston) property costs that they do, and the only reason for this that I can figure out is that their location out away from prime commuting routes is what lowers the demand for properties in these towns.

[holden125]

Originally Posted by ogre

The possible issue with Lynnfield may be commuting time. I'm not personally familiar with the commute from that area, but, from my general knowledge of commuting patterns in the Boston area, the commute from north of Boston is tough, and it may be difficult to get through the local roads to Brighton once you get in fairly close to Cambridge and Boston. My guess is that this would be a tough commute.

Agreed. From Lynnfield it would probably be best to come down Route 1 or 93 to downtown Boston and then take the Pike west, or cut off 93 at the Mystic Valley Pkwy (16) and take that and the streets of Watertown. I'd not bother looping all around on 128. But any which way the commute is difficult. It's over half an hour from Lynnfield with no traffic at all.

I believe Dedham's schools are not the greatest but that's compared to the schools in the towns around Boston, so the bar's set pretty high. The commute may not be that much better than from Burlington. Your choices are 128 north to the Pike (not great), or taking the streets through West Roxbury, Brookline, Newton.

[DreamworksSKG]

I would suggest Brookline, Watertown or Waltham all are great towns and easy access to both Boston and Brighton