Best burb for commute to Cambridge (Boston, Lynn: houses, neighborhoods, good schools)

[homeagainmass]

We will be moving back to Mass after a brief stint in North Carolina (2 years) We lived in Boston prior to this. We now have children and need better schools. We are looking to spend no more than high 700's. We loved concord, carlisle, lexington, winchester, weston and wellesley. We know we can't really touch weston/wellesley. If anyone has good advice on these areas for schools, amenities, general sense of the people there. Also would love to know drawbacks like prison, air traffic, road traffic, lack of resources/amenities.
Ideally we want a progressive community with some historic charm, love older homes, good schools a must, commutes to Cambridge and charlestown that are not horrible.

[ogre]

Which town would fit best depends partly on the details you'd like to see in a town. For example, would you like access to public transit? Also, the kind of general feel you want in a town might mean that some towns would stand out. There is a variety of looks in the towns you've listed. Carlisle is fairly rural, while Lexington and Winchester have fairly active downtowns for suburban towns, and both have affluent versions of a typically suburban look--houses with yards, some small wooded areas here and there but not much wide-open rural countryside. Concord is a mix of these other towns. Around Concord Center and West Concord there is the single-family house with a yard suburban look of Lexington and Winchester, while much of the rest of Concord has a semi-rural exurban sense about it.

If you'd prefer access to public transit, that could be a factor in determining which town would fit best. Concord and Winchester have commuter rail service. By commuter rail, it's a shorter ride into Boston from Winchester than Concord, but Concord lies on a rail line that has a stop at Porter Square in Cambridge, which could be handy if you were working close to Porter Square, or along the red line in Harvard, Central, or Kendall Squares, since the red line also connects to the Porter Sq. train station. Lexington has bus service to the red line station at Alewife in Cambridge. Carlisle has no direct public transit service in any form. From Carlisle you'd have to drive to commuter rail stations in other towns.

As far as any potential drawbacks are concerned, if you'd be driving, the biggest issue in Concord would be the commuting traffic going toward Cambridge on rt. 2. From anything I've heard about the prison in Concord, it's pretty much a non-issue. It's in a location off by itself in a somewhat rural corner of the town. I don't get the sense that Concord's residents are very much at all aware of the prison's presence in their town. The biggest issues in Concord would be the distance from Cambridge, the traffic involved in a driving commute, and the question of whether your preferences lean more toward a semi-rural town like Concord or Carlisle, or a classically suburban locale like Lex. or Win.

Another town I'd suggest that you might check out is Newton. Some areas on the south side of Newton are leafy-sburban, while most of Newton is older upscale suburban--well maintained older houses and tree-shaded streets. Much of Newton has good public transit access to Boston. Many neighborhoods have small commercial districts, with local eateries and upscale shops.

[gf2020]

With a budget of high 700s, I would look at Winchester, Reading and Lynnfield.

[kmann-sherborn]

I agree with Ogre, recommendations would vary depending on whether you're looking for public transit. It might also be helpful to share what you like about Concord, Carlisle, etc so folks can pipe in with additional recommendations. :-)

[cwaggy]

I commute from Cape Ann to Harvard Sq 7 - 3 shift, drive an hour each way. I leave at 5:55 AM sharp. Take the CR to the T once in a while so I can avoid holiday traffic and catch up on reading.

The benefit is you are in heaven when you get home. I would look at Manchester / Essex esp. if you are in Kendall. MERSD is top rated schools.