Family Towns/Cost of Living Comparison (Boston, Weymouth: middle-class, real estate, to rent)

[RL5200]

I am heading up to Boston for a house hunting trip (currently in the DC Metro area) and I am wondering what would be a recommended family friendly town where about $650k would get me a decent 4 bedroom single family house?

I am particularly partial to the south shore as I have some family still in that area, but I am just not sure which towns should make my short list. A town near the commuter rail would be nice as well. I am not sure if I will get all my prerequisites but if anyone has any input I would greatly appreciate it.

Also, I was reading an older post about what is considered middle-class to upper-middle class in the Greater Boston area, and I was astonished to see that "upper middle-class" was perceived as being over ~$250k in Boston. Coming from DC, I am used to insane prices for real estate and what have you, but between my wife and I, we pull in about $140k'ish and I wouldnt say we were "middle-class". Is $250k really the benchmark in Boston? I figured 140k would be doing well, sans NYC. Interesting discussion....

[gf2020]

My wife and I make over $200K combined per year, I would say we are "upper middle class" for the Boston suburbs. If you can afford a $650K house on a $140K income that is pretty good, you must be putting a hefty amount down.

Where will you actually be working? The commute from the South Shore in to Boston is the worst in the area. If you can take the train that would be a plus. I would look at Hingham, Cohasset, Scituate, Hanover and Norwell.

[kaioak36]

I agree with GF2020 but would also add Duxbury to the list if you don't mind a bit longer commute. All of those towns though won't give you much if anything for $250k. $300k of a 3 bed/1 bath would be the minimum price of an older home that probably has an outdated kitchen/bath in Hanover. If I had to rank the South Shore towns, I would rank as follows:

Duxbury/Hingham/Cohasset (all # 1)
Norwell
Scituate
Hanover

Towns that are more blue collar and less expensive
Pembroke
Marshfield
Kingston
Hanson
Weymouth
Whitman
Abington

Rockland (you don't want to live there!)

[kmann-sherborn]

Hingham is the town on the south shore that I've heard family & friends who moved there rave about the most for charm factor, schools, train access, beach access, etc.

Here are a few links you might find handy:
MBTA > Schedules & Maps > Commuter Rail > Greenbush Line - train schedule
Town of Hingham Massachusetts, Incorporated 1635 - Town of Hingham with some video footage
World's End | Hingham, MA | The Trustees of Reservations - my fave place on the south shore to hike! Just beautiful.

It's a bit outside my area, but I know a few buyer's agents that cover the south shore. If you need a recommendation please feel free to private message me.

[Amontillado]

No no, not Hingham. They hate the train there.

(When the commuter rail was rebuilt to the South Shore, Hingham fought it tooth and nail.)

$650K ought to get you a pretty decent house in most towns. If you'd consider north of the city, you might try Winchester. Will you be commuting to downtown Boston, or elsewhere?

[Jamesnana]

My daughter was looking for a 4 BR in Hingham this summer in that price range, and it was very slim pickings. Usually, no central air, lots were small, and the housing stock was older.

They got a 1995 house in Hanover on a huge lot with all the bells and whistles. She loves Scituate but finds it too geographically isolated. Also looked at Norwell, but it too is pricey.

[NewfieMama]

We had a similar budget while looking for a 4BR home on the south shore this summer (Hingham, Cohasset, Scituate, Norwell). My husband and I rented for a year or more in both Hingham and Scituate and we ended up buying in Norwell. We toured at least 80 homes across all four towns before deciding.

I love Scituate, but we both work downtown and the commute sort of took the wind out of our sails when we lived there. Granted, it was before the commuter rail, but the commuter rail alone is an hour to South Station and we were trying to keep our commute within an hour. Still, at in Scituate for $650K you can get something very close or even on the water, which isn't a possibility in Hingham or Cohasset.

Hingham is also nice, but with a $650K budget you don't get much space at all with a 4BR house. I didn't want to be rightnext to our neighbor, which is one reason we started looking at Norwell. But in terms of location and commute, Hingham is great.

Cohasset is lovely and the commute is better than it is to Scituate, but we had a similar issue as we did with Hingham--budget doesn't buy you space and Cohasset is still very isolated...it would take 15 - 20 minutes to get to Route 3.

I do love Norwell and the budget got us a nice antique 4 BR house (3,100 SF) on enough land that we can't really see our neighbors, but we're also not really close to the water like we would have been in Scituate, so it's a trade off. Our commute is reasonable, though, taking the commuter rail (we drive to Weymouth) and I can get door-to-door in an hour, which was the goal. Plus I like being close to shops/restaurants.

I know a couple of people have mentioned Duxbury. I love Duxbury, in fact my in-laws live there (but in West Duxbury, which is the poor side ), but there's no way I would do that commute every day. I did it for about a month when we first moved to Boston and hadn't found a house to rent yet (lived with in-laws). It was impossible.

I don't know how to speak to the $140K vs. $250K thing...we are in the latter bucket, but I don't feel "upper middle class" at all. We live in an average house. We saved for several years to put more than 20% down. We still live on a budget despite not having any debt (except mortgage). In fact, my husband's vehicle has over 200K miles on it. We don't own a fancy TV. We're always saving toward a goal (home renovations, a replacement vehicle, property taxes, haha), so I don't feel like we live high on the hog at all. And we don't even have kids...though we are already starting to think about the expense of any future kids' educations!

[kmann-sherborn]

Amontiladdo, I'm confused by your post. Yes, there are residents who fought having a train there, but there *is* a train station there now. :-)