Comparing Walpole;Westwood;Medfield;Dover and Wellesley (Boston, Sherborn: rental, chapel)

[MarsMary]

Hi everyone,

been doing some research on relocating to the Walpole area and wondered how it compares to Medfield, Westwood, Dover, Sherborn and possibly Wellesley? I know that the (elementary)schools there seem decent if not quite as high ranking as the others, and was also interested in how they all compare in terms of sense of community, welcoming newcomers, how family orientated they are, sports activities for kids, nice looking walkable downtowns and rail links to Boston (for pleasure not commuting)? How long does it take from Dover/Wellesley to Walpole at rush hour? I've been given some good info about Walpole on this forum so far and just want to compare it to other possible areas we could move to before we come up and visit.

Thanks for your help!

[findingmesomeday]

School wise (I can't speak about individual schools but I can address the entire district for comparison), Walpole schools are not in the same league as the other towns you mentioned (Dover-Sherborn is a regional district: the Dover and Sherborn elementary schools are different but both towns share a middle and high school). Dover, Sherborn and Medfield are quite a bit smaller than Walpole. I'm not sure about Westwood and I'm pretty sure Wellesley is larger. Wellesley and Westwood, like Walpole are right on a commuter train line. It's a bit more difficult to pick up the train from Medfield, Dover or Sherborn (depending on where you are, you'd have to drive to a nearby station).

It really comes down to what you can afford (Walpole is the least expensive), how large or small you want to go in terms of community size (Dover and Sherborn are quite a bit smaller than Walpole, Wellesley and Westwood), etc. If you offered up some things you think you MUST have, I might be able to do a better job steering you.

[MarsMary]

Hi,

thanks for the response! We currently live in a community which has schools, preschools, grocery stores, restaurants, some small shops, doctors, dentists, dance schools etc. Ideally I would like these amenties in the community or close by. We have a recreation center with 'fun' pool and competition pool within 15 mins, so again, would really like similar facilities. We currently don't have a nice, walkable traditional downtown - its all very new here - so would like this! I'm really looking for a neighborhood with lots of elementary age children and the activities that go with them. I probably won't be working to begin with, so hopefully there would be some other moms around! I have to drive about 30 mins to get the train into DC currently, which then takes another 40 mins. As a result i don't visit DC as much as i would like, so am hoping to have much better transport links to take advantage of Boston. We really would like to live no further than a 30 min commute away from walpole, which is where my husband will be based.

This all put together is probably a little ambitious, but any advice would be gratefully received!!

[findingmesomeday]

Well, I don't know what your housing budget is so that might help you decide right there. We came here from Northern VA and let me tell you that nowhere around here has anything like the community centers/pools you find in Fairfax County. In fact, we don't even have an outdoor pool in most communities. There's a swim pond in Dover, Sherborn (a nice one), Medfield (so-so). Wellesley has nothing but everyone there either clears out for the summer or belongs to one of the country clubs. Walpole has a town pool. Westwood has a lake.

For walkable downtowns: Wellesley has a very nice shopping area but it's only walkable if you live right near it-the town is spread out. But if you can find parking, it's a very nice shopping area. Medfield has a quaint downtown area that's very walkable and quite enjoyable. Not much doing in Dover or Sherborn. Westwood doesn't really have ONE downtown area--it's a bit spread out. Walpole has a downtown area but not as nice as Wellesley's or quaint as Medfield's.

The commuter rail is easy to get to from any of these towns and the trip in is about 20-30 min. long.

So if you tell me what your budget is for housing, maybe I can help steer you further.

[smarty]

Here's link to give you some ideas...

The Best Places to Live - Boston Magazine (http://www.bostonmagazine.com/articles/the_best_places_to_live/ - broken link)

[MarsMary]

Hi NCHome...

we have a rental budget of $3100 per month, so are hoping that will get us a 4 bed 2 bath single family home. Thanks for the recreation info - we are in Loudoun at present but use Fairfax rec centers - it looks like I'm going to miss them!!! Thanks for the info on the downtowns. Would you recommend any other towns in the Walpole area I haven't mentioned?

Are the ponds nice to swim in? never really done this before!

Smarty, thanks for the link!

Thanks again for your thoughts...

[findingmesomeday]

With that budget, I'd forget Walpole and concentrate on Westwood, Dover-Sherborn and Medfield. I'm not sure what you'd find in Wellesley, or how much room you'd need. A basic 4 bed 2.5 ba house in most of the communities I've listed starts at $2500/mo but it's not uncommon to see $3000/mo either.

I think you'd like those other towns better too.

[smarty]

Originally Posted by NChomesomeday

A basic 4 bed 2.5 ba house in most of the communities I've listed starts at $2500/mo but it's not uncommon to see $3000/mo either.

Is there a rule of thumb regarding rent vs asking price? I'm beginning to see more houses for rent since many been on the market for 6+ months.

[findingmesomeday]

There are definitely more houses for rent since the market is so bad. You especially are seeing them in the higher end towns because people can't afford to carry 2 mortgages for an extended period of time or they can't afford the house anymore and are downsizing.

I don't think there's a rule of thumb but since we had to sell our house and move to a rental, I just noticed that you couldn't really find a 4 bed house for less than $2500 unless it was a real dump. Unfortunately, except for maybe the larger towns of Walpole and Westwood, there's not a whole lot of inventory. Our lease is up on this place in June. We were hoping to be out of MA completely by the and living in a rental in Chapel Hill for about 6 mos 'til we found the neighborhood where we wanted to buy and hopefully got our financial issues squared away by that time in order to buy. Well, we will probably be in the position to buy a smaller house here in our town by next summer (maybe a 3 bed Cape) but here's the hitch. Our oldest is will be going into his senior year. After that, we'd definitely like to move. With the market the way it is, do we do something stupid and buy in MA knowing (hoping?) that we'll be out in 1-2 years? Or do we suck it up with the continued rental situation. It's a quandry.