Moving closer to Boston - Towns to consider? (Cambridge, Lynn: for sale, condo)

[chuckfinley]

I work in Kendall square and my wife works in Nashua NH. We have a 5 & 2 yr old. We currently live outside 495 and are looking to move a closer to Boston mainly because of my commute. I was hoping to get some advice on some potential communities to live in.


Criteria:
- Close to commuter rail or T preferable.
- Two children so schools are super important
- Single family home, ~2,000 ft
- enough yard to play soccer in (.1-.2 acre) but are flexible


My goal is a better commute to Kendall, good schools, and reasonable access to Nashua. Based on mortgage we are targeting homes in range of 500-700k, where should we be looking? What is the commute from those areas?

Thanks,
Chuck

[donewithpretty]

Based on your list, Acton jumps out. Acton is on the Fitchburg commuter rail, where you could change for the red line at Porter Square (48 minutes total, plus time to drive to the S. Acton rail station). Your wife would still have easy access to 495 to get to Nashua. Acton schools are top-notch, and you could have a very nice house and yard in your price range.

As a comparison, you should check out Arlington and Belmont as well, but decent lots and 2,000 square foot houses might be hard to come by for under $700k. Believe it or not, because both towns are close to Rte. 2, your wife's commute wouldn't be much longer than if you lived out in Acton, and yours would be considerably shorter (closer to a half hour).

Is your office within walking distance of Lechmere station? If so, that would open up more towns for you, since most north of Boston commuter trains run into the green line, not the red.

[Dan1974]

Now with the reality check.

Acton will cost you around 12k$ per year in property taxes. Look up similar sq ft SFH in various town on zillow and judge for yourself. So unless you want to finance fat salaries and benefit of overpaid unionized commies to the tunes of one thousands box a month!!!!, move on. I dont care how much money people make: that is a lot of cash for anyone. Add utilities on top of this, and there goes a large chunck of your paycheck every month. And you have not paid a dime yet on your mortgage....

Arlington/Belmont: There are no house for sales. None. Nothing. Niet. If you claim otherwise, than you are not shopping for a house right now and should go back sipping on your heineken. The last home sold in Belmont had 22 offers at over 800k. Thats right. Folks are going completey insane with this school thing. All that so your kids will graduate with honors to be unemployed and a quarter mill in debt.

Thinking about Natick? Nice going. We were at an open house 2 weeks ago: 4 offers after 45 minutes of the opening, 2 more in process and 2 more hours to go. 509k$ for 4 bdrm fixer upper... Makes you think.

My advice: stay putt as long as you possibly can and rent. The high end market is already collapsing. House above 1M$ are piling up by the hundreds from Needham to Lincoln. Within 2 years, buyers will have plenty more for their money.

Most importantly, dont listen to realtors. They are not any better than dart throwing monkeys at predicting much of anything, except their fat commission everytime Bernanke fires up the press. So what do you expect.

Good luck anyway.

[kingeorge]

Reading could be interesting as well.

[495neighbor]

You could definitely find what you are looking for in Acton - excellent schools, many shortcuts to Nashua (20 min commute) and the only train line (Fitchburg) that goes directly to Cambridge. Even adding in taxes, the balance sheet would be better than Arlington or Belmont and the quality of the home much better than those areas (fewer upgrades and repairs).

In my opinion, Arlington is getting a bit run down lately in the business districts (restaurants closed on weekends) and some drug issues (do the research).

[gf2020]

For commutes to Nashua and Cambridge and with a budget up to $700K, I would consider Bedford, Burlington, Reading and Lynnfield.

[495neighbor]

Originally Posted by gf2020

For commutes to Nashua and Cambridge and with a budget up to $700K, I would consider Bedford, Burlington, Reading and Lynnfield.

If the OP has a parking space in Kendall or is willing to drive to drive and park at Alewife these could be doable. Reading and Lynnfield are likely inconvenient for a Red line commute, possible for a commuter rail or orange line commute with a backtrack on the red line if the OP wants to do that.

[495neighbor]

Originally Posted by Dan1974

Now with the reality check.

Acton will cost you around 12k$ per year in property taxes. Look up similar sq ft SFH in various town on zillow and judge for yourself. So unless you want to finance fat salaries and benefit of overpaid unionized commies to the tunes of one thousands box a month!!!!, move on. I dont care how much money people make: that is a lot of cash for anyone. Add utilities on top of this, and there goes a large chunck of your paycheck every month. And you have not paid a dime yet on your mortgage....

Arlington/Belmont: There are no house for sales. None. Nothing. Niet. If you claim otherwise, than you are not shopping for a house right now and should go back sipping on your heineken. The last home sold in Belmont had 22 offers at over 800k. Thats right. Folks are going completey insane with this school thing. All that so your kids will graduate with honors to be unemployed and a quarter mill in debt.

Thinking about Natick? Nice going. We were at an open house 2 weeks ago: 4 offers after 45 minutes of the opening, 2 more in process and 2 more hours to go. 509k$ for 4 bdrm fixer upper... Makes you think.

My advice: stay putt as long as you possibly can and rent. The high end market is already collapsing. House above 1M$ are piling up by the hundreds from Needham to Lincoln. Within 2 years, buyers will have plenty more for their money.

Most importantly, dont listen to realtors. They are not any better than dart throwing monkeys at predicting much of anything, except their fat commission everytime Bernanke fires up the press. So what do you expect.

Good luck anyway.

To add to this, a friend of mine purchased a fixerup multifamily (visualize lopsided balcony) in Belmont back in 2005 in Waverly Square for over 600K plus needed upgrades in hopes of condoing and flipping and ended up stuck with the property. Despite an improved market, it is only worth $500 today. I was in Waverly Square not too long ago and found it to be pretty depressing, especially the derelict wandering around in his pajama bottoms. Macy's, the major draw, for the more high end of town just left Belmont Center, so I'd be cautious about Belmont.

[SoFresh99]

Kendall is a really tough commute no matter how you slice it it's just not very central to anything. I had a friend who lived in NH and drove to Fitchburg every morning to commute to Porter and then on to Kendall. It took her about an hour each way but she was consoled with the amount of home/schools she was getting in NH for her $$.

Even if you said marginal schools were acceptable there is no easy place to buy a 2000sq ft house with a decent public tranportation commute to Kendall. Acton is, I think, then only option where your criteria overlap if you want public transport. If you are driving in however, and work off-hours, then Reading and Lynnfield (or even Winchester) are options.

[tamiznluv]

OP, have you ever considered just moving to NH?