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Old 04-17-2020, 04:24 PM
 
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I understand that Dover is closer to 128, has median house prices that are 30-40% higher, but are there other differences? Is there a “rivalry” of any kind in the schools? Are kids treated differently when they converge in Middle school? Do the Sherborn kids out toward the Holliston line have to wake up super early for the bus? Are there land use differences? I noticed that Trask is building a big townhome development on route 16 in Sherborn, and it seems to have caused homes near there (I.e. Knollcrest) to plummet? Would love to know more about how these towns differ from people that know.
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Old 04-17-2020, 05:05 PM
 
Location: Massachusetts & Hilton Head, SC
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Sherborn is more rural and you can still find some homes under $1 million.

There's a 40B development that caused the values in some surrounding homes to fall, I don't know if that is what you are referencing. Sherborn had no affordable housing so they decided to approve that development to get it over with and now they meet the requirement.

I don't know about a rivalry, these are little kids and they all play with each other on the same sports teams (Dover/Sherborn).
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Old 04-17-2020, 05:37 PM
 
Location: Metrowest Boston
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I've been wondering all this too. Subbed.
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Old 04-18-2020, 08:08 AM
 
Location: Needham, MA
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As others have said, Sherborn feels more rural. If memory serves me, the minimum lot size is larger in Sherborn vs. Dover. Neither town has any significant commercial property within town lines and neither has access to any public transportation. At least Sherborn has a nice restaurant in it where you can sit down at a table. I also enjoy C&L Frosty. Dover on the other hand feels a lot more upscale to me and has a lot of horse farms. Also, as you mentioned, Dover is a little bit closer to Boston if you commute in by car that would be a plus.

They share some schools and sports leagues. So, at the end of the day it's going to come down to which one has the feel you like better or perhaps the homes that better fit your budget. As mentioned, Sherborn is less expensive.

A couple of things to keep in mind if you're considering moving to one of these towns . . .

1. You better be a "country mouse" because if you're a "city mouse" and you're moving from a dense urban environment like Brookline or Somerville and you just got it into your head that you need to have a couple of acres then you're going to be really unhappy. Neither of these towns offer many conveniences at all. So, you're going to use your car a lot. Basically, you have to decide if you want convenience or acreage.

2. The real estate markets in these two towns are always SLOW. If you're someone who moves a lot or would need to move around for career mobility you'll want to keep in mind that if you decide to move out of town then it's going to take a while to sell your house. Over the last year, homes in Dover have an average market time of 105 days and Sherborn is 58 and this is in a hot, seller's market. For a point of comparison, Needham and Natick which border these towns have an average market time of 31 days and 34 days respectively. In a buyer's market, Sherborn and Dover take a lot longer to sell a house.

Quote:
Originally Posted by CaseyB View Post
There's a 40B development that caused the values in some surrounding homes to fall, I don't know if that is what you are referencing. Sherborn had no affordable housing so they decided to approve that development to get it over with and now they meet the requirement.
It continues to amaze me that Sherborn is so sparsely populated that they could meet the 40B threshold with a single development.
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Old 04-18-2020, 08:19 AM
 
Location: Massachusetts & Hilton Head, SC
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MikePRU View Post



It continues to amaze me that Sherborn is so sparsely populated that they could meet the 40B threshold with a single development.
I know someone on the planning board there and that is what they said.
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Old 04-18-2020, 04:03 PM
 
Location: Needham, MA
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CaseyB View Post
I know someone on the planning board there and that is what they said.
IIRC, the thing about 40B is if you're doing a 40B project all of the units in the project count against the town's total affordable housing units even though only 20% of the units are actually designated as affordable.

Still, I believe we're talking about less than 100 units and the 40B threshold for a town is something like 12 or 14% of housing units in town are "affordable." So, that would mean either there are pre-existing "affordable" units in town or that there are only around 1,000 homes in town. With a population of about 4200 it's entirely possible that there may be 1,000 homes or less in town though.

Just amazing how sparsely populated a town so close to Boston is. Needham has 31,000+ residents and the town is 4 sq miles smaller than Sherborn.
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Old 04-19-2020, 07:57 AM
 
Location: Massachusetts & Hilton Head, SC
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I doubt it will be growing anytime soon, either. Half the town is forested.
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Old 04-19-2020, 06:04 PM
 
Location: Needham, MA
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CaseyB View Post
I doubt it will be growing anytime soon, either. Half the town is forested.
A town doesn't grow when the residents of the town don't want it to grow. The folks who live in Sherborn I'm sure live there because they like the feel of the town. They're not going to be OK with greatly increasing the density.
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Old 04-20-2020, 05:08 PM
 
Location: Medfid
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MikePRU View Post
Sherborn is so sparsely populated that they could meet the 40B threshold with a single development.
What exactly does “affordable housing” mean in a place like Sherborn? Certainly it can’t be the same as affordable housing in Boston or Cambridge.
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Old 04-20-2020, 05:29 PM
 
Location: Needham, MA
8,547 posts, read 14,012,666 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Boston Shudra View Post
What exactly does “affordable housing” mean in a place like Sherborn? Certainly it can’t be the same as affordable housing in Boston or Cambridge.
I didn't actually know that answer but found this definition on the Wikipedia page for 40B so it may or may not be accurate:

For the purposes of this statute, affordable housing is defined as a unit which could be purchased or rented by a household making up to 80% of the median income of the area.

When I referring to a "threshold" though I was referring to the percentage of "affordable" housing a town must have in order to make 40B ineffective in the town. Basically, once 10% of a town's housing units are designated "affordable" a developer can no longer use 40B to circumvent the town's zoning by laws.

As an aside there are a lot of interesting stories around about town's trying to prevent developers from building under 40B. Years ago there was a developer who was going to build in Hingham and the town purchased the land from them in order to stop the build. More recently, Needham received a 40B proposal and rather than outright rejecting it the proposal was approved for less than half the units the developer wanted to build. They sued but because the town approved the development it wasn't an easy lawsuit to win. So, the developer ended up building the smaller number of units.
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