Towns within 495 with nice walkable downtowns and good schools (Boston: condo, houses)

[panchilly]

Originally Posted by r_p

With a $1.5 million budget I wouldn't recommend Natick (unless it's South Natick). You're better off looking at Needham and Wellesley. I see some options near Wellesley High School in your price range.

I agree with this. I would not spend 1.5m in natick.

You don't want to be the most expensive house in town or the cheapest house. I would stay under 90 percentile in price, maybe even 85 percentile.

If you look at Natick, i would look at a max of 1.2-1.3m. That should get you a brand new (or close to it) home with a 2 car garage and 4 bedrooms. That price is probably in the 80s percentile. Over time as you live in the house the relative price point will decline as newer teardown builds come on line, etc and as your finishes and building structure slowly depreciates. If you stay 10 years, it might be a 70 percentile house, right at the market sweet spot when you sell. The bidding wars are most intense from 25-75 percentile. Going too cheap is not good either, as the buyers dry up and its mainly builders.

[stuckbetween]

Panchilly I wish I could find that Natick home but it’s not there! I don’t know that the suggestions on this forum have kept pace with market realities, unless this is a temporary lack of inventory that’s coming back online soon. I don’t blame anyone for that. I hope I’m missing some thing!

[Nextpointguy]

@stuckbetween - I agree, Natick has become very expensive! I live in South Natick and a 20-year old house in our neighborhood just sold for $1.45m. All new construction in town is mostly built buy Trask and all their homes fly off the shelves starting at $1.7m. Other developers are buying ranch homes in East and North Natick and are adding second floors. I'm shocked at how ugly some of those homes look, yet they are still all selling for above $1.5m.

In terms of Natick Center - we love the New England charm and great dining options. Wellesley center is close by as well and there are many great food options there too. Schools are also great and there's the new high school. Couldn't recommend Natick more, it's on the up and up!

[Nauset102]

OP, are you open to reconsidering Reading?

We relocated here from NYC almost a decade ago (with a brief interlude in Camberville) so I get your focus on a walkable downtown with solid dining options, etc. I agree the Reading food scene isn’t fantastic, although I do think it’s still evolving. FWIW, Reading demographics are shifting rapidly toward ex-urbanites and other transplants, and I’m fairly confident improved dining options will follow suit. I think Melrose (which was the only other town we considered) is a few years ahead of Reading in this regard, but Reading is quickly catching-up.

Also, I think it’s worth highlighting that Reading has the golden trifecta of easy, direct access to I-93, I-95, and the commuter rail. We didn’t really take this into consideration when choosing Reading (at the time our main priority was the commuter rail), but several job changes later, it’s been absolutely invaluable.

Happy to answer any questions as best I can. BTW, if you’re looking for walkability to both downtown and an elementary school, I’d stick to houses in either the Joshua Eaton or Alice Barrows school districts. Generally speaking, I think these areas will also have the look and feel you’re after. I’m not seeing any listings right now that quite meet your criteria, but here are examples of recent sales in great neighborhoods:

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/8...zpid/?mmlb=g,2
https://www.realtor.com/realestatean...7_M42056-75438
https://www.realtor.com/realestatean...6-22392#photo6

[panchilly]

Prices are going up So fast that if you wait around to buy the ideal 1.2-1.3m house in natick, by the time you find that house and win the offer, it might be 1-1.5 years from now and the prices could be 1.4-1.5 then. It’s like a Hyper inflation

[almost_retired]

Westford looks like it outside 495, but a portion of it is inside 495. Top-notch schools comparable with the best rated in the state(just under those in ratings if you believe in ratings), no downtown but there is a nice town common and some shopping areas - it is a beautiful town. Raised two sons here both graduated as engineers with jobs waiting for them when they got out of school. You could get a lot in westford for > 1 million. New, 3000 sf 1+ acre I think.

[thinkingotherthings]

Originally Posted by panchilly

The days of 5 days commute are DEAD. You can count on at least 2 days WFH being the norm, and in many cases more, or even full remote.

Natick would work perfect for your current setup, and to be honest, even a 4-5 days commute into the city could work from Natick. I know many people who have done 5x a week commutes into Boston/Cambridge from Natick. It would be on the borderline, but you could do it. If you want to optimize for a commute into the city 5 days a week, buy a place in Newton or Brookline and pay 2x for the same house. You will still have a 30min commute.

Natick is very well optimized for suburban commutes (128 and 495 belt) and extremely well optimized for hybrid commutes with 2-3 days per week of WFH. You would also have the commuter rail as an option. With hybrid WFH and remote becoming the norm, Natick is very appealing.

Also another thing to keep in mind is that you are thinking in terms of step functions in commute town by town. But the reality is that it is a continuous function that depends on the specific coordinate within the town. For instance, the commute from the western edge of Wellesley is nearly the same as from the eastern edge of Natick. The eastern edge of Wellesley, near Newton, LOOK OUT, those prices are VERY expensive and will blow your budget out of the water and the commute is a bit better from there. But there are also some mansions in western wellesley (e.g. near Grove street) that have near identical commutes to eastern natick. So again, i dont think you will give up much if you pick your coordinate well and you'll have access to 3 downtown areas: Natick, Wellesley, and Framingham. There are also a lot of nice parks in framingham that you'll have access to via a quick drive. And the shopping in the Natick area is pretty much the best. There are a million grocery stores, shops, and pretty much anything you'd want within a 10min drive. Also, check out the restaurants in Wellesley there are some really good ones, and those will be an ultra fast drive from Natick.

Watch out what happens to Natick in the next 10 years. It is moving up market in a big way. Developers will tear down the crap out of this town and there will be mcmansions everywhere, just like you see in Wellesley and Needham. It is already happening and the prices will keep going up.

All good points. We are indeed keeping our eye on Natick, although so far nothing has come up that has checked all our boxes. While we might be willing to compromise on proximity to the high school and downtown for our top choice towns within 128, we feel that if we are going to compromise on distance to Boston/Cambridge (e.g. with Natick) that we don't want to also compromise on proximity to downtown and the high school. This does mean we are focused on a fairly small slice of Natick between the downtown and high school.

[thinkingotherthings]

Originally Posted by GeePee

Not sure if Watertown has been mentioned but it seems like it would fit
your criteria

From the ratings I saw the Watertown schools looked just so-so, but if you have experience with them I'd love to hear more about them. Also, most of Watertown is a bit more urban than we're looking for.

[thinkingotherthings]

Originally Posted by Jacconn

Does it have to be a SFH? This 3 bedroom + office + finished basement gut reno townhome seems to check most of the boxes. The other unit in this 2-family duplex went pending in 2 days at same price, so expect it to go over, but your budget has room.
https://www.redfin.com/MA/Winchester...home/175665137

Thanks for the suggestion. Initially we had been limiting to SFHs, but in taking a more critical pass at what we are willing to compromise on, we have started thinking that we should consider townhouses if they are in a good location in one of our top choice neighborhoods. But we really do need 4 bedrooms, in addition to a home office area.

[thinkingotherthings]

Originally Posted by Shrewsburried

This is why I suggested Arlington. Belmont and possibly Newton also should be considered, though for any of these towns the house per dollar must be recalibrated. Brookline is likely out at your price point unless you can tolerate condo living.

All of the above are dense, largely suburban, and contain highly walkable neighborhoods. They're also extremely close to the highly walkable urban neighborhoods of Boston/Cambridge/Somerville and job markets.

Everyone is suggesting Natick, but I really question the utility of the town center. Yeah, it's charming, but with a 1.4mill budget I think I'd opt for the shorter commute into dense cultural centers offered by towns like Arlington, Belmont, or even Melrose (understanding the schools aren't top tier).

Thanks, Arlington is a good suggestion; it is definitely on our list. We have toured several houses in Arlington, but haven't loved them for one reason or another. You also mentioned Belmont and Melrose, which are also towns we like. Among those three, Belmont would be top (of course it is also the most expensive). We also really like Melrose, but the houses tend to be smaller there and we haven't seen one that checks all the boxes for us yet, even though Melrose is probably the lowest priced of the three. My understanding is that the Melrose schools are good; probably not as good as Belmont; maybe on par with Arlington, or will be there soon with the influx of yuppies over the past 5-10 years there.