Wellesley or Needham for family with 500k income (Boston, Newton: how much, new house)

[curiouskitten]

Hello, I’m trying to decide on living in Wellesley or Needham. My husband is a physician and I’m a SAHM. We are a mixed race family (White/Asian). I am looking for a place with good schools but I’ve already heard both towns have good schools. I also read Wellesley is too competitive for some, but is it really that bad? What would be a good fit for us?

[CaseyB]

No, Wellesley isn't that bad. Why not look at houses in both towns and pick which one appeals to you?

[Strannik33]

Originally Posted by CaseyB

No, Wellesley isn't that bad. Why not look at houses in both towns and pick which one appeals to you?

Agree. The RE listings are so sparse now, you might not have too much of a choice. Wellesley is definitely more snobbish than Needham, but a lot of doctors choose to live in Wellesley.

[simplexsimon]

You don't provide enough information to determine fit. If schools are the only criteria it's hard to go wrong with either town. They're similar enough with regards to racial diversity (both mostly white). You'll find single income families and physicians in both towns.

Agree with the above posters that inventory is so tight that your decision is probably going to be driven more by what is available.

Could you provide some additional information about what you want?

[curiouskitten]

I just want to get a sense of what makes the two towns different. It’s hard to know what perspective people are coming from when they say Wellesley is “snobby” and keeping up with the Joneses. Meanwhile they say Needham is friendly but when I visited, (anecdotal, I know) I encountered a lot of young men and women who bragged about their strip club outtings and drug use. This is not really something I’m used to hearing when I’m having dinner with family. I grew up in CT so maybe keeping up with the Joneses isn’t that far from what I’m used to even though it sounds intimidating. I’m also Asian but I only speak English - it’s hard to interact with immigrants who expect me to relate to them by the look of my skin. This makes me want to avoid Newton, but I don’t know if I would encounter the same thing in Needham.

Additionally, I’m not exactly obsessed with getting my children into Ivy League schools, so if the competition in Wellesley is that big of an issue, I want to avoid it.

[mdovell]

Wellesley is one if the so right highly competitive districts in the 128 belt. Lexington, Concord, Westwood, Belmont, Newton, Wellesley, Dedham etc

I'd argue Wellesley can practically have their own space program

[r_p]

Originally Posted by curiouskitten

Hello, I’m trying to decide on living in Wellesley or Needham. My husband is a physician and I’m a SAHM. We are a mixed race family (White/Asian). I am looking for a place with good schools but I’ve already heard both towns have good schools. I also read Wellesley is too competitive for some, but is it really that bad? What would be a good fit for us?

Schools in Wellesley are good. The town is very affluent and 2nd richest in the state after Weston with an AGI north of $500k, e.g., see here). It has traditionally been WASPish but these days I do see a fair amount of (East) Asians so it might be getting competitive . Needham is not bad but not in the same league as Weston/Wellesley/Dover.

[masshomebuyer]

I would base your decision on your budget and how much time your husband wants to spend commuting to work. Maybe if you name a Connecticut town, I can make some sort of comparison? I might not know anything, but maybe somebody on this board knows more about CT than I do?

[simplexsimon]

What do you like about Wellesley and Needham? Why did you narrow it down to these two?

[MikePRU]

I spend a lot of time in both towns. Schools do tend to rank higher in Wellesley but this is MA and the schools here on the whole are quite good. So a Needham education while not ranked as high as a Wellesley one is still going to be far better than your kids would get almost anywhere in the country.

Wellesley, as a whole is a more aesthetically pleasing town and has more large/affluent homes in part because it's been an affluent suburb for a long time. Needham has really "come up in the world" over the last 30 years.

Wellesley has a larger selection of shops/restaurants in town, but Needham has more commuter rail stops which makes it a great choice for those wanting to commute into Boston. Geographically they're in somewhat similar locations and they both have pretty decent highway access.

Needham does tend to have a more "small town feel" and Wellesley does have a long standing reputation as a place where people strive to "keep up with the Joneses."

They're both quite similar places but with the exception of commuter rail stops Wellesley tends to have everything that Needham has but more of it.

At the end of the day, I think this really should come down to:

A) what home buying opportunities the world presents to you (look in both)

B) what your expectations are for your next home (your money goes a bit further in Needham)

Originally Posted by Strannik33

Agree. The RE listings are so sparse now, you might not have too much of a choice. Wellesley is definitely more snobbish than Needham, but a lot of doctors choose to live in Wellesley.

Good advice. On MLS there's currently 9 homes available in Wellesley and 3 in Needham so that's not a lot to choose from. As I've mentioned before, there are a lot of homes trading off market right now in these towns (I'm not talking about FSBO's. I'm talking about pocket listings. ). So, best to work with an agent who specializes in this area.

Originally Posted by simplexsimon

You don't provide enough information to determine fit. If schools are the only criteria it's hard to go wrong with either town. They're similar enough with regards to racial diversity (both mostly white). You'll find single income families and physicians in both towns.

Agree with the above posters that inventory is so tight that your decision is probably going to be driven more by what is available.

Could you provide some additional information about what you want?

As always, the more detail a poster can offer about their situation the better the advice received back is. What do you want to spend on a house? What are you looking for in your new house? (i.e. does it need to be new or newer or do you like antiques? How big should the house be? How big of a lot are you looking for?) Also, telling us about your lifestyle is super helpful. Do you need to be near a gym? Do you want to be near trails? Do you need to be near restaurants? The more information you can offer about your situation, the more helpful you'll find the responses. Otherwise, people are just taking stabs in the dark.

Originally Posted by curiouskitten

I just want to get a sense of what makes the two towns different. It’s hard to know what perspective people are coming from when they say Wellesley is “snobby” and keeping up with the Joneses. Meanwhile they say Needham is friendly but when I visited, (anecdotal, I know) I encountered a lot of young men and women who bragged about their strip club outings and drug use. This is not really something I’m used to hearing when I’m having dinner with family.

What???? I've lived in Needham for 14 years and eat out in Needham regularly. I have NEVER EVER sat down next to a table of people talking about strip clubs and drugs. What restaurant were you eating in? It sounds like you just had a stroke of bad luck and definitely it seems silly to judge the town based on a single experience. You don't even know if these people lived in town.

Originally Posted by curiouskitten

I grew up in CT so maybe keeping up with the Joneses isn’t that far from what I’m used to even though it sounds intimidating.

Where in CT did you grow up? The only affluent suburb in CT that I'm really familiar with is Old Greenwich and the atmosphere there seems to mirror the attitudes you see toward wealth in Weston.

Anecdotally, my family lives near the Wellesley/Needham line and we used to be members at the Boston Sports Club (a local gym chain that went bankrupt during the pandemic) in Wellesley. We gave up our membership because it made us uncomfortable to work out next to the Wellesley folks who showed up to the gym in full hair and makeup and Prada work out clothes.

Originally Posted by r_p

Schools in Wellesley are good. The town is very affluent and 2nd richest in the state after Weston with an AGI north of $500k, e.g., see here). It has traditionally been WASPish but these days I do see a fair amount of (East) Asians so it might be getting competitive . Needham is not bad but not in the same league as Weston/Wellesley/Dover.

I think saying "not in the same league" is a bit misleading. It's a step down in terms of school rankings and of course average income but it's not exactly Orange, MA either.