living between Worcester and Framingham/Natick (Boston, Shrewsbury: middle-class, for sale, rent)

[naport]

I will be working in and around Worcester, and my husband has found a job with sites in Framingham and Natick. I'm looking for suggestions about towns that split the commute (roughly) for us. Not yet sure if we'll rent or buy. If we buy, would like a nice 3 bedroom for around 450k or less.

Top priorities are a very good public elementary school and a family-oriented town (whatever that means...I guess I'm thinking safe, quiet neighborhoods, rec activities for the kids, good library, good preschool options, and so on.) We have a 7 year old and a 4 year old.

Also like the idea of a bit of a small-town/semi-rural feel...have this notion that we'd like maybe an acre or so but would also like to be able to walk some places (eg: school, library, etc?) I realize these two features may be hard to find together.

Thanks in advance for any ideas of towns to investigate further between the above cities!!

[scarletfire]

I'd say Southboro would be a good place to start. It has a nice small town feel, reputable schools, lots of community activities, a great little library, easy highway and train access and would make for a pretty reasonable commuter to either Worcester or Framingham/Natick. Others that might be worth investigating if you want more rural would be Berlin/Bolton or perhaps Holliston.

[nicolebender]

Scarletfire,
I too am relocating to Boston from Kansas City, mo. My husband is working in Hopkington and we are looking in Needham, wellesley or Natick. Wellesley is very expensive and not a lot available. We found a nice home for sale in Natick. Since we have never visited this location, we are not sure how nice it is. We do not want to be farm country. We like the feeling of having a central town to go to. WE have three kids and want to feel a sense of community. We know Needham and wellesley offers this. Does Natick offer that?

[gf2020]

Not sure $450K will go very far in Westboro, but that would be the top pick. Also look at Shrewsbury, Grafton and Upton.

[ogre]

Nicolebender, if you want lots of info on these towns, you may want to start a new thread. In some cases, people may not see your post in this thread. They may not read past the first post once they see that the thread is a year old.

To answer your question about Natick, it's a nice town. It has mainly a middle-class to upper-middle-class populace. Malls along rt. 9 are a significant feature of the local economy, but Natick also has a nice clean downtown with small local stores and a community arts center. Natick is not farm country. South Natick is woodsy-suburban in a lot of areas, with large lots, but it's still mostly houses with yards, not a lot of farms or orchards. The rest of Natick has a typical suburban population density. The town covers enough area that a lot of neighborhoods are too far from downtown for downtown to be within convenient walking distance, but there is a small commercial district on the north side of Natick, which is a reasonable walking distance from many streets on the north side.

[anjiepants]

upton, hopkinton, southboro, shrewsbury would all be worth looking into.