We're moving east to...and that's where specificity breaks down

July 2, 2016 8:49 PM

To metrowest MA mefites...where should we live? We're looking for better quality of life (i.e., a town people like to live in) and better commutes. We work in Marlborough and Woburn currently; one job is in biotech/medical devices so career moves in the future could take place along the 128 or 495 corridors or go into Boston/Cambridge. We currently live over an hour from both jobs and find the town we live in to be anemic for services and recreation activities (economically depressed with apathetic town government). What town would you move to?

Our dream house is a single family, move-in ready, has an acre of land associated, and is less than $500k. We're willing to still have 30-45 min commutes.

Besides the actual property, we're also interested in a town that has shopping and restaurants and all those places for errand running. It would be great if there was a good athletic center nearby with a pool. (Currently, our town has very little in the way of shopping or other services, so we not only drive an hour plus to and from work, but running any kind of errand usually involves another 30 min drive...there is no time to do anything on the weekdays..) Also, we feel like other towns have more community than our current town, and it seems like that community spirit involves town-sponsored events. The last town we really loved living in was Ithaca, NY, and we also liked West Boylston, MA, but alas, job issues took us away from those places.

So far we are looking to view houses in Hopkinton, Southboro, Westboro, Ashland, and Marlboro. These all seem to acceptable in terms of our commutes, depending on where specifically in each town, and there are houses that meet our criteria above. Is there anything you wished you knew before moving to any of these towns? Are there towns you would recommend that we've left out?

posted by Tandem Affinity to Home & Garden (12 answers total)

I've lived in Marlborough and worked in Hopkinton, and personally would not live in either again. Marlborough does have your needs in terms of running errands (two Targets, woo), but the small Main street was not very exciting. Did not find it walkable or much community spirit at all. Pretty much the most exciting thing there was the cool wine/beer/liquor store Vin Bin. None of the restaurants were any good. Same goes for Hopkinton, although with much less in terms of being able to run errands without having to go to Westborough or Southborough.

Of the towns you listed, Westborough is the one I would recommend the most. People at my work often went out there for lunch, and the "downtown" area, such as it was, was much nicer than Hopkinton, Ashland or Marlborough. It's very family oriented, in my opinion.

Personally, I would relax your requirements on an acre of land and move farther east towards Woburn/Waltham/Belmont area.
posted by permiechickie at 10:35 PM on July 2, 2016 [3 favorites]

I like Westborough too, although my criteria is mostly based on availability of restaurants with ethnic food I like.
posted by treehorn+bunny at 11:56 PM on July 2, 2016

Clicked in to recommend Westborough also, though the 1-acre requirement may be an issue there. There are 2-3 athletic centers with pools. Agree strongly with permiechickie on Marlborough. I also agree that you may want to consider further east, as the west-to-east am commute is far more onerous than the reverse. Have you looked at Natick? Acreage limitations would figure significantly more there than in Westborough though.
posted by dreamphone at 4:44 AM on July 3, 2016

OK, so I live in Marlborough; I'v been here since 2005, although last year we doubled down and finally bought instead of continually planning to move. $500K isn't going to get you an acre of land in Metrowest- so let's dispell that myth first. If your lucky, it'll get you a nice mid-sized house in the woods on the border with Sudbury or alternatively a nice house on the border with southborough. The big houses here areally now $750k-$1.5m. Marlborough in specific is going through a weird gentrification where you will find the Brazilians that have fled south Framingham, the traditional Marlborough Blue Collar, and the now ever more popular White Collar stretching the dollar, and the existing elderly. Beyond this there are a bunch of smaller communities, a few actual neighborhoods, and some political demarcations.

Marlborough is traditionally blue collar, this means your neighbors who look and act like noreally rational people - who you see take active interest in their kids education and activities - probably voted for Trump. Republicans still outnumber the Democrats in this weirdly districted piece of Middlesex County. There are definitely liberals here, but the great thing is nobody talks politics in public because people here generally do want to like their neighbors. It is like a perpetually pleasant family dinner in that way - you definitely have to suss out people's political beliefs. This is a town where everyone is active in their kids interests, the PTO and town sports are active, and we can field a private Catholic school which most of the parents that send their kids now freely admit is not as good as when they went their and is now generally though to be just on-par with the public elementary school. (Take note though, you'll see very few Brazilians there though.) The public school program has onever of the best early childhood centers in the area, and if you have a kid that is special needs - Marlborough ECC is free and possibly all day. Kindergarten is all day. Marlborough recognizes and prioritizes education. Which is cool.

That's not to say that Southborough and Sudbury and Northborough don't, but just understand that there are little to no concerns about what your parents do and how much money you have in Marlborough. (Though I would imagine there are people in this town who care about that too). Hudson is also pretty blue collar, but we have friends there that have a kid with autism and they actively tried to make it as difficult as possible for a proper IEP there for them so I am completely skeptical of their educational efforts.

On to higher education, there are three totally different High Schools to send your kid to. Marlborough High School allegedly is where we fall below other towns, and the other two schools are partially the reason for that. Its still a good school, and I've had the pleasure to meet some excellent kids the school has produced, but it is geared towards a no child left behind mentality and by that point there are first generation immigrant populations that culturally have not valued a solid educational foundation or post secondary preparedness. That's where Assabet Valley Technical High School comes in. It is pretty heavily geared towards engineering related disciplines and preparedness.

Lastly on High Schools, there is AMSA. AMSA is one of the top 10 schools in Massachusetts. Two years ago they were ranked 4, last year 7. It is a challenge to get into. I know a few kids who go to AMSA, and they dig it and they are awesome kids on top of their game. AMSA though has a whole thing where it is warring with the town because they are a charter school and it causes friction (to the point where the town bulldozed the part of Ward Park that they used as an athletic field and put in an old folks community center in its place). So yeah, top notch education with administrative conflict.

On Marlborough: Marlborough is incorporated as a city. Westborough is a town, Southborough is a town, Sudbury is a town, Northborough is a town, Hudson is a town. Even though the population in Marlborough is smaller than some of those other towns. The benefits are really some tax codes and services. Honestly, what we get for our tax rate is phenomenal. Westborough has one of the highest tax rates and has very lown services. Tax money there goes to administrative costs.

So, Marlborough fells to me like the band from Almost Famous. Any article on it needs to be a think piece about a city coming to grips with both their own success and their own limitations.

On food: Fireflies is the local barbecue. Clockwork is the best local Pizza. Drive to Sudbury for some on trend dining.
Jake's is an awesome local breakfast restaurant - get the Hash.
Wildwoods is meh, I avoid it for preference of Bullfinch's in Sudbury
Sushi is once again Fugaku in Sudbury if I want good sushi otherwise Westborough is OK for lunch.
Dunkin Donuts is a town staple.
Downtown shuts down for trick or treating at the businesses in the afternoon.
If you want to trick or treat on halloween the biggest loop is Warren, Church, Essex and some street I can't remember the name of. Either way, we went through 440 pieces of candy (we give out the big size ) in about an hour and a half.
Rock's is the local salon where everyone gets their haircut/styled unless they go to Invidia in Sudbury.
I like our town dump. Not that I want to live there - it is both clean and heavily focused on recycling.
Snow removal is pretty decent. Storm response is excellent. The fire department and police are excellent.
The sports school sports teams are loved, and the town has come to grips with their over focus on sports and now really focuses on the experience and making sure kids have fun.

Anyway, in my opinion, Westborough has good food, but their property tax rates are insane. I can get there in 12 minutes by car.
posted by Nanukthedog at 5:02 AM on July 3, 2016 [4 favorites]

Marlborough is great for location, very accessible to 495, 290, 90 and Rt. 20 which can bring you right to Boston, and much more affordable than other similar towns. If you're considering it, I can't imagine that Newton is even a possibility for you. If you can't find something in town then you can probably get it the next town over (within 15 min).

We joked initially that everything in Marlborough is a solid 4/10, however, it's growing on me. We've gradually been learning where to get food and have found some really great places in the surrounding towns like Hudson and Sudbury. If you need the fancy shopping, head to Sudbury/Wayland (Whole Foods and other trendy places I haven't been). Hudson has a brewery and a microcreamery and some up and coming restaurants. For standard mall shopping there's the Solomon Pond Mall.
There's the Assabet River Rail Trail for biking/running/walking. There's Wayside Racquet Club for indoor and outdoor swimming/tennis. There's a town beach.
There are a few small town fairs but they are very very small.

All in all, probably a lot better then what you have now but it could be even better (culture-wise) if you had the funds to go further east.
posted by bobobox at 5:29 AM on July 3, 2016

I'm in Lexington; for your price range, have you looked at Burlington, Woburn or going up north to Chelmsford?

As more and more folks are being priced out of Lexington/Arlington/Newton, both Burlington and Woburn are stepping up to fill in the void so people don't have to move out to 495.

They both have many stores and cute small town centers. The schools are getting much better. Years ago, Burlington started stealing highly-qualified teachers from Lexington* and Winchester and gave them a lot of freedom. Both towns are within spitting distance of not only Wegman's but also Bedford Farms ice cream which is the best goddamned ice cream you can eat AND where a massive overflowing cone is $3. They also have King's bowling and a Capitol Grille if you like fancy steak. Oh, and the Burlington Mall.

You're still a stone's throw from Boston and there's tons of conversation land as well as the Middlesex Fells in the area. Chelmsford is also cheap and it's the town above Burlington. Totally worth checking out.

*Fun fact: the rivalry in Parks and Rec between Pawnee and the snobby Eagleton is actually based on the very real rivalry between Lexington and Burlington. Amy Poehler was a Burlingtonian and Rachel Dratch from Lexington. It's a real thing.
posted by yes I said yes I will Yes at 5:37 AM on July 3, 2016

Maybe Westford? Lots of shopping centers but still pretty, and the library and schools are good. If you go up 495 to that area I think the commute to Woburn is better, and there are places where you can get an acre in that price range.
posted by songs about trains at 10:37 AM on July 3, 2016

Also, my auto mechanic is the bomb. If you do settle anywhere in the Metrowest and you need a good mechanic, memail me and I'll send you their info. I have a friend that introduced me to them that drives for a half an hour to get there.
posted by Nanukthedog at 1:36 PM on July 3, 2016

Westford is more expensive than Chelmsford on average but have larger blocks of land.

We're just finishing up buying 1.7 acres in Chelmsford and paid $567K and my wife has a 15 minute commute to her job in Westford. It's really way too far for a 30-45 minute commute to Marlborough though. Looking over this Zillow filter as an indication there isn't much where you'd want to buy and be against commuter traffic which would bring a 20 mile commute under an hour. You either buy in the Acton/Maynard area and deal with Route 2 for the Woburn commute or you buy up in Billerica/Burlington/Pinehurst and deal with the world's shittiest Route 128 traffic over to Masspike out to Marlborough.

1 acre, under $500K and 30-45 minute commute is going to make the task near impossible to fulfill. You need to figure out which one you want to ditch.
posted by Talez at 3:20 PM on July 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks for all the detailed answers - very helpful and giving us great things to consider. We don't have kids so don't worry too much about schools, but we do worry about perception of schools in case we ever need to sell again.

I agree an acre under $500k gets more difficult as you go east. Looking yesterday, we decided to add Stow, Bolton and Maynard to our list. Westford may also work.....
posted by Tandem Affinity at 2:19 PM on July 4, 2016

Try looking at Northbridge, Milford, Sutton, or thereabouts.
posted by heigh-hothederryo at 12:22 AM on July 5, 2016

So the big other thing you need to keep in mind is whether your house/town has sewer or if you are on a well. If your town has a walkable downtown and you are not on city sewer, expect to have to pay someday to have your house put on sewer. That gets expensive fast. Chelmsford did that to a bunch of neighborhoods along 110 and my god, it destroyed people's lawns, required them to fork out like $40K in equity loans because of how far off the road they were, and was otherwise an unexpected expense that they had to pay. That's also ignoring the cost of dealing with the existing well and septic system. Surprise expenses for homeowners!
posted by Nanukthedog at 7:36 AM on July 5, 2016