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[Beaches]

Does anyone know what North Shore town is somewhat affordable that would hvae an easy commute to Waltham? I don't want to live in the S Shore due to what I hear is an awful communte anywhere going North with traffic. We are looking to spend around 700K -750K. We want to be walking distance to the beach and need at least 2750 sqft and an newer home in decent/good condition. This may not even be possible but I have no idea which is the reason for my post. We are moving here from PA. Thanks for all of your replies in advance.

[john p]

Commuting from the North Shore to Waltham is not going to be a picnic either.

The North Shore basically has:

Charlestown- upscale condo living by the Navy Yard, or other gritty areas. Public Schools might be suspect.

Then you get the range of industrial areas from East Boston, Revere, Lynn. These areas a little gritty but there are nice pockets in them. Public schools are more suspect.

Nahant and Winthrop are these nice little pocket areas near the city that are hard to get to and often have to pay the new tolls....

You don't get the good beaches until you get up towards Swampscott, Marblehead, and then you get more of a port/harbor of Salem and Beverly and then it gets cool again by Ipswich, Gloucester, Magnolia, Manchester, and then my favorite, Newburyport. All these areas would be a nightmare of a commute to Waltham.

I'd do a mapquest from Hingham because you could go up Route 3 North until 128 where you'd go Northwest to Waltham, or you could shoot up to the Mass Pike and go West and get off at Waltham by the Blue Ribbon Cafe on Route 16 unless you work on 128...

Honestly, if I worked in Waltham, I'd find a nice community in that area, a leafty suburb and drive to the beach on the weekends. Otherwise the daily grind will kill you.

[WestCoastXPlant]

I don't know about commuting to Waltham (I only go to Boston) but you definitely want to look at Marblehead. At the price range you're mentioning "affordable" is not really an issue for you. The size of the house however might be -- most houses here are "old world charm" so you're not likely to find the same distribution of space as in something that's new...I've seen a number of redone homes (i.e. good condition) but you might not see a huge master suite, for example. I think Boxford has houses closer to what you describe but it's not on the water. Other than these, I find a lot of the North Shore communities a bit too "blue collar" for my taste, if you know what I mean.

But commute-wise my guess is that you probably want to be in Newburyport and just do 95 -- I'm new here too but the tiny 2 lane roads along the North shore are a bit of a pain.

PS. You might want to consider an extended stay hotel or short term/vacation rental for a month or so to try out the commute.

[Beaches]

Thank you for both of you insights. This definitely give s me more to tink about movng to the N Shore area. I did briefly think about finding a place just west or NW of Waltham and take the weekend trips to the beach like suggested. I think I may have to look at that option again. I do plan on renting the first few months there to get a better of feel where I want to settle down. Thanks again for all of the helpful insights!

[john p]

I had a friend who used to say when he was in New Mexico that the "Desert used to fill the void of not having an ocean".

My father-in-law lives in Virginia on 6 acres of woods. He doesn't understand that this is kind of hard to find in Massachusetts. I think like one of the other posters said, to come here and feel it out, you can see how you can find your own ways to adapt and feel at home.

I really like Sudbury if I were to work in Waltham. You go down Route 20 and take a right in Wayland. It is quiet, beautiful, they have great schools and the woods offer some nice tranquility. You're going to love working in Waltham. Make sure you stay late after work some nights as Moody Street is really cool. Lizzy's Ice Cream is awesome too. They have some good breakfast places. They have a Carlos's Burritos, a place called Dominic's for Italian sandwiches, they have an authentic mexican place on some side street near the common, and the downtown has some amazing restaurants. An expensive place, but nice is La Campania. They have a few good breakfast joints that you might catch a Boston Celtic at and have some local bars that you can get good steak tips and belt out some kareoke once you clear the pipes with a few beers.

If you can find a nice place in Dover or Sherborn that is really nice as well. Also, New England offers skiing and the Cape. Shooting down to Newport is great as well. There are some cool places in Vermont and we even have really cool old New England towns along the Mohawk Trail (west towards the corner of New York and Vermont) for day trips. Basically, the lifestyle is kind of have a comfortable home base that suits your daily needs and explore what you can on the weekends. You will find "boat people", "horse people", "golfers", who pretty much do one thing full time that their life revolves around. If this is your nature, you could start there. Fortunately, I dabble in a lot of things so I've been able to jump around and take a ferry to Martha's Vineyard one weekend, and then do a walk for Breast Cancer the next in Boston. As far as setting priorities, I would say if you're a parent, the schools are first, and second would be a place where the daily grind is minimized so you can focus your energy at work. The catch is that because everyone's calculus is pretty much the same some of these "Premium Towns" charge too much and they aren't really worth it. Moreover, if you don't have a monthly budget that affords weekend day trips or stuff like that you can't really afford to enjoy the place. I know a young guy living in NYC who can't even afford to go to the clubs so his whole vision and reason for being there is compromised. I told him to look for a cougar. There are many ways to solve problems and everyone knows some back road or time slot where their formula works; same as anywhere I'd imagine. One warning is that property taxes are going up tracking inflation but other State Taxes are going up, things like tolls, excise taxes, commuter rail fees, parking fees, etc. Massachusetts has like the higest debt per capita of any State. This basically means that prior generations didn't pay their share and invest properly which means future generations will be bilked more than normal. That is something to consider because the State Govenment is the parasite and you will be the host.

[Brian C]

If your going to travel to Waltham, the best place in the North Shore would be towns near the highway crossroads like Peabody or Danvers.

I lived in Danvers for 20 yrs and its a great town. There are some beautiful neighborhoods with houses 2700-3000sq for around $500-800k. Your located about 20 minutes from the nice beaches in Gloucester. I lived in Danvers while working in Westwood (south of Waltham) and it took me about 70-80 minutes during the morning and 60 minutes at night.

Marblehead is definitely nice but it has only two roads in and out of the town. Same applies to Salem but its more condensed with housing.

Another option could be slightly south of Boston. Towns like Braintree, Hingham, or Weymouth are near the water but go away from the traffic.

If you want info on good areas in Danvers, PM me.

[Guest]

[john p]

Danver is awesome, a middle class town with a ton of New England charm. If you like Danvers, you'll like Wakefield is really nice too and is considered "North Shore". Wakefield also has commuter rail access to Boston.

[WestCoastXPlant]

[john p]

Danvers:

http://maps.live.com/ ...truncated...

Key in Glen Magna.


Wakefield:

key in Lake Ave

http://maps.live.com/ ...truncated...

Duxbury:

Key in King Caesar Road,

http://maps.live.com/ ...truncated...

Marblehead:

Key in Harbor Ave

http://maps.live.com/ ...truncated...

Concord, MA:

Key in Decordova Museum

http://maps.live.com/ ...truncated...

Cumberland, R.I.:

http://maps.live.com/ ...truncated...

Halifax, MA

http://maps.live.com/ ...truncated...

those red things are cranberry bogs.

Editor's Note: This post was edited to abbreviate some links which were widening the page due to the way that the forum software works. The links still point to the original location and no other changes have been made.

[BelmontRenter]

[Brian C]

[john p]

I went to St. John's Prep. I was a badass with my corduroys and dock siders. We couldn't afford the aligator shirts so we wore the knock offs from K-Mart; I think they had some other type of animal on them...

128 near 93 is evil going either direction during rush hour.

That little belt just within 128 (Winchester, Lexington, Belmont) are very, very nice. I liked to bike ride down the Minuteman Trail and check out the little towns along the way with my wife. The thing about these towns is that some of the main arterial roads do get jammed up, you have lots of street lights and you have to be careful driving because people slow down or stop and sometimes you get behind a school bus, but once you get off the main road to a secondary road that leads to a neighborhood, it can be very peaceful and quiet. The houses are close enough together where your kids will be able to make friends with other kids and you can get into work rather quickly on the back roads as Belmont Renter mentioned. Actually, Melrose is quite nice as well, that is just east of Winchester and actually closer to Boston because you can jump on 93 and Melrose has 3 commuter rail stops and is very close to Oak Grove on the Orange Line.

I had to go to the dentist this morning, so I had a little time to go for a walk with my wife and bulldog. We live in a more rural area on the South Shore and what was cool was to see the tracks of the deer and how they scratched the snow to eat at the grass, or maybe to create a place to sleep or something because there was like six or seven areas. Anyway, you won't see stuff like that in Arlington. I did see a moose in Melrose once, it came down the railroad tracks. I guess I want my kids to live in an area where they can hear coyotes howl at night, see deer, maybe get a chance to see that animals have personalities and hopefully connect with them. There is something very pure and cleansing about an awareness of wildlife. We got a hummingbird feeder in the back porch and it was totally, totallly awesome to see my first hummingbird show up. I remember when my father and mother moved to Florida they had this big herron bird frequent their back yard. My father used to feed it meatballs. My parents dogs go crazy when this little bunny would show up. The bunny figured out that they had an electric fence so it knew it was safe at a certain distance. Anyway, the dog used to interact with the bunny and eventually they enjoyed eachothers presence. It was cool for my parents to be retired, out of the rat race and to enjoy little simple things like that, things that are pure and right in front of your eyes but you don't have time to see because you're wound up. I guess an armadillo is living in the bunny's hole and my father thinks an owl got the bunny.

[StallionMang]

I'm a fan of the commuter rail myself.... get some exercise, read a book on my ebook reader or listen to a podcast. If your work is downtown, I'd find a nice place with access to the commuter rail and avoid the stress of driving. Bear Hill area isn't really in striking distance of the rail though...

[melonrightcoast]