Moving to Boston: where will we fit in?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here and while we are not ready to buy, we came across a house we love in Acton. It's farther out than we would like, but it made me currious about the area. What D.C. suburb (on the VA side) would it be most similar to?

Again, we are planning to avoid a commute into Boston if we can (neither of us have commuted into D.C. fo over a decade).

I grew up in Acton. I can't think of a DC suburb akin to it. It has a seriously powerhouse high school. That's why people live there.
What neighborhood is the house in?

In general you can't really compare Boston and DC suburbs, historical settlement patterns are so different as is the local government structure and regional demographics.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here and while we are not ready to buy, we came across a house we love in Acton. It's farther out than we would like, but it made me currious about the area. What D.C. suburb (on the VA side) would it be most similar to?

Again, we are planning to avoid a commute into Boston if we can (neither of us have commuted into D.C. fo over a decade).

I grew up in Acton. I can't think of a DC suburb akin to it. It has a seriously powerhouse high school. That's why people live there.
What neighborhood is the house in?

What do you mean by a "seriously powerhouse high school"? The house was zoned for Luther Conant Elementary, Raymond J Grey Junior HS, and Acton-Boxborough Regional HS.

[Anonymous]

It looks like they do have in-person learning at the region's schools:
https://sites.google.com/abschools.org/abtransitiontoschool/home

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here and while we are not ready to buy, we came across a house we love in Acton. It's farther out than we would like, but it made me currious about the area. What D.C. suburb (on the VA side) would it be most similar to?

Again, we are planning to avoid a commute into Boston if we can (neither of us have commuted into D.C. fo over a decade).

I grew up in Acton. I can't think of a DC suburb akin to it. It has a seriously powerhouse high school. That's why people live there.
What neighborhood is the house in?

What do you mean by a "seriously powerhouse high school"? The house was zoned for Luther Conant Elementary, Raymond J Grey Junior HS, and Acton-Boxborough Regional HS.

As far as I know, Acton has school choice - you don't have to attend the school that you're "zoned" for. Conant is one of several schools.

I mean that the high school is one of the top-ranked in the state and was just named #1 by Boston magazine. It's competitive and intense. Acton, unlike comparable school districts Concord-Carlisle or Lexington, doesn't have a town center/downtown area. The draw isn't the town. It's the school.

[Anonymous]

I grew up in Newton but if I were looking to move there now I would look at Concord.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in Newton but if I were looking to move there now I would look at Concord.

Concord is lovely n lush.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in Newton but if I were looking to move there now I would look at Concord.

Concord is lovely n lush.

Concord is beautiful but quite a bit further out than Newton. If OP prioritizes space and isn't so worried about commuting into the city, Concord is a great choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you mean you are hoping for remote jobs so commute isn’t an issue, or do you mean you’re hoping to find jobs near whatever suburb you chose? I think that is a long shot - I’d find jobs then find a ‘burb. Commute around Boston is no joke.

Bumping this, op is setting them up for a seriously long commute with the suburbs she is considering if either job is in the city. Boston traffic is comparable or maybe even worse than dc.

[Anonymous]

1.5 million will get you something okay even in the suburbs. I would caution you that without a decent HHi, I would not live in Boston. 250k is mac and cheese zone there, especially with kids. Make sure you are making 300k or more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1.5 million will get you something okay even in the suburbs. I would caution you that without a decent HHi, I would not live in Boston. 250k is mac and cheese zone there, especially with kids. Make sure you are making 300k or more.

You do realize that plenty of people raise their kids in and around BOston on WAY less than 300K. Do you really think people making 1/4 mil per year are eating mac and cheese every day and living in tatters? That's ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1.5 million will get you something okay even in the suburbs. I would caution you that without a decent HHi, I would not live in Boston. 250k is mac and cheese zone there, especially with kids. Make sure you are making 300k or more.

You do realize that plenty of people raise their kids in and around BOston on WAY less than 300K. Do you really think people making 1/4 mil per year are eating mac and cheese every day and living in tatters? That's ridiculous.

They are when they overspend on a house in Belmont or Lexington or Newton.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here and while we are not ready to buy, we came across a house we love in Acton. It's farther out than we would like, but it made me currious about the area. What D.C. suburb (on the VA side) would it be most similar to?

Again, we are planning to avoid a commute into Boston if we can (neither of us have commuted into D.C. fo over a decade).

I grew up in Acton. I can't think of a DC suburb akin to it. It has a seriously powerhouse high school. That's why people live there.
What neighborhood is the house in?

Yeah - suburban Boston is very different from DC area because it was settled as a bunch of separate towns 150-200+ years ago, not through suburban sprawl post-WWII. If you needed some kind of analogy, think Darnestown or so - pretty far out, but some stuff nearby. But not a good analogy at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1.5 million will get you something okay even in the suburbs. I would caution you that without a decent HHi, I would not live in Boston. 250k is mac and cheese zone there, especially with kids. Make sure you are making 300k or more.

You do realize that plenty of people raise their kids in and around BOston on WAY less than 300K. Do you really think people making 1/4 mil per year are eating mac and cheese every day and living in tatters? That's ridiculous.

I can personally confirm Stoughton had good schools, even if it doesn’t look like it on paper. It’s more affordable and diverse. They have excellent resources and many teachers who have been in the classroom for many, many years (some 30+). Special Ed services are great and all ES kids are coming back April 5th. They’ve already had hybrid all year and started concurrent a while ago. It’s not perfect and teachers in MA have not been offered the covid vaccine yet. But a lot of the top districts in MA have million dollar homes so I think on paper they look better because those are families that can obviously afford a lot of outside resources, much like schools in McLean where the kids do most of their learning outside of school from what I observed working there.

[Anonymous]

Has^

[Anonymous]

OP here. To answer some questions, we delayed our move to summer 2022 and we are keeping an eye on real estate. DH has been applying to Boston-based jobs and my current employer will allow me to telecommute. Our current HHI is around $300k and we don't have a mortgage for our current house, which will likely sell for $1.6M, so we will have plenty to work with.

Hopefully, DH will have his job in place before we finalize which Boston suburb we move to. He is hoping for Concord, Sudbury or Wayland (all very different, from what I know).