My husband and I are moving up from Virginia to Massachusetts this May. He has a job lined up as a civil engineer. I’m currently an elementary school teacher so I’m looking for a new school up there. We’re looking southern Middlesex county or Norfolk county. We want to rent for a year or two before buying to make sure we like the neighborhood. I’d appreciate any realtor recommendations to help us look or advice on areas we should look! Or just Massachusetts specific advice I’m general. Go Pats!

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tambien181 t1_j2nwise wrote on January 2, 2023 at 6:56 PM

Welcome to MA!

Just a little FYI we really don’t use counties in MA unless it’s for court cases/jury duty or home deeds, things like that. Maybe it’s something new they’re using in real estate idk, but in general, we use the areas like, Boston proper, greater Boston, metro west, north shore, south shore, the Merrimack Valley, Cape Cod, south coast, etc. I think western MA may be different with their use of counties? But in eastern MA, those of us who grew up here don’t refer to living in say, southern Middlesex county. We would say the name of the city/town or “a suburb of x” or metro west, if you want to be keep it more general.

When looking for real estate people will look for a particular area depending on how they’ll be commuting. So if someone is taking the commuter rail from the north shore, they would write it that way (when asking about communities to live in). Or commuting via the mass pike, or rt 93 to Boston, or rt 2 to Cambridge, you could ask for help looking for home in an area that would work best given those particular commutes. Hope I’m making sense. But traffic is just so bad in eastern MA that commute times are a major factor in determining where to live.

tracynovick t1_j2oz4rk wrote on January 2, 2023 at 11:07 PM

Most districts in Massachusetts use SchoolSpring for hiring, and they'll be starting to post those openings soon.

mymoon03 OP t1_j2p3ujw wrote on January 2, 2023 at 11:39 PM

Thank you!

Hoosac_Love t1_j2nj4m6 wrote on January 2, 2023 at 5:31 PM

Property values will be cheaper in Worcester county if the commute does not bother you.I don't know a realtor but turf is cheaper near Worcester than pricy Middlesex or Norfolk.

NativeMasshole t1_j2nkz8l wrote on January 2, 2023 at 5:43 PM

Depending on where exactly they're working, the commute can be pretty horrendous. Also depending on where in Worcester County, the prices may not be all that much better, especially when you take the extra commute into account.

grrrriff t1_j2oyqoc wrote on January 2, 2023 at 11:05 PM

I agree with what the others have said — knowing a bit more about your work commutes would greatly influence my suggestions as to towns/cities to consider. But to toss you a few places in the areas you mentioned, considering an engineer’s and teacher’s combined approx income of (guessing) $150k+ and not sure about children and school issues (most, if not all, of the public schools in Norfolk and Middlesex cos. will be better than the average or even good schools in most other states), here’s a list you can explore:

Wayland Medfield Millis Medway Hopkington Southborough Sudbury Dedham Milton Needham Natick

All nice I’m their own ways. Further west you head the more rural it generally becomes. Further north and east the more densely populated.

By me, a bit north, I’m a fan of towns such as: Bedford Burlington Arlington And of course … Lexington and Concord. Any realtors I could recommend would all be focused up my way …

Good luck and welcome to Mass!

mymoon03 OP t1_j2p41iq wrote on January 2, 2023 at 11:40 PM

This is really helpful, thank you!