goldcrown

There's a couple IT security companies my DH is looking at in these areas. Bedford looks lovely (we don't mind cold weather at all, it's the heat we hate) with some English influences.

Things which are concerning:

Military base (3500 or so)
What is up with 'No room for antisemitism' signs in Middlesex County? Is this a big problem there?
Too small town feel, though perhaps frequent trips to Boston could help this

The school options look decent for the kids, there is the Montessori option which we like, too. We can afford a good sized home with the exchange rate and equity from our home sale in greater London.

Thoughts on the area?

I should mention we really want to have as much of a British/Old World influence as possible. This means architecture, history, food, culture. The opposite would be say, Nevada, California, those sorts of places. We also want a very blue state with progressive people, liberal thinking.

joto

We live in Middlesex county, but a bit to the north of Bedford. Acton or Boxborough seem to be nice, countryish places with high priced houses (for this area) and easy to get to Bedford from. Concord is also another option, but those towns are all small/med sized but if you are looking for the big city, Boston would be the place to be. Acton and Concord are also on the commuter rail to Boston. Hope you find this helpful.

Bob

Acton...that's a bit posh

The commuter rail is also a bit shite for trips to boston, don't have late returns, aren't that frequent, being on the T is so much more handy.

Concord is also a dump to live in apparently.

But info on the county - http://www.epodunk.com/cgi-bin/genIn...locIndex=22292

Quincy is lovely...Cambridge, most of it is lovely, some of it is a dive.

Schools would be the main priority I'd think...but anyway, taxes in Mass are high, they suck...and dealing with the DMV is like dealing with the devil.

Oh, and the summer humidity is pretty brutal without AC...and the cold, it really isn't that bad around here, especially now, but then I'm comparing that to where we lived in Maine...but it is pretty cold for some.

Bob

If you like that, you'd probably like Salem, small town, and a bit busy, and kind of a mare, but it's pretty, and has a lot of history.

newenglander

Schools would be the main priority I'd think...but anyway, taxes in Mass are high, they suck...and dealing with the DMV is like dealing with the devil.

Oh, and the summer humidity is pretty brutal without AC...and the cold, it really isn't that bad around here, especially now, but then I'm comparing that to where we lived in Maine...but it is pretty cold for some.[/QUOTE]

------------------------------------------------------
I've lived here in MA all my life and I definitely agreee with the above.

OP, You might really love Bedford. It does have a veterans' hospital (VA=Veterans Administration) but it also is a very pretty town with lovely old houses and beautiful old stone walls. (As I have heard you Brits say--chocolate box pretty?). It's an easy place to get to and from as well and the shops are plentiful and of good quality.

Concord is gorgeous, as is Lexington but they are pricey.

Quincy is to the south of Boston and I don't think that much of it although it must have nice areas too. Salem is to the north and is mostly a dump although they are trying to fix it up. Most people I've met say they would NOT want to live in Salem.

Oh, no one goes without ac in the summer -- it's hotter than it used to be (global warming??) and everything has AC. You wouldn't be able to live without AC here but cars come eqiupped with it and you just buy AC for your home.

Anti semitism, I don't know what you mean but there are some weird neo-Nazi types in this country so they could be referring to them.

The area you are referring to -- Bedford, Concord -- it's like living in the countryside in the midst of mostly 18th & 19th c. houses that are well kept, buildings that are well maintained and historic, parks, places to go walking and oodles of culture. Posh, but if you can afford it, then I would say GO FOR IT.

Bob

Oh, one thing to consider, when looking for a place, the heating and how well insulated the place is, because you'll be surprised how much you spend on heating the place in winter...our apartment, oil heat, with the heat set low, at 62F is costing us around $250 a month, the apartment below us is paying $360 a month, but they keep it a bit higher and have just had a baby, but it's a smaller apartment...we're in a converted old victorian home where we have the upper 2/3.

AC in the summer is probably around the same in electric.

JohnCT

"Concord is also a dump to live in apparently"

Bob; If I hit the lottery I would still have trouble affording Concord......
I grew up next door in Lexington and there's lots of history there, shot fired heard 'round the world in 1775 and all that. Check out realtor dot com for home prices, things are cooling off slightly in Greater Boston, but the highs of a few years ago were so stratospheric that the cooled off prices aren't exactly bargains. A half a million dollars gets you a 1950's two bedroom starter home in Lexington which are considered tear-downs, nothing in Concord is that cheap anymore. New construction starts well over a million USD. ....Bedford is a bit less than Lexington. The inner circumfrential highway around Boston, now Rt 95, was known as Rt 128 in my youth, America's technology highway. This was before silicon valley, CA existed but it still is a close second. Traffic is heavily congested, but try California if you don't like Boston. The airport in Bedford has dramatically scaled back military ops in the past ten years, there are nowhere near 3500 Armed forces personnel there today. It is a very large facility and is being proposed as an alternate for commercial traffic to Boston's Logan airport, but local residents are deeply divided on that issue.

Nice area, culturally diverse, many Europeans find Boston as close to home as you will find on the East Coast. Extremely liberal politically, nickname "Taxachusetts" was earned the hard way.....

Good luck,

John

Bob

I never said Concord was cheap, just a dump to live in...nothing to do but shop and very hollow was what I was told.

I-95 is still 128 in parts, which really confused me and it's a dump to drive on traffic wise, and no pits stops for miles, but that's a small gripe, compared to paying the NH toll, for all 5 mins your in NH

As for the bedford airport, I hope it takes off because Logon is a first class shitter.

And your right, Mass is known as taxachusetts and the people are known as mass-holes anyway, the handy man thread about old places for sale, ouch, $272K for an apartment in Cambridge, 370 sq feet, have $360 annual condo fee's and $3K property taxes....that's one expensive closet, even if it is on Havard Square