Living in Boston area

Hi all,

I plan relocating to the Boston area - will be working in Wilmington.

Could you provide any opinion about where would be the good place to live (I plan to rent at the beginning). There are many small towns around Boston. What area is not very expensive and good for people who love nature and outdoor activities?

Thanks.

Living in Boston area

Hi Sergey- I have heard that housing prices in Hawaii are very high, so you will not fall over from shock about Boston area prices. Many people live in southern New Hampshire and drive into Massachusetts for their jobs, as housing is slightly less expensive in NH. It depends on how far you are willing to drive to get to work each day. Check out newspaper listings such as boston.com and other places closer to Wilmington, such as Lowell or Manchester, NH. Good luck!

Living in Boston area

I agree with bostonbased about the potential savings by living in southern NH.

I might suggest looking at an MBTA map on www.mbta.com. Towns directly on the commuter rail or subway lines tend to be more expensive, so if you don%26#39;t have to commute into the city, you might not want to pay the premium for that option.

Towns like Reading, Andover and Middleton are all nice communities, and are within a reasonable commute to Wilmington, and have local stores so trips to regional malls won%26#39;t be necessary (personally I hate malls).

Rte I-93 provides easy access to southern NH, which has very nice (but mostly small) towns, and no sales or income taxes. Many people commute all the way to Boston from Salem or Manchester, NH. There are also towns called Salem and Manchester in MA which are also relatively close... heading east on Rte 128.

Hi Sergev,

If you%26#39;re going to be working in Wilmington, MA. you might want to consider living closer to where you work, only because of snowstorms in New England and the gas prices these days and the way they%26#39;ve been creeping up. Who knows what we%26#39;re going to see with these prices in the next few months.

For instance Woburn, MA is only 12 mins.

away from Wilmington and just about 5 miles. To me? That would be a dream living closer to where I had to go to every single day! If you wanted to be in New Hampshire then Salem, NH is only about 25 mins. from Wilmington per Mapquest (on a good day!) You%26#39;d have to consider the flow of traffic heading in your same direction every morning! Derry, NH is another possibility, it%26#39;s 27 miles and about a 1/2 hour on a good day without traffic! To me that side of New Hampshire is extremely congested, when you live on the Seacoast it%26#39;s like a breath of fresh air and so quiet compared to that hectic ';neck of the woods'; ';over there!'; The only problem is that the Seacoast is a little too far from Wilmington in my book!

If you lived in Portsmouth, NH then it%26#39;s about an hour commute 51 miles one way. Do you really want to do that every single day? I commuted in to Boston from the Portsmouth/Seacoast area for 16 years and that was different. For me, it was the Newburyport commuter train in to North Station every day or the bus from Portsmouth straight in to Haymarket before the train came ';up here'; for all of us!

Going to Wilmington, MA would be another story all together from the Seacoast over to your office in Wilmington, I think it would be a pain in the neck to tell you the truth, if it wasn%26#39;t for

Rte 95 straight in to town! I think I%26#39;d go out of my mind if it was off the beaten track down side roads to another destination all together with our snowstorms in New England the way they were all through the years!

Just think about New England winters and driving in snowstorms, you think it%26#39;s easy, do you? I can tell you how that is in my sleep, I was in so many of them, even the Blizzard of 78, that%26#39;s another story all together!

With the way the gas pumps have been lately? If I had to work in Wilmington? I%26#39;d be looking for an apartment on the same road as the office and I%26#39;m not kidding you!

You can take off on weekends and explore New England all you want in the nice weather and check out where you really really

want to live as you get settled in your job, if I were you? I%26#39;d look for an apartment right in Wilmington or one of the surrounding towns close by for now. It will make your life and your commute so much less stressful and if you%26#39;re young and single? You don%26#39;t need to have stress in your life

at ALL, because lifes way way too short!

So think about it. Go online and also check newspapers either in the Wilmington/Woburn

Andover area or online to see what you can get near the company you%26#39;ll be working in.

Good luck!