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Worcester Area

M

MattB

CEG'er
Joined
Jun 16, 2000
Messages
182
Location
Mass.
Im thinking about accepting a position with Umass Medical in the worcester area and wanted to get some feedback about living in that area. Are there nicer towns then others? What towns are best surrounding worcester? We have 2 kids and would like to live in a nice and quite area..

Thanks
Matt
 
There are definitely some nice, quiet areas around Worcester. Leicester, just to the west, is quite rural.
 
MattB said:
Yeah i would like to be as far away as possible from the bad areas.

Matt
Click to expand...

Worcester's not a bad city. There are parts you wouldn't want to live in, and plenty of parts that aren't pretty, but there's a lot of small towns not far away.
 
Pretty much all of the surrounding towns are pretty nice. Avoid the south and east sides of Worcester. West side is fairly expensive. However the towns to the south and east of Worcester are nice. My wife, son and I live in Auburn which is directly south. We have a fantastic brand new highschool, low tax and insurance rates and mildly priced homes. Millbury, Paxton, Shrewsbury Holden are all more slightly more expensive to live in. Leicester and Paxton are probably the most distant/rural of the group. Auburn and Millbury have fairly nice shopping centers/malls.
 
Thanks for the respounce. We will find out this week how much we will make on current house then take it from there. I live in West HArtford,ct now and our tax is close to 5k a year and my neighbors are about 10ft away on both sides. So we are looking for something more rural and cheap :) Plus my family is in mass. so it would be nice to be closer to them too.

Matt
 
I also live in Auburn and agree with mazdaspeed. You want to stay to the east or south of Worcester if you want to live outside the city. You'll want to avoid west of the city, (Leicester, Spencer, Paxton, etc.); your commute to UMass, which is on the east side, will be a PITA. Shrewsbury, Westboro, Northboro, Boylston and Southboro, all roughly east and/or north of Worcester are very nice but can be very pricy. Roughly south, Auburn, Oxford, Sutton and Douglas are not as ritzy, but considerably less expensive to buy in. Good luck!
 
I grew up in west Millbury. West Millbury's got a smug air these days because of all the 500K+ houses that took over the old farmland, but even the older homes are comfortably spread out, and there are still farms and orchards in operation. Millbury's population is a great blend of rich/poor people from all walks of life, although you will witness "small town cliques" between families who have been there for generations.
It is very close to both 146 and 395 which gives you an easy commute to Worcester. All of the schools were renovated in 2001-2004 and contain the latest in technology, and the library was expanded (3x as big) in late 90s. For better or worse, the new mall literally backs up to the middle school (Shaw).

Oxford still has that quiet, rural small-town feeling, with business development existing primarily to the far north and south of the town. They also built a brand new high school around 2003. 395 has three exits in Oxford which gives you a good commute to Worcester. I have cousins who live in Oxford and spent a lot of time there myself.

SMcD, I disagree that Sutton is cheaper to live in. Everybody I know who lived there complained of the higher taxes, particularly due to the town constantly resisting business development, and the real estate is very expensive for the area. It is, however, a beautiful town and worth the price.

Much of Worcester is getting pretty scary to live in, but southern Worcester (on the Worcester/Auburn town line) is comprised of cheaper residences with nice quiet neighborhoods. My grandparents have lived there since the 50s. Simply in terms of public schooling, however, I'd recommend an area town.
 
if you want more of a family feel the list of towns would be west boylston,leicester,rutland,paxton, shrewsbury,auburn all really close without having to live in worcester ive worked in worc. for about 5 yrs still do and there are ok parts and there are some not so nice parts i personally wouldn t live there i got two kids and prefer the more quiet surrounding towns
 
You're probably right about Sutton as a whole, the more I think about it. I was mostly talking about that section of town that borders Millbury, which seems to be an area of smaller, older, more affordable homes. That's probably a small percentage of the town's total area. I know my boss lives over by PVCC, and that's gotta be $$$$$$$$$.
 
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