That's your problem. My town (Grafton) has a third party supplier and the rate is .108...

If you have the budget for it and you’re interested in minimizing your commute , you should definitely consider Brookline! It’s leafy, directly on the T, but with tons of parks. It has a very walkable, charming downtown (Coolidge Corner) and it’s pretty family-friendly. And you can potentially make your commute a nice walk! Just throwing it out there.

It's more the school districts. Honestly its more of a legacy these days as everything in Newton is expensive. Town has two high schools. Newton north and newton south, Newton North would be the better one but they are both highly ranked public schools.

I believe the most affordable part is West Newton. Along the Waltham border.

I grew up in Waltham, so I'm also surprised to see it listed as a viable option. Don't get me wrong, I love Waltham for it's diversity; there are currently 35 languages spoken at the high school, but it's not an affluent or progressive city.

Agreed, Newton Wellesley Hospital is really great.

Any place outside of the I-95 ring isn't going to be a good choice for the list of priorities that you've highlighted.

One of the reasons that Newton is so bustling is that it is basically the most connected suburb of Boston.

1. It borders Boston, and shares major passageways such as Commonwealth Avenue (rt 30), Boylston Street (rt 9).
2. I-90 which is the major east-to-west passageway of Massachusetts (and goes from Washington State to Massachusetts) - passes through Newton.
3. I-95 which is the major north-to-south passageway of the east coast (Florida to Canada) - passes through Newton.

That unique position means that Newton is the perfect non-urban mixing of people, ideas, cultures, businesses, etc.

Newton is in the middle of a reinvigoration of their village centers - and they are improving safety for bikers and pedestrians while they're at it.

As others have mentioned, Newton has 13 villages and Newton is making some real improvements making the village centers a great place to hang out (for children and people with children).

There are some great wooded parks in Newton such as: Cold Spring Park, Edmunds Park, and others.

Driving through Newton can be a problem during the am and pm commute hours, but any other time of day, traffic is quite reasonable.

Newton is also very convenient for getting to Logan airport (20-30 minutes during off hours) - for when you want to take an airplane to visit Arkansas (and travel anywhere else for that matter). Or for getting to South Station - for when you want to take the kids on the Amtrak train to visit Manhattan (or anywhere else that the trains can take you).

I grew up in Manhattan until I was 13, so I hope I’m a little prepared lol

Newton real estate taxes currently are about 1% of the property value per year. Using your examples, a $1.8m house would have annual real estate taxes of about $18k per year.

$30-$40k in real estate tax would be a home that is valued at $3m to $4m.

Source: know people who own homes in Newton

Adding to the commute info for JP- JP to Longwood you can do the orange line to ruggles and take the free (with hospital or university ID) LMA shuttle. Door to door it takes me like less than 30 minutes and it’s so easy.

Be prepared for culture shock. Newton is a very different place than Arkansas.

Stay on Arkansas...........I'm just kidding Newton is nice......for here ........

The flip side of high ranked schools and safe neighborhoods is some people complain of the high pressure achievement culture in the schools. YMMV

And that median income is honestly a joke. Maybe if it’s per head in a household.

A family of 4 in Newton, owning a house, likely need $350K+/year minimum.

Since OP and his partner are both in Longwood, I imagine they are both in the medical field and will have sufficient income, but yeah, Newton is beautiful, close to Boston, with T access (that even goes directly to longwood), top notch schools, and a decent amount to do within the community, all of which make it wicked expensive.

Yea. I took the B line to work from Allston for a few years. JFC that was terrible. D from Newton Centre is nice, but I'm betting the seats are full by the time it gets there, and its not like there's a ton of housing within a 10 minute walk of the station.

Oh wow! That sucks. For such a small house that's an absurd price.

We're at 1500 sq ft using just heat pumps (no oil this year) and 500 was the highest I've ever seen.

Like others said I wouldn't worry about the PC. Something is sucking crazy juice.

Well that's a personal choice. In all of the top 10ish school districts, they only cater to the elite students. If your an average student or below, you're shit out of luck

Unfortunately a top half of schools doesn’t make it a good district, and WPS is nowhere near the other schools on that list. I’m not comfortable going into details here but suffice it to say I now understand why so many families leave as their kids get older.

Newton is a great place to live. I lived in the Auburndale village for a few years until being priced out of the market after my landlord wanted to retire to Florida and sold our place as a teardown to be replaced by condos. We were on Commonwealth Ave. and had an annual front row seat to the Boston Marathon, which practically ran through our front yard.

Auburndale is very walkable, with trails along the river and a carriage road that parallels Commonwealth Avenue for most of its length.

Newton-Wellsley Hospital is one of the better hospitals, and I know some of the staff. They’re a great bunch of professionals.

Don’t have kids, but my former neighbor did. He made a lot of financial sacrifices to stay in his apartment so his daughter could attend school there. That’s a testament to the quality of Newton schools.

They have a great public library, too.

Watertown in in the top 50% of schools in Massachusetts. It's not ranked in the top 10 /~ but it's a well run Town

sadly mass save is scheduled like 4-5 months out. i tried to get the home energy assessment as soon as possible lol

You’ll love Newton! Great schools, great community and educated people. Some homes are worth millions

I live in Newton and love it. Great schools-A rated, nice walkability, the trains right into the city. Longwood is a quick drive. Plenty of parks and playgrounds. Lots of young families and working professionals. Each little village has its own center, shops and restaurants...its a nice place to live.

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To give an idea what Newton is like I used to live there in a literal mansion. The reason I was in said literal mansion was because my roommates dad had bought the place cause he didn't want a builder impacting his Mom's view and decided to rent it out to keep the place occupied.

We moved out of a condo that previously had electric heating. Last January we paid $850 for 3500 kWh and we were not living there. We were waiting for the paperwork and inspections to be cleared up. When we first moved in I actually called national grid because I though a $600 bill was a mistake and they informed me that was close to the previous residents bill.