Newton Market Fast Facts
1. It’s been a very busy month for The Vaghar Team. Take a look through photos at a recent sale of ours at 10 Washington Park, Unit 2, in Newtonville.
2. A recent article painted the 822-unit Northland Project in a very optimistic light, though we’re still hearing from locals with valid questions about its overall scale. The main hurdle will be accommodating 1,000+ new cars on Needham Street, a corridor that is already quite busy. It took ten years of planning and debate to reach this milestone. Now that it’s finally moving from paper to reality, the true impact on our day-to-day lives and Newton Upper Falls property values remains to be seen. We’ll be keeping a close eye on it for you!
Other News
“I’d love to move… but where should I go?”
Thoughts from Carol and Cyrus
It’s a story we hear more often than not: “My home is worth X, we’re empty nesters, and we’d love to move… but where can we go?”
Boston is expensive, the suburbs are expensive, and even moving out to an equivalent single-family home in Natick or Framingham might save you 25%, at most. To find homes consistently at 50% of Newton prices, you generally have to look beyond I-495 in every direction. That’s not appealing to many, so they stay put.
Here are some tips we’ve seen that may be of help:
- Define what’s important: Being near top medical facilities are of course top of mind for many, but are they worth the time and money of maintaining a single-family home? For some it might make more financial sense to live somewhere more affordable, and keep a separate fund to travel (in comfort) back to Boston for consultations if and when necessary.
- Consider mid-size New England cities: Portland, Maine, and its suburbs are popular. The culinary scene is renowned, and the nearby vacationland is second to none. Burlington, Vermont, and Providence, Rhode Island, are frequently considered as well.
- Consult with a financial planner: It’s short money to have an expert start the conversation that you might have been putting off. A fee-only fiduciary financial advisor is a great place to begin.
- Keep an eye on the condo market: A new-construction 34-unit condo building in Newton’s Four Corners, The Beacon, sold out, with many of the units simply on paper. If you’re waiting for a “no-brainer” deal to come along, it won’t. Define your budget, reach out, and be ready to make your bid.
Here are things that generally (not always) don’t move the needle in the right direction:
- Renting out your home first: It sounds great on paper to rent your house and test a new city for a year. The problem is you still have to empty your current home, which is the hardest part of moving. Once you do that heavy lifting, you will likely just want to sell and move on.
- Relying (too much) on others: We often see clients delay moving because they hope a child will eventually return to the area or want to inherit the family home. In reality, modern careers keep young adults rooted elsewhere, and the high carrying costs of a Newton property often make it impractical for them to take on.
Ultimately, remember that you are in control. Does walking a Cape Cod beach every morning sound like a dream? Change can be intimidating, but taking proactive steps makes it a highly rewarding process. Of everyone we know who has downsized to places like Portland, no one has ever called it a mistake. Most feel relieved to finally have less maintenance, a lower cost of living, and perhaps most importantly, a quieter more relaxing pace.