Newton and Newtonville would be the first places I'd look at, assuming you're OK with the housing costs there.

I lived in Newtonville for 2 years in the '80s and commuted into the heart of Cambridge doing grad work at MIT. Newton/Newtonville has excellent access to the "Mass Pike" (aka. I-90, aka "the Pike") and it was a breeze to get into Cambridge via the Pike from Newton.

A lovely town, with low crime and great public schools at the time. It's probably still that way, but I always encourage people looking at new locations to get detailed, current info on school districts ratings and policies, as well as up to date crime stats.

If you value your time, you want to think twice three times before doing the NH thing. It may look short on the map, and NH is a lovely place with attractive policies, but when schools are in session and the COVID work-at-home thing evaporates, everyone on the planet will be on those roads heading south into either the tech belts (495/Rt.128) or Boston itself.

I think you can check commute times with online tools. When you do, be sure to pick a workday commute time to get a sense of what that could turn into, when things are back to normal.

You may be able to bring guns you already own into the state. A lot of the ridiculous rules are from the attorney general under consumer product safety and only apply to dealers not personal transfers or ownership. So don’t sell your stuff before looking into it thoroughly.

I would not think about living South of Boston if I had to commute everyday into Boston.

The southeast expressway is one miserable commute into Boston/Cambridge.

You could live south and take the commuter rail.
It is better than it used to be but still is not that reliable.

North and West are livable commutes since the big dig.

They are about to start refurbishing one of the North of Boston Tunnels and they might turn the commute into a mess during construction.

If your guns are preban you may be able to bring them in but cannot be sold instate. I am not a lawyer, best to check with a MA one.

preban magazines can be sold.

I live North of Boston by the ocean and really like it, I leave in the winter and head for warmer weather.

I often commute into Boston, I arrange to come in early and leave early.

Nine to five is a shit show from any direction.

Know once you live here you need to get a permit. Once you do all purchases go into a database. I am not sure how the database works if you are moving in.

I was once told preban guns cannot be sold instate if the gun was not in the database preban.

There are a few anti gun police chiefs all resident go through the local chiefs,

Most chiefs are not anti-permit. Most would be fired if they denied too many permits out of the big cities.

The backlog of permits is about 4-8 months.
First you need to meet with the local department. It took my friend 4 months just to get an local appointment they are so busy. Then they send it off to the state to process and get the permit back. That took three months.

You also need a MA approved gun class. I had my friend take it at Sig in Epping NH.

I just remembered this page. GOAL is the place to look for Massachusetts gun law info.

https://goal.org/new-resident-info

Wow thank you everybody for all of the info. I've read all of your posts and am continuing to research. I had not realized the commute was quite that bad (should have known better), so I'll keep looking into this.

The office is located near the corner of Portland Street and Broadway, basically at the NW corner of MIT. Not sure of the companies on-site parking arrangements yet. It looks like picking up the Red line at the Alewife station would get me very close if driving all the way to the office location wasn't feasible.

What would a 7:00AM commute from Pelham, NH look like during normal working conditions? Currently showing 45 mins, probably more like 2 hours?

A house like this in Westford would great, 1-acre wooded lot with good privacy and room for family to come visit. But I'm guessing the current 45 minute commute will become unreasonable during work hours.

https://www.realtor.com/reales...A_01886_M43769-39313

quote:

Originally posted by Brett B:
The office is located near the corner of Portland Street and Broadway, basically at the NW corner of MIT. Not sure of the companies on-site parking arrangements yet. It looks like picking up the Red line at the Alewife station would get me very close if driving all the way to the office location wasn't feasible.

I-90 is your closest highway/major route to that particular section of the city. You could also take I-93 to Storrow Drive as well. Certainly check on the parking arrangements at your company as parking is limited pretty much everywhere in the city. Especially in the Tech Sq area which is where it looks like you'll be.

Not sure what your field is but some of the tech companies there either offer paid parking or paid MBTA passes, but not both. Depending on your commuting preferences you may prefer the MBTA. One thing to keep in mind though is that the MBTA is not always 100% reliable during winter storms.

Google estimates Monday rush hour traffic from Westford -> Cambridge as around 1hr 10 min, but I'm not sure how far back their data pulls from. If it's just the past year it's probably pretty low. Assume 1 1/2hr minimum

That's a beautiful home in Westford, which is a great community to live in.


Only drawback is that your dealing with 93 daily, which can be a traffic goatrope. Plan on 2.5 - 3.0 hours of daily commuting from Westford to Cambridge.

Unless you buy close to the city in a decent outlier like Watertown, the commute is inevitable.

Good luck.

If you can work a in before 8 leave before 4 it should be around 45 min commute each way. Later than that it could turn into 90 minutes or more each way.

After having to deal with the traffic enough times I can’t come up with a salary that would be worth the grief of the commute.

Bob

Westford is beautiful, and one of my best friends still lives there. I lived in Chelmsford, the next town over.

Chelmsford, Westford, Tewksbury, Billerica and Carlisle are all have nice areas, and if you are in the right spot, a manageable commute.

Best forum for MA gun laws and other advice is Northeastshooters.com