We Loved the Boston Area but Had to Leave; Happier Living More South

• We lived in Quincy, Massachusetts, for 12 years and enjoyed being in Boston’s neighboring city.
• We didn’t love our housing or school options there, so we relocated to Norwell.
• Now, we’re happy to have a more suburban home with access to good schools and more space.

I’ve had the privilege of living in and around Boston for at least 12 years.

After renting for years, my husband and I bought our first house in Quincy, a city in the greater Boston area, in 2018.

Buying in this city felt tough with just our budget, so we split a two-family home with two 800-square-foot units with a friend for $598,000.

We loved having a house on the subway line and living in a city minutes from Boston. Our front door was steps away from a pretty harborfront restaurant, a small beach, and lots of nearby activities in the historic downtown.

I figured Quincy would be an ideal long-term home base for us. Unfortunately, this feeling didn’t last.

We began finding it hard to picture raising a family in this city

In 2020, we found out we were pregnant.

Although I couldn’t get enough of Quincy’s foodie scene, cultural events, parks, and waterfront, I began wondering if this would be an affordable and practical place for us to raise a family.

At times, the city felt a little overwhelming and crowded with its tens of thousands of residents.

Our current home seemed like it would be too small for us, our dog, and our newborn — and we weren’t sure if we could afford a bigger one here on our own. Plus, we weren’t thrilled with the ratings of the public schools nearby.

So, we took advantage of the seller-favored housing market at the time and sold our place for $715,000.

We moved an hour south to my parents’ house in Plymouth and spent the next few months saving and looking for our next home.

Eventually, we set our sights on a different part of Massachusetts

After some research, I set my sights on Norwell, which is about 20 minutes south of Quincy. It’s a small town next to a coastal enclave of beautiful New England-style communities such as Hingham and Cohasset.

It feels less trendy (and slightly more affordable) than those because it’s landlocked and smaller, but it’s still minutes from the beaches and harborfronts.

We searched for about a year until settling on a three-bedroom, 2,300-square-foot home with a gorgeous sunroom for $830,000. Being able to save for a year while living with family made this purchase possible.

To be honest, Norwell isn’t much cheaper in Quincy. Houses generally sell for more money, although the median price per square footage of listings in Norwell is $87 less than listings in Quincy, according to data from Realtor.com.

Although this home was more expensive than our last place, we felt we were getting more space with our investment. Plus, we feel we get more value for our money here.

Our property taxes are higher, for example, but we now live near some of the best public schools in Massachusetts. We no longer wonder if we should spend thousands sending our kids to private schools.

Norwell is quieter than Quincy, but we have access to everything we need

It’s felt pretty nice and peaceful to go from living in one of the biggest cities in Massachusetts to Norwell, which has about 11,000 residents.

Although our town doesn’t have much happening, major shopping and dining spots are just a few minutes’ drive away.

Several grocery stores and other conveniences are very close by, and we found a wonderful preschool down the road for our oldest daughter, where she gets to be out in nature most of the day.

We’re also just 15 to 20 minutes from a beach and five minutes from the highway that can fairly easily get us into Boston.

Although I miss living in Quincy and the buzz of a city sprawl, we’re happy in our woodsy town of Norwell and have enjoyed two great years so far as residents.

The best part is that Boston is still less than an hour away by car or ferry whenever we feel like visiting a trendy restaurant or concert.