Rutland and Princeton are both pretty rural arent they? I dont think its a fair comparison to Worcester

Yes, but you're missing out on so much else. If you want to do literally anything else - grocery shopping, culture, nightlife, restaurants - have fun spending just as much time in the car as you do at the event. Add to that a regular commute for work, from an area that doesn't have sufficient highway access. And don't forget less reliable public services (including snowplows).

There are folks that hate "city life" and love being self-reliant and set apart from the rest of the world. I am not one of those people.

[removed]

[removed]

Yeah but what is there to do in Rutland? You cant compare a city to a suburb like Rutland

Taxes are pretty high there though

A bit dramatic..

It’s a 20ish minute drive to downtown worcester from Rutland and both those areas have fine plow service.

Middle of nowhere if you're a commuter.

Paxton is literally immediately outside Worcester, has excellent infrastructure and public services for its size, and access to a premium school district.

Because it’s boring af there and many people want to live where there is culture, diversity, and something to do besides hang at home.

Housing supply is the main factor. Holden and the surrounding towns have been steadily growing and adding new housing stock as people are priced out of the Boston area. These towns have plenty of undeveloped land to build single family houses compared to other towns to the east, or a city like Worcester.

New subdivisions are going up rapidly, and that’s keeping the price of previously built houses down. Once they stop building, prices will start to escalate.

I'm honestly a bit confused here. Living in Holden or Sterling isn't really any cheaper than Worcester, while Paxton and Rutland are more rural so land is a bit cheaper. These towns aren't even really comparable to each other.

Not as bad as Worcester.

I guess Holden is good if you work in worcester but it's a long way to anywhere East. Rutland and Princeton are rural though.

Used to live in Barre. These places have their charm and benefits- when my husband and I moved to MA in 2019 on two teacher salaries, and had to buy a home, Worcester was on the edge of affordable but too competitive still, so we looked at homes in many of the places you noted. They are all really fairly different, and generally the closer you are to freeway access, the more expensive. Princeton is not very affordable at this point, especially if you’re thinking in terms of housing. It’s a beautiful place to live, and my favorite of the places you mentioned, with fantastic schools- but still a drive to get anywhere. It gets increasingly rural, affordable, conservative, and in some places, impoverished and rough, the further in you go, in my experience.

Holden blows.

I lived in Rutland for almost a year because I was having trouble finding an affordable apartment close to my job in the city. Not much to do and I spent most of my time out of town anyway, but I really liked the Rail trail and all other hiking trails that I could just walk to from my apartment. I found a lot of cool little known historic sites buried deep in the woods and learned a lot of local history. But long term it never would’ve worked out for me.

What's going on with OP's post history? Is this a real account? Someone with too much free time?

Auburn's schools are directly on par with Holden's. Wachusett Regional is hardly a farm school for the Ivys. There are nice houses & shitty houses in both towns.

You're cherry-picking for Holden because you have some weird boner for Holden despite it being a quiet, boring town. Lol, having a Big Y gets you excited to live in Holden..? Not that Auburn is a wonderland, I'm just saying you're making it sound like "Pawnee vs Eagleton" when really both towns are equally... meh.

Yes just as bad this is taxachusetts

Maybe because it takes two days to reach the nearest highway. Hyperbole…but you get my point. They aren’t commuting towns.

Simply not true in terms of residential tax for the towns being discussed — just a quick glance, but Rutland (15.79/1000), Paxton (18.98/1000), Holden (16.56/1000), Princeton (15.68/1000), and even sterling (15.25/1000) have higher residential tax rates than Worcester (15.21/1000).

Commercial taxes are another matter entirely, and there Worcester definitely has these towns beat. If Worcester didn’t have a dual tax rate, I imagine the residential tax would be higher than this to make up the difference.

Suburban is not the right word

Paxton has a fairly high residential property tax rate. They offer a discounted rate to anyone over 65 (and there’s a lot of elderly living in Paxton) and they don’t have much in the way of commercial property to help offset the towns budgetary needs, so buying there is more expensive than the other larger wachusett towns.

They post OFTEN about this subject, and always include listings. It makes you wonder if they work in the industry. Otherwise they should just pick a town and buy a place so they can stop asking these same questions every month or so.

[deleted]

if you're rich and willing to live in a town full of assholes, you'd be a lot better moving to a real town closer to Boston than wasting your money on a palace in the middle of the woods.

But his son will be very angry with him… /s

I don’t dispute this. I do dispute saying that taxes are higher in Worcester than the communities being discussed by OP, which they simply aren’t, at least in terms of residential properties

I read the one from a few days ago about the gifted kid, and the Holden principal that uses an outdated iphone, and the only thing I could think was it had to be a troll post, like "shit Holden parents say."

Rutland is out there. Ashland is close to Framingham and closer to Rt9, 495, 90. So probably the longer commute from Rutland that makes is more affordable

Did you say BIG Y??

[deleted]

Dude Rutland is the sticks haha

[removed]

Stop with the double accounts. We are on to you.

I just bought my house in Worcester in September, we spent the summer house hunting and found the opposite to be true. The houses we looked at in Holden were often much smaller and usually more outdated and were going for at least 30-50k more (and selling FAST) than a comparable sized house/land in Worcester..

Maybe because I don’t wanna live around a bunch of people like OP who think they’re superior to people in Worcester…

He deleted his account. Was it that bad?

About two dozen posts over the past few days. All the same length. Reposted to various subreddits. All the same topic, ranting about buying a big house in Holden, and his 11-year old son demanding they buy in Boston instead.

>Auburn's schools are directly on par with Holden's.

No.

Always a Redfin link?

Ahh so I'm not alone.

Just replied on their other post today that this whole spiel just reeks of something being off.

The watcher vibes haha