We moved to Dracut in 2015 from Medford, and I've lived all over the state prior to that.

Pros: housing and taxes were cheap (less so now, but still relatively affordable imo). It's super convenient to tax free Nashua NH, where the Daniel Webster highway has any store you could ever need. If you commute to Boston during odd hours, it's really not bad at all.

I love that it has a rural, small town feel, but you're close to Lowell if you need more food/nightlife options. It's also a lot less snobby than some of the "better" towns I've lived in, which I prefer.

Cons: It's inconvenient because of the river, depending on where you're going. I spend most of my time in NH, so that doesn't bother me, but if you like to entertain...it can be hard to drag friends out here lol. I'm not a huge fan of the doctor or dental systems here, but I just pop over to Chelmsford for all of that, and Lowell general hospital is pretty good and close by.

The schools are okay so far, but my kids are still in elementary school so we'll see how that goes.

Overall, we're pretty happy here. And we got a nice new build on a lake for $340k so I'm probably never leaving regardless.