The Best Places to Live 2005

“The Point,” Brookline
Is your child’s education worth an extra $300K on your mortgage? That’s often the dilemma faced by parents who want to stay close to the city and take advantage of the highly rated Brookline schools. Something of a compromise can be found in the former working-class section on the Jamaica Plain line once known as Whiskey Point (a not-so-kind reference to the Irish families who settled there) and now just as “the Point.” The neighborhood’s collection of triple-deckers and two-family houses, its relative distance from the T, and the small size of its houses help keep home prices below the stratosphere. “There’s not a lot of shopping around there, and it’s a longer walk to Brookline Village, so in that sense, it’s not as desirable,” says Hammond GMAC’s Jack Enright, who recently sold a new building of condos in the low $500s here. Making up for the lack of commerce, however, Downes Field provides a virtual town common for the houses around it, and the wooded trails of the Emerald Necklace and Jamaica Pond are a short walk away.

Union Square, Allston
Allston has always been attractive to homebuyers, combining affordable prices with easy access to the city on the Green Line, even if raucous music and woozy college students traipsing the streets after midnight add less to the appeal. With homebuyers priced out of Cambridge and Brookline, however, a rise in the owner-occupancy rates has brought a new grown-up attitude to Union Square, where Brighton Avenue and Cambridge Street meet. Two new condo developments are luring buyers, while the nearby blocks are full of large Victorians with room for appreciation. “That’s a good thing for people who went to school at BC or BU and decided they liked living in Allston and now wanted to live in something a little bit nicer,” says Boston Realty Associates’ Bob Imperato. And alums can relive their college days at the Model, Silhouette Lounge, and Twin Donuts just blocks away.