Help! Town of Rockland- Reviews Anyone?

[luds]

I've been looking for a house for about a month now. My fiance and I both work in Quincy and have been hell bent on finding a place in Weymouth but have only found a few homes of interest in our price range. As a result I decided to check out Rockland and found that it seemed drastically more affordable and I think I could see myself living there.

45 minutes to the canal, 25 minutes to hull fishing grounds, 30 minutes to the north river, and I could crash at my folks place in wakefield when the north shore is calling. i could handle that i think.

I know there are alot of south shorians on this site so I was hoping for some feedback on this town.

Thanks in advance for any help.

-Luds

[Slipknot]

My brother lives there and i grew up next town over in Abington.
Rockland is a bit more diversified than some of the other towns around it. Schools seem to be ok
taxes not bad
small town politics/the usual
housing is reasonable there.
great proximity to Boston, right off the expressway.
you must be familiar with the traffic on Rt 3 if you're considering Rockland. short commute to Quincy distance wise, but I'm not sure about time wise during normal commuting hours.

good luck

there are some members on the site from there.

[Mike P]

Trust me--you can make it to the Canal in a lot less than 45 minutes from Rockland---unless it takes you the better part of 15 minutes to get to Rte 3.

[Squid kids Dad]

Originally Posted by Mike P

Trust me--you can make it to the Canal in a lot less than 45 minutes from Rockland---unless it takes you the better part of 15 minutes to get to Rte 3.

Wrong...I live in Whitman..It takes at least 45 minutes to the canal

[Mike P]

35 minutes from Direct Buy to Scenic Highway exit off 3. We've done it several times.

[BigFish]

Hi Mike! I lived in Abington for 5 years before we moved to Hanover 3 years ago! Rockland is smack dab in the middle! Its a good town, lots for sale there.....and from my house the Canal is only 25 minutes away and I am just a mile over the Rockland/Hanover line! Rockland is like most towns.....good points and bad points. I can't think of anything bad except the center of town is currently very depressed due to the economy ( alot of empty store fronts) but its clean, respectable, lots of good homes in the area. Stay away from anywhere closer to Weymouth....its a nightmare over there as they are widening route 18 and Gawd only knows what they are going to do with the Air Base but it will equal TRAFFIC you can bet on that! BigBo lives in Rockland and if you pm him he might be able to give you some solid information! Oh.....BigFish Bait Co. is a stones throw away too!

Good luck Mike!

[ProfessorM]

Buy a house there and then see if you can get transfered to the Rockland, Hingham facility if you work where I think you do. Be the perfect commute. Good luck

[luds]

Originally Posted by ProfessorM

Buy a house there and then see if you can get transfered to the Rockland, Hingham facility if you work where I think you do. Be the perfect commute. Good luck

That's definitely a possibility as is working from home!

[The Dad Fisherman]

Call the Police Department and ask them for the skinny on the areas you are looking at. I did that when I moved to G'town. they told me where the "Problem" area(s) were.

Pick up the local paper and go through it to see what the current political issues are. Things like the Schools and Government concerns should be in there.

lastly go hang out there a little.....not just to look at a house....little neighborhood restaurants/pubs usually have guys sitting around the bar talking about the towns problems....you don't need to take what they say as gospel but if something gets your attention you can research it a little.

remember you'r spending 3/4's of a million dollars (wait until you read that Truth in Lending Statement ) do some research.

If your planning on having kids...schools are a big deal. research those. Also look at the breakdown of the ages living in town.....larger population of people over 50 usually means that less tax money gets funneled into the school system....more people under 40 usually means more tax money gets funneled there.

[fishbones]

Luds,
Check out this site. Also, there are plenty of others that compare cities and towns by categories like housing, crime, education, etc...

http://merlot.caliper.com/maptitude/...sf2))/Map.aspx

[BigBo]

Yeah, I live in Rockland. Been here for 28 years now. I would pretty much agree what what everyone has input so far about the town. We raised a daughter here and put her through the local school system and now she is doing the same with her son. The close proximity to everything as well as the cost of living is what has kept us here. Easy town to live in for commuting.
The one bad residential area is the government subsidized housing behind the Luke's Liquor Plaza.
If there are other more specific questions you might have, feel free to ask.

[luds]

Originally Posted by BigBo

Yeah, I live in Rockland. Been here for 28 years now. I would pretty much agree what what everyone has input so far about the town. We raised a daughter here and put her through the local school system and now she is doing the same with her son. The close proximity to everything as well as the cost of living is what has kept us here. Easy town to live in for commuting.
The one bad residential area is the government subsidized housing behind the Luke's Liquor Plaza.
If there are other more specific questions you might have, feel free to ask.

Bo,
That's helpful and of course one of the houses I was looking at was basically in between the old base in Weymouth and market street. The neighborhood looked good but I did not do much driving around. I'll look again today. It's on Lincoln St. Any additional info would be really helpful. Here's the link to the address that I was looking at in that area.

Thanks again. I appreciate the help.

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ta...0rd%20rockland

[BigBo]

That's a decent quiet area. Easy access to the highway. I'm just up the street from there on the other side of Union St.

[Swimmer]

Go to the police department and ask them to query how many calls from the street where the house is located your thinking of buying. I do that for potential buyers in Whitman.