First thing to prepare for is housing sticker shock - depending on where you have lived in FL/GA and exactly where you end up in CT/MA, comparable housing may cost twice what it would in the south.

Second, the weather. Beyond the obvious logistics of traveling in snow, the darkness and cold can be depressing for many people. Some love it (not me), but it can snow from Nov-April.

Third, interstates in Florida are generally travelable except around cities during a limited rush hour. Much of the northeast can have traffic during a wider time period - which brings up your need to travel to Boston/NYC. Driving within Boston and NYC are not for the faint of heart.

Depending on frequency of travel, I might suggest you live nearer one of these cities rather than trying to split the difference. There are some nice small towns and even rural areas within 30-45 minutes of Boston (fewer around NYC at that distance), and you might consider one of these - then either driving to Boston or taking public transportation. And for NYC trips taking Amtrak.

This may give you a start. The cliches you have heard about northerners are less true today - as with southern cliches, as people become more mobile. The classic Boston and New York accents, for example, are really not as prominent as with a previous generation.

When you have more specific questions, check back.

Thanks for your response Gail - we are planning to rent for the first year in order to become familiar with New England and to decide where we want to buy. As for the accent, I will be the odd duck out - I have a Southern drawl (hopefully the "yankees" will find it endearing). I will check into the area surrounding Boston.

Check out central CT and the towns of West Hartford, Simsbury, Avon, Farmington and Glastonbury. They are nearly equidistant to NYC and Boston. You can take the train from Htfd or New Haven to NYC and it's a short drive on the highway to Boston. Bradley Airport, Logan Airport, and T.F. Greene airport in R.Island are all close by. JFK and Laguardia are also frequently used by CT residents.

There's no need to drive into or within NYC from CT. Mass transit and public transit will get you where you want to go. Boston is just filled with one way streets but the increased use of a GPS has eliminated most issues. Boston is a very walkable city but parking is still expensive. You can always park your car in Newton (suburb of Boston) at the train station there and get into Boston from there. The trains are not 24 hour trains as the subway is in NYc.

Small town and rural: Colchester, Marlborough, Granby, South Windsor, Glastonbury

Also rural: Mansfield and Coventry. Also Tolland. These towns put you closer to UConn and all that offers.

While it may seem like a good idea to be equidistant between the two I thnk that willmean tha tyou just have a much larger number of days of awful travel. I fyuo are right in the middle figure 3 hours to get to either one.

And if ou want to be close to one there are semi-rural areas much closer to Boston then to NYC and housing costs will be considerably lower. However, you are likely to get a LOT more snow. NYC is about 100 miles south of the snow belt and while we get it fairly frequently and can get a lot at times - we are usually a few degrees warmer - which means we get overall quite a bit less snow than inland New England.

Thanks for listing specific towns Bowsprit. We have traveled in New England and have visited NYC many times. I have a friend in Blue Bell, NJ- so we have traveled by train into the city while visiting. We will need to be within a reasonable distance to an airport as well - travel to Texas for business frequently, so that info is helpful. Is there a huge difference in the amount of snowfall depending on where you live in New England?

New England encompasses a large geographic area. Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont get more snow than CT does. Northern CT gets more snow than southern CT. The Litchfield hills get more snow than Hartford County.

btw: It is aproximately a 90 minute car ride from Hartford to Boston.

Housing in the Hartford suburbs in Ct is much more affordable than housing in the Boston suburbs. The travel between NYC>CT>Boston is relatively straightforward and not awful at all.

Also: We have kids who live in Augusta/Evans Georgia and love it there.

What does this have to do with travel and why are there to identical threads????

If you pick MA, choose a town that is on (or very close) to the commuter rail. It would even help to know if the place of business is closer to South Station, Back Bay, or North Station, because further connections once you're in the city can add quite a bit to the commute.

My husband and I made the trek from a town north of Boston to NYC due to a job situation about every other week late 2010-2011. It can be exhausting, epecially in the winter. After trying Amtrak a few times, we still found we preferred to drive to Stamford, CT, park there, and take the train the rest of the way in.

I'd never try to live half way between the two cities. You'll never get a break from the long commute that way. A couple of towns you might want to look at in MA are Sharon, Mansfield, and Easton. I agree that you are much likelier to find a town with a rural feel within commuting distance to Boston. I'm originally from CT, and can't think of anything equivalent that's within easy commuting distance to NYC.

New Milford, Brookfield, ct, Danbury, ct
Madison,ct

I would opt for a town just outside of Boston where you can connect with the local public transit (called the "T" in Boston speak). If you need to go to NYC you can: a) drive, b) fly from Logan to Laguardia in 45 minutes, or c) take the Amtrak train. You can also go by bus.

Trying to live in CT might turn out to be a big mistake. I would advise living either at the NYC end or the Boston end. I prefer Boston for residency - less pricey than NYC and easier to get around in my opinion.

The suburbs of Boston are very expensive, nearly equal to the cost of properties in the CT suburbs close to NYC.

fwiw, and I don't have a horse in this race: The CT neighbor to the Left of me travels to Boston 2x a week and the neighbor to the Right of me travels to NYC 3x a week for work. They live in central CT because of the convenience to their home offices and the (relatively) affordable housing.

Hi Deb,

It would be helpful to know how often you'd be traveling to Boston vs. NYC. There are actually quite a few affordable cities between the two of them and Amtrak runs along the route. If you need to be in NYC more often than Boston, it would make sense to live somewhere outside New Haven, which has a metro hub into NYC and will also connect you to Boston. I disagree with those suggesting living outside of Boston (I live in Mass, btw) - it's very expensive in that area of the state. Plenty of good alternatives to the western part and you can take the Mass Pike into Boston or catch the train.

Of course Boston is a major airport but a HUGE pain in the butt - Hartford airport is much more accessible and about 45 minutes from western mass or central CT. Your best option is to check the Mass Pike (route 90), Interstate 91 and 84 - these are the major arteries between Boston/Hartford/NYC - and figure out where you'll need to travel most to determine your best living situation. Best of luck.

How often are we talking about traveling to each place? Is this a daily commute? Or once a month? Or what?

I loved living in western Massachusetts, the Amherst and Northampton area, would work for Boston but might be too far for NYC.

Personally Connecticut is the only state I've ever lived in (includes Calif, CT, New Hampshire, VT, Washington) which I did NOT like at all.

The outskirts of Boston could work for what you seek but not exactly "rural".

Amherst and Northampton area, would work for Boston but might be too far for NYC.
-----------------------------------------------------

And impossible to commute to NYC in any practical way from either Amherst and Northampton.


You didn't like the entire state of Connecticut, suze?? Where'd you live? Bridgeport? Willimantic?

Norwalk. And yes I admit I have an unreasonable prejudice against the state of CT. I know there are nice parts of it.

Re western Mass, that's why I asked how often. If it was only a couple times a month, it would widen the geographic area. If it's needing to get to both those cities every week, i agree not practical.

I see. Norwalk's one of those almost, but not quite, NYC/CT suburbs. It's not my favorite part of the state either.

I'd like to point out that northern New England gets more snow but it seems like we (NH) get snow when southern New England gets ice storms. I'd rather have snow. Friends in Vernon and Ellington CT (northern) were out of power for days last winter.

The friend in Tolland who complained about the high cost of living in CT (grew up in NH) ended up choosing to retire in Sommers CT.

It really depends on how often you commute and how far you are willing to travel. I am surprised by the number of people on the 6am bus from Concord NH who work in Boston. When we worked in Boston it was great to be able to commute by train and subway. I would not want to drive on the interstates during rush hour.

Your friends in Vernon and Ellington were out of power for over a week in August (Hurricane) and another week in October (snow storm) after two freakish storms. It was quite awful.

Somers is very rural, University of Connecticut is close by.

That's how we ended up in Norwalk. My Dad was commuting to NYC by train at the time.

I still say it depends how often they need to be in each city, and whether it would more often be NY or Boston, or equally, to figure out the closest location that will offer what they seek.

I disagree that there are no towns near Boston with a "rural" feel. The towns I mentioned upthread, especially Sharon and Easton, have very quiet, small town feel. Sharon only has a 25 or 30 minute train ride into Boston. It has a lake and is close to Borderland state park. The housing stock there is probably roughly equivalent to Avon, CT, not Greenwich and other commuter towns into NYC. It's also far cheaper than Brookline, Chestnut Hill, etc, but with a small town feel that they don't have, and still an easy commute into Boston.

I haven't been there for a while, but would Rhode Island give the future New Englander another option? How are taxes/housing/train access in RI compared to CT and MA? Local posters to the area are welcome to reply.

Thanks for the great info everyone, very helpful!