Part 1: In The Doldrums

Part 2: Things Are Looking Up?

Part 3: Our Plan, Currently

Months later: the new new plan!

So you want to read about the Swift Idea?

Actually, I can't entirely take credit for it. It was truly serendipity, something that seems to rule our lives.

Change of State
One day, the only sunny day (yet still wind chill 35) of the trip, I said... how about going to the other side of PVD, into Mass? Brilliant idea, though I didn't know it at the time. Immediately, crossing into North/South Attleboro, the tenor of the area changed 1000%. More modern stores, cleaner streets, looked more cosmopolitan in general. Guess that's what happens when you have a T connection to Boston.

That first day, we picked up one of those Real Estate booklets you see in the grocery store. While pigging out on Friendly's ice cream, we flipped through and saw 9-14 acre parcels of land on sale for $100K - $200K. In the same book, we read about modular home building for $100K. What a deal! Better yet, the available land was in a town called Berkley (note only 2 E's). Imagine, telling our friends in California that we paid $200K for 14 acres in Berkley...

The next day, we had to drive to Berkley. We stumbled upon Dighton, the neighboring town, which is close to the slightly more built-up Taunton, which is still rather quaint. (Yes, we're 'taunton' you with these deals!) Completely aimless, we went to the Dighton town hall to find... someone? It was a random stop. Had a long chat with the assessor, Carol Beauregard, who was extremely helpful in telling us towns that were nice, towns to avoid, etc. Dighton sounds like quite the deal! In fact, it's in the early stages of tempting developers, though they have laws to keep the rate of building slow. (Yes, they could be overruled if town meetings were flooded by developers. But don't burst our bubble yet.)

So in that case... if we could get a big parcel and build our own house, each year, we could peel off an acre and sell to a developer. (Mind you, the small plots sell for $150K, also... hm? Hopefully they won't figure out their math before we get to it.) Residual income, anyone??

Whereever we went in the area, people praised Dighton, Mass. Our first day there, however, was the day that 6 inches of snow was predicted for the area, so we left early to avoid the mess. (Big whoop, we got maybe three, and it didn't start accumulating until 10pm.) The next day, we met with an actual realtor, recommended by Carol as a "really good guy." (John Treacy, out of Taunton, if you're interested.) Not a whole lot available in our price range for what we want right now, but he's keeping his eyes and email list open for us. Even though we were in the very beginning stages of looking, he spent 1 1/2 hours talking, driving us around, even showing us a property (that was a bit above what we were willing to pay).Property value should eventually go up in the area, since while it's not directly connected by train to Boston, that's one of the areas being considered for the next connection. Then again, it could be like BART to San Jose. Who knows.

More about property value.
Here's something else that makes the Dighton area tempting. Recently, Mass started a new standardized test in their grade schools. Mass schools are good in general; on top of that, the Dighton-Rehoboth district is the only district in the state in which all kids passed the test. While we aren't kid-people, this may (??) do a lot for resale value.

But a Frightening California-ism...
Of the several women we spoke to, who appeared to be mid-40's, they all had the same reaction when telling a story of surprise: "And I was, like, Omigod!" (And I was, like, move to Simi Valley!) Yeah. I was used to hearing that from my college students, but from middle-aged women.. hm. And in light of my education comment above.... hm.....

So Is It Liveable?
So we found this quaint community, where the people seem to have traveled outside of their homwtown for the most part (the new subdivisions, if nothing else, are attracting young Bostonians), and large, wooded plots are still available. But what about other amenities?

I'm concerned about places to run that aren't too redundant (since I have this crazy notion to train for another marathon), and it appears to be okay on that? We also checked out some shopping areas to get a feel for the locals/clientele. Let's just say that the local supermarket is somewhere between Whole Foods and Safeway/King Kullen. A pleasant surprise! And for other things, there are malls nearby with Walmart, Target, and such.

Okay, I'll quit my rambling about the area. You can ask us more about it if you're at all interested. We didn't quite have the time to thoroughly explore, since we found the area halfway through the trip, but we'd have to check out property before buying, anyway. (Oh yeah: you may remember our initial plan was rent for a year, buy if we like it? At these prices... buy immediately, and if we hate it, rent it out a year later.)

So What's Our Plan?