E-Mail This Article to a Friend Within reach Affordable towns near Boston for would-be home buyers BY DAVID VALDES GREENWOOD

In February, when the Massachusetts Association of Realtors reported that the average Greater Boston home sold for more than $500,000 — yes, a half-million bucks — last year, the discouraging news for young (and typically first-time) homebuyers was met with little outcry. Why? Because we already knew that most livable city spaces were far from affordable. For the most part, Boston house-hunters could just forget single-family homes. But even the available condos tended to be pricey and small. Who wants to pay $400,000 for a 500-foot condo conversion sandwiched between two others in a characterless building on a street whose charm has yet to catch up to its prices?

Not surprisingly, enterprising buyers are looking elsewhere. But Cambridge is no help, bordering on the $500,000 average itself, and even the city formerly known as Slummerville now has million-dollar home sales.

But that doesn’t mean there aren’t any good options nearby, towns where you can afford a new pad and still be close enough to the city to pop in for a show at the Middle East or a game at Fenway. You just need to expand your vision.

The Phoenix checked out recent real-estate listings to see what you could get for under $400,000 in six cities, three directly served by subway, and three more by commuter rail. (For reference, a $350,000 home, with five percent down, at six percent interest, would bring you in at just under $2000 a month for a mortgage — comparable to what you might pay in rent downtown.) And we’ve given you thumbnail sketches of each town’s amenities, so you can size up the potential fit.

Down the line: Affordable cities on the subway

Just a 20-minute zip down the Orange Line, Malden is one of the nation’s oldest communities (celebrating its 355th birthday this year), and has endured with its ability to adapt to changing times. The onetime Pilgrim bastion is now ethnically diverse (the population is 15 percent Asian, with slightly smaller black and Latino communities), with a growing number of younger couples moving in next to retirees who have lived in Malden since childhood. The 56,000 Maldonians have a median household income of $45,000, with the average age coming in at 35.

Malden offers a roughly equal mix of condos and single-family homes for would-be buyers. Studios may still coast in at under $100,000, though that happens less and less. Most condos (one- and two-bedrooms) fall in the high $100ks to mid $200ks. And if you’re going to pay more than $250,000 for a condo, you might well consider a house, with recent offerings including a two-bedroom single-family home for that amount, and a seven-room colonial for $300,000.

Existing amenities include 30 parks, plus the Middlesex Fells Reservation and Fellsmere Pond. There are no theaters, and restaurants aren’t plentiful, but Hugh O’Neill’s, a casually upscale Irish pub with live jam sessions, draws crowds, and Saigon Noodle offers authentic Vietnamese without pretension. A proposal for a riverside business hub and upcoming graduate housing have the city abuzz, and if the plans pan out, those buying now will reap the rewards of a renewed community.

Quincy isn’t exactly a best-kept secret at this point; it just strikes some as too far outside Boston to feel the city’s energy. But at only seven miles from downtown, with Red Line connections shooting commuters right into the Hub, it hardly feels like the ’burbs. Plus, it has something that Boston, coastal location notwithstanding, lacks: easy access to the beach.

For under $300,000, buyers are mostly looking at condos, typically larger than what’s available in overstuffed neighborhoods like Davis Square and the North End. Offerings for $250,000 recently included a pad with a pool and tennis-court access, and another with three bedrooms. If you can stretch into the $300ks, your reward might be a freestanding house: a four-bedroom colonial for $369,000 and an ample two-family for 20 grand more.

So what do 88,000 Quincy homies do for fun? They eat out at dozens of restaurants, many of them pizza shops or chain franchises, though there’s something for every taste, from Grumpy White’s on Sea Street, where everything is under $15 (including a prime-rib dinner), to the upscale regional cuisine of Raffael’s on Enterprise Drive. On nice days, locals also enjoy the 5800-acre Blue Hills Reservation, an MDC park that offers skiing, horseback riding, hiking, tennis, and even golf, or they soak up rays on sandy Wollaston Beach.

The Blue Line never gets respect. Maybe it’s because people associate it with stressful trips to Logan Airport, or perhaps it’s the association with the seamy-sounding sport of dog racing. But the Blue Line is also a link to many distinct communities, including Winthrop, an old-school coastal town that allows you to feel completely disconnected from the urban hustle of the city its 18,000 residents can see from their windows.

Completely ringed by the ocean, this promontory of a town is slightly more expensive than some of its neighbors, but still more affordable than anything closer to downtown. Condos can start as low as $179,000, and run up into the $300ks, but often they come with ocean views or walk-to-beach locales. A rare freestanding home will push quite near the $400ks.

With a population that is more than 90 percent white, Winthrop isn’t a place to find much ethnic diversity. Its Italian roots are evident in the spate of restaurants with names like Paesan’s, Papa Luigi’s, and Villaggio. Nature-lovers take advantage of the Belle Isle Marsh Reservation, the Deer Island Park, and the many inlets and beaches. And, of course, if you buy a home here, you can blow all the money you save at either Wonderland Park or Suffolk Downs.

My baby takes the morning train: Nearby towns along the commuter rail

It’s not easy to maintain dignity in the face of a rap like "city of sin," but Lynn does what it can to rise above its rhymed reputation, prompted by the number of whorehouses located there during World War II. (The birthplace of Christian Science, you’d at least think it would get props for clean living, right?) Today, it’s better known as a very ethnically diverse city of 90,000, home to sinners and saints of all races.

No matter what eternal path you’re on, your earthly options are affordable here. Condo prices start at under $100,000, and every dollar more puts you closer to the ocean, which outlines the city. Free-standing homes are easy on the budget too; recent offerings have included a three-bedroom with yard for $259,000, and a two-family for $300,000.

In your cheap new digs, you can explore a panoply of ethnic-cuisine choices unparalleled anywhere else in this area. In addition to plentiful Chinese and Mexican offerings, you can sample the cuisine of Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, and El Salvador. You can work off your new diet in Lynn Woods, America’s second-largest municipal park, and the golf course on its border. And the 165-boat marina and two-mile beach provide coastal-recreation options so good, they might just be sinful.

Medford is one of those ’burbs that seem completely independent of the city and yet still not too removed. A sprawling community of green lawns and Victorian homes, it has a classic New England–town flavor. But with Tufts University anchoring its Somerville side, it feels connected to the city as well. Medford’s 56,000 residents (where women outnumber men by five percent) lean toward the professional, with an average income of $50,000-plus.

Home prices, of course, are slightly more expensive to match. But if you can afford something in the $300ks, you’ll have plenty of options and space to boot. Among recent offerings in that range: a three-bedroom house with pool and Jacuzzi, and a three-bedroom colonial with yard. The $200ks will garner you mostly condos, with one- and two-bedroom townhouses in recent listings.

Living here will make you part of a town with a solid school system and community pride. Its quaint downtown features an independent bookseller alongside the river. Your dining options vary from the upscale and highly praised Bistro 5, in West Medford, to the Old Country Buffet in the (slightly sketchy-feeling) Meadow Glen Mall. You might catch a local stage production in the historic Chevalier Theatre, built by the WPA in 1939. Or get some exercise in one of the town’s 19 parks, its MDC pool, or Wright’s Pond.

Just nine miles from Boston, Melrose nonetheless feels like another world. Its timeless Main Street is dotted with local businesses, and green space fills the town. With only 27,000 residents, it has no trouble maintaining its small-town feel, but without the overt provincialism found elsewhere — perhaps because many of its residents are professionals, a fair share of whom commute to the city.

Surprisingly for a town of relative wealth (the average income is over $60,000), housing is still affordable. Condos were available in the $100ks and low $200ks, many in the smattering of Italianate apartment buildings that dot the town. Among the offerings in the higher range: a seven-room colonial with fireplace and yard for $375,000.

You won’t be down the street from a movie theater or much else in the way of nightlife here, but you can eat well. In addition to plentiful pizza parlors, you can enjoy excellent seafood at Turner Fisheries, comfort food at Blues Diner, and pastries at Sweet Tooth, all on Main Street. (Don’t look for ethnic food here, though: this town is 95 percent white.) And natural beauty abounds, from Ell Pond, in the center of things, to the multiple parks that form a "green belt" around Melrose. It’s not just the price that will make you forget Boston.

David Valdes Greenwood can be reached at impersonalstuff@aol.com