Michigander in Mass

Three, heck, no, even seven years ago, if you had told me I'd eventually live--let alone buy a house--in Somerville, I would've told you to check yourself into the funny farm. While it wasn't explicitly on the list of places not to live given to us by a dear friend of my mother and the only soul we knew in Boston when we moved here, I'm sure it was only because a few areas (like Davis Square and the Tufts University campus--where John DiBiaggio reigned until just a couple years ago) have in recent decades slightly redeemed the seedy reputation the city had acquired as far as I can tell.

Now I live in a condo in East Somerville (ironically, right next to a halfway house--which, for the record, is more accurately described as a quarter-way house--giving my wife and me an easy out if the need ever arises). Somerville is the most densely populated city in New England, and one of the densest in the U.S. It grew tremendously in the late 1800s and early 1900s, when concepts such as urban planning were reserved for them thar fancy places like Boston and New York. It is Boston's Highland Park, to give an analogy that may help my suburban friends from Michigan. Gritty but still mostly residential.

I'll post more about our experiences as time goes on. But, yet again for the record (can you tell I'm in PR?), home ownership is the way to go!