MILTON /Church Street
Family-friendly and 'accessible to everything'

By MAUREEN MCCARTHY
For The Patriot Ledger Area: 13.2 square miles

POPULATION
2000: 26,062
2006: 26,500
Density: 2,023 res./square mile
Median age: 41
Median household income: $88,377

FINANCES
Tax rate: $10.84 res./$20.34 comm.
Town budget: $80.6 million
Avg. water/sewer bill: $1,445/year

HOUSING
Median home price
2006: $455,000
2007: $428,700
Median condo price
2006: $400,000
2007: $325,000

SCHOOLS
Number of students: 3,724
Number of teachers: 266
H.S. grads to 4-yr. college: 75%
H.S. grads to 2-yr. college: 11%
Median SAT score (2006): 1550

Year after year, storm after winter storm, residents in East Milton’s Church Street neighborhood make it a habit to help each other.

“People are always helping with plowing,” resident Karen Stockbridge said. “We can look outside our window and someone is plowing, and it’s always reciprocal. If we’re not home, neighbors will plow us out.”

Stockbridge and her husband, Steven, 41, moved into their Church Street home in 1997. They are originally from Dorchester and were high school sweethearts. They are raising their five children – Kate, 12, Danny, 10, John, 7, Maggie, 5 and Matthew, 3 – in Milton.

“It is a great little neighborhood with lots of school-aged kids,” Stockbridge said. “…with very friendly neighbors.”

This sought-after neighborhood is located off of Adam Street near the Quincy border and includes Franklin, Howe and Wood streets and stretches east to Belcher Circle and Bates Road. It is just a short stroll to many shops and restaurants in East Milton Square and convenient to Boston.

“What I like is that it is accessible to everything,” said Stockbridge, a nurse who works in Boston. “You can walk to the Milton Fruit Center, the bank, Dunkin’ Donuts, the post office and there are a lot of specialty shops.”

The neighborhood also is walking distance to Andrews Park and the newly constructed Collicot-Cunningham Elementary School on Edge Hill Road.

Robert McAuliffe of Duhallow Real Estate in Quincy said the neighborhood, which he grew up in, offers various home styles and is attractive to buyers for many reasons.

“The styles range from capes, bungalows and colonials and on Bates Road, there are some Victorians,” McAuliffe said. “There are a few two-families, but this is mainly a residential, one-family neighborhood. ”

Within the past year, homes have sold from $283,000 to $650,000 – ranging from 850- to 2,700-square-feet of living space.

“People move in and typically don’t move out,” McAuliffe said. “They put on additions because it is so convenient to East Milton Square with close proximity to Boston.”

Currently, an 1800-square-foot home on Wood Road is on the market for $329,000, he said.

“It is a neighborhood people move into because of its location and because it is family oriented,” McAuliffe said. “It is a desirable area and if homes are priced right, they go quickly.”