Great Towns near Concord, MA?

If your price range is fixed I'd look into town houses/condos. It's unlikely you'll find much in this area that's a decent 3-bd single family. Alternatively, if you're handy you may find a decent sized fixer-upper. Or, to be honest, rent for a while to get a better feel for where you want to live and what you'll need to give on (price vs size vs town).
I suspect you'll be priced out of the housing market in Concord but you might find a rental. West Concord is great as far as small town charm and walk-ability. The rental market is small but you might find something. Check craigslist and boston.com rentals. Or, I'll throw in a pitch for my town, Arlington. It would be a reverse commute to Concord so it'd be 15-25 minutes depending on what part of Arlington to what part of Concord. It's very walkable, good schools, loads of families and stuff to do. Suburban but close enough to Boston to go in easily. Lots of parks and a great bike path through town.

Hi K., Good news and bad news, You can get everything you want but probably not at the price you want. It is expensive to live here. You will probably have to compromise somewhere. Try going on this site and researching homes in different areas. http://www.zillow.com
Towns that are close to Concord are Lexington, Maynard, Acton, Sudbury. A bit further away are Waltham (a city), Littleton, Westford or Stow. When you are looking, make sure you look at the square footage. I checked Maynard and they had three bedrooms at your price but the sq. ft. was under 1000. After you make a few decisions about location and price, you can look at the school systems. Good Luck,

I second what Beth said. It's going to be tough to find exactly what you are looking for at that price around here.

That said, we live in Framingham and love it. It's the biggest town in MA, and there's a huge amount of diversity in the housing market. It ranges from small apartments to huge mansions to farms. We live in a middle-of-the-road very suburban neighborhood of mid-size ranches. We're about 1 mile away from an amazing state park. About 2 miles from the farm where we joined a CSA. We're not a walkable distance to a "town center" but we're a short drive (5-10 minutes) from several other town centers - Natick, Wellesley, Sudbury. So far we've been happy with the schools. Like everywhere we're feeling the pinch of the economy, so I think you'd be hard pressed to find anywhere around here that are telling you that schools are getting better, not worse, but again, I've been happy so far. We're about 20 minutes from Concord, and about 35-40 minutes from Boston (without traffic).

Again, if you have any questions, feel free to message me.

Hi K.,

Since you would be coming from California, you may not be in for the sticker shock that families from other states experience when they move here. (I'm a Realtor who has lived in this area for 30 years, so I'm used to it!)

How much of a commute would your husband be willing to do? The closer to Concord, the more expensive the homes are. There are some towns that meet or come close to your criteria, but with the explosion of shopping malls the quaint town centers are getting harder to find.

Also, how much room do you need? Do you care about style of house?

Anyway, to answer your question, some towns to consider would be:

Littleton
Bedford
Harvard
Bolton
Stow
Acton or Boxborough(a little more expensive)

Let me know if you have more questions, or would like some listings of current properties to get an idea of what's available that might appeal to you.

D.