Beverly: the town that felt like home from the start

Beverly straddles the line between city and coast, and that is exactly what makes it interesting. Downtown Beverly is a real walking downtown: the restored Cabot theater anchors Cabot Street, and galleries, breweries, and coffee shops fill the blocks around it. The Endicott College campus sits right on the harbor, which is how I got here in the first place.

A few miles east, Beverly Farms and Prides Crossing feel like a different world: quiet, oceanfront, with grand old houses set back on tree-lined roads and the commuter rail running right through. Same town, two very different lifestyles, and a buyer who knows the difference can find exactly the right fit.

Beverly Depot is the junction of the Newburyport and Rockport commuter rail lines, which makes it one of the easier commutes on the North Shore to Boston's North Station. You get the beach towns without giving up the train, and you can be in Salem in minutes or walking a beach in Manchester-by-the-Sea before the morning coffee is gone.

Lynch Park, Dane Street Beach, and the harbor walks give the town a genuinely coastal feel, and the Fourth of July here draws the whole region. For a home buyer, the variety of housing stock, from downtown condos to Farm estates, is the real draw.