Andover, MA Real Estate And Community Resources Guide

Andover is an active community that blends the best of Massachusetts’ past and present. This historic and culturally rich town, founded in 1636, offers a quiet suburban and, in some parts, rural setting for its residents while maintaining a bustling downtown full of excellent shops, restaurants and meeting places. In addition, the town boasts historical sites, museums, a state forest, public transportation, wide-ranging community activities, topnotch public and private schools, and a thriving collection of high-profile companies. As such, Andover is an ideal place to live and raise a family.

With a wide selection of home styles and prices, Andover has many great properties suited to a variety of home buyers. For those hoping to capture Andover’s historical feel, there are many well-maintained colonial homes—grand or quaint—as well as several neighborhoods of historic, exclusively brick homes. Those who are looking for newer, more modern homes also have a beautiful selection to choose from. Andover has many modern homes as well as new construction. There are also opportunities to buy condominiums, townhouses and multi-unit rental properties.

As for what a home buyer might expect to spend, Andover’s mean and median single-family home sale prices for 2010 were $584,236 and $521,500 respectively. There is, however, quite a range of price categories encompassed in these figures. In 2010 high-end luxury homes in Andover brought in the year’s highest sales prices, which topped off at $2 million, while low-priced homes sold for as little as $110,000.

Whatever style or price an Andover homebuyer chooses, their town provides a high quality of living. To begin it offers location. Andover residents, which number about 30,000, reside at the center of Merrimack Valley and enjoy convenient access to Boston, the North Shore and New Hampshire. Residents are just twenty miles from Boston and have in-town access to interstates 93 and 495. This allows Andover residents a thirty-minute commute to Boston, a twenty minute commute to interstate 95 and direct routes to points west of Boston. In addition, Andover residents have convenient access to routes 28, 113, 114, and 125 for commutes to points all over the North Shore and Merrimack Valley. Logan International Airport and Manchester-Boston Regional Airport are just a thirty-minute drive as well. Andover’s two Commuter Rail stations also provide residents with a direct route to Boston’s North Station, and the Merrimack Valley’s bus service provides regional and Boston-only commuter service.

Location, however, is just the beginning of what Andover has to offer. Although it is a town, Andover has a wide variety of convenient public services more akin to a small city. Its residents benefit from full-time police and fire protection, a full-service public works department, waste pickup, recycling, snow removal, public health services, and environmental protection programs. Additionally, the town manages its own water supply and purification systems.

There are also various public programs, places and recreational amenities in Andover. The town has a full-service library located in its downtown district. Parks, playgrounds and recreational programs are found throughout the town; and special youth, elder and veteran services are also available. Plus, the town of Andover operates Pomp’s Pond, which is a recreational area providing swimming, picnicking and boating. Andover residents also enjoy in-town access to the 3,000-acre Harold Parker State Forest, which provides plenty of outdoor activities, including camping, fishing and biking.

On top of these public services and amenities, Andover is home to some of the nation’s oldest and greatest schools. The town’s public school system, which is among the oldest in the nation, was originally founded in 1647 when the state was still the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Currently, Andover’s public school system consists of six elementary schools, three middle schools and one central high school. For private K-8 education, Andover offers the Pike, Montessori and St. Augustine Schools. Andover’s most well-known private school, however, is the nationally and internationally-renowned Phillips Academy, a preparatory high school that boasts alumni such as both Presidents Bush and Samuel Morse, the inventor of Morse Code.

In addition to offering great residential benefits, Andover also has a wealth of thriving commercial businesses that help make Andover a more economically stable community. The town itself has commercial roots that reach back to the 1700s, the days of mill manufacturing along the Merrimack River, when Andover became home to the region’s first gunpowder mill. Andover has evolved over its long commercial history and now attracts businesses in modern industries such as biotech, defense contracting, finance, and computer engineering. Among its notable commercial residents are Raytheon, Putnam Investments, Comverse Network Systems, and Gillette. The Internal Revenue Service also has a campus located in Andover.

Great businesses, schools and public services as well as a rich history, beautiful esthetics and convenient location make Andover a well-rounded community and thus an excellent choice for many homebuyers.

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