[shados]

Define "far from the city". A 3br for 500k is available (if on the low-ish end) for Whaltam, which Boston folks consider to be in the middle of nowhere, but if it wasn't for traffic/transportation problems, wouldn't be all that far (it's not very far at all if it wasn't for the traffic issues). A friend of mine just got a 1BR 50 minutes away for <150k (and it wasnt even a fixer upper, and is on the commuter rail).

50 minutes is "far", but it's far from insane...

IMO Boston has a lot of places that can be developed within 30-45 minutes before we really need to start tearing everything down. (There's 3 high density development in construction literally in my backyard, so I'm not saying that because I have anything to gain from it, either).

The biggest thing to fix about the Boston area right now is the entrance from the suburb into Cambridge...the Alewife area is ridiculous, but that's what happens when you built a ton of mid/high rise without proper planning of infrastructure.