Weymouth

Webb Memorial State Park in Weymouth offers a view of the harbor and Boston skyline. (Erik Jacobs for the Boston Globe/File 2008)

Median home prices: Single family, $295,000; condominiums, $185,000
Residential tax rate: $9.08
Average tax bill: $3,143
Choice location: The lower end of the Fore River shoreline offers several pocket beaches.
Cocktail party nugget: Armed forces members with ties to the town have been awarded five Medals of Honor since 1863.
SOURCES: Warren Group, Town of Weymouth, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Weymouth Historical Society, US Census.

THE GOODS: This is a middle-class bedroom community you can get to by car, boat, bus - and train. The MBTA has three commuter rail stops here. Home to South Shore Hospital, a regional, nonprofit health center, Weymouth is the second-oldest community in Massachusetts. Its heritage remains in rambling Commercial Street, which follows a Native American path. Got a favorite sport? Weymouth has a youth program for it. While there is no shortage of plaza-style commercial businesses, the community has many unique, locally owned places to eat. Pizza shops, dram shops, and corner stores are everywhere with greater commercial development in its four squares - Bicknell, Jackson, Weymouth Landing, and Columbian. The former South Weymouth Naval Air Station promises mega-development in the near future.

THE PROS: If you want affordable condos close to Boston, this is a good place to search, with prices ranging into the mid-$300,000s for newer construction, and down to the mid-$100,000s for smaller garden-style units. Supply is expected to grow as the real estate market recovers. Starter homes and longtime family properties - Capes, split-level ranches, New England farmhouses - abound. Currently pricing is topping off in the $615,000 range and a manufactured home is listing for $125,000. Weymouth has real neighborhoods that radiate off major roads, and a welter of smallish cul-de-sacs.

THE CONS: With most of Weymouth built out, home lots can feel small. Rush hour on routes 3 and 18 can be crushing. While some grades notched positive results in the 2007 MCAS, the town's sixth grades last year scored poorly.

JOHN R. ELLEMENT