Don't like power outages? Consider the town you buy in
OK, no one is going to hunt for a house on the basis of whether the area is prone to power outages.
Still, as we endure the second week-long power outage in three months, it might be an issue at least considering.
And, oddly enough, if you are so inclined, there is a way to figure this out.
As you look at a community's schools and other services, also check out whether the town runs its own electric utility or relies on one of the big power companies, NStar and National Grid.
If it does, there's a good bet that your lights will be coming on much faster than those of your friends in the town next door serviced by one the big utilities.
While the big utilities lumbered for a week to get the lights back on after Irene, towns with their own electric utilities had everyone powered back up in a matter of hours to a day or two at the most.
Wellesley, Belmont, Concord, as well as Braintree, Taunton and North Attleboro, all towns with their own municipal utilities, turned out to be beacons of lights during the last storm.
As the list shows, it is a wide group of communities doing this, not just a few upscale suburbs.
And the same pattern is now repeating itself in the aftermath of the freak, pre-Halloween snow storm, with the towns that control - and repair - their own poles and lines getting the lights back on while residents in other towns shiver in the dark.
Here's a link to a list of the 41 towns across the state that have their own municipal utilities. It may not be enough to sway a home purchase, but it is certainly worth looking at.
