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I see from my logs that people have been landing here from searches for "reviews of oak point middleboro ma" and the like. If that's how you got here, congratulations: you found a review.

My wife and I moved here in December of 2005. We had been looking at "senior" retirement communities all over Massachusetts for about two years prior - we didn't want condominiums, we didn't want yard work (but did want our own yard), we did want single floor living, and for two years we just were not finding what we wanted.

Then one day Oak Point Homes popped up in one of my Internet searches. I don't know how I'd missed them before that; incompetent webmaster maybe? I don't know, but the minute I saw it I yelled to my wife "This looks like it's exactly what we want!"

That was late July of 2005. Within a day or two we were in our car traveling down Route 495 to Middleboro. I have to admit that our first experience with Rte 44 and the rotary wasn't pleasant: there were road repairs in progress at that time and it wasn't much fun getting here. Normally neither Rte 44 or the rotary are particularly nasty (except sometimes at rush hour, but even then it's easily avoided), but they were that day.

Once we got here our mood changed. We were instantly impressed. This was indeed what we were looking for. We visited several more times, and then, completely convinced, put down a deposit. At that time we were expecting to move in the spring of 2006, which gave us a fairly relaxed feeling about everything.

Ah, well. An opportunity came up to buy a home on Lantern Lane - the original purchaser hadn't been able to sell his present house, so his deal fell through. It wasn't exactly the house we wanted, but it was close, and the location, the lot size and the view were perfect. We gulped three or four times, took out a monstrous mortgage, bought it, and accelerated the pace of trying to sell our home.

I'm not going to bore you with that horror show. We had to reduce our asking price substantially to get a buyer in November, there were all kinds of hangups and delays (with us, not Oak Point), but we did finally clear everything up and moved in two days before Xmas.

It snowed our first night here. Lantern Lane was still partly empty then, so we watched pretty snowflakes drift down under the streetlights to an untraveled street. Then we went to bed, our first night in our new home.

About four AM I woke up to hear soft sounds outside. I walked to the living room window and saw.. people shoveling my porch steps. Oh, my, I'm going to love this, I thought, and crawled back to bed thinking, go ahead, snow all you want.. I don't care.

For a few months we had to put up with dust and noisy contractors as the last few homes were finished. We got to know our neighbors and started to learn our way around the Middleboro area. We had been very close to supermarkets where we lived before, so the eight mile drive to Hannafords (5% senior citizen discount on Tuesday!) seemed very long to us, but really there are a lot of stores to choose from and they aren't that far way. We've learned the back roads and shortcuts and the times of day to avoid the rotary.. we do wish there were a close convenience store for milk and bread, but maybe that will come some day.

So are we happy here? Absolutely. We had some minor problems with our home, but Oak Point staff always responded and fixed things to our satisfaction. You do have to adjust your expectations a little: these homes aren't "perfect", but they are well built. We love single floor living, we love that the grass cutting and snow shoveling is not our problem. I love walking through Oak Point: it's peaceful and quiet now (well, stay out of phase 7 which is is still in progress) and really pretty. Middleboro itself is a bit economically depressed right now, but we hope that will change for the better, and even with that, there's no shortage of nearby shopping malls, restaurants and so on.

We love the clubhouse. Always something going on there; I use the gym (great gym!) almost daily and play poker Thursday nights. My wife does Bingo on Friday nights, we take some of the Oak Point sponsored bus trips, we've been to some of the dances and Friday night movies - Oak Point really is exactly what we wanted.

Most of all we enjoy our neighbors. A moment's thought will tell you why: we are all around the same age (this is an over 55 community, remember?), we're all approximately in the same economic state (if we were much richer or much poorer, we'd be somewhere else), so it's not hard to find folks you have things in common with. Some are retired, some still work, but we're all much more alike than we are different. Down here on Lantern Lane we've had a number of block parties - great fun, drag some grills over to the gazebo, bring over a boom box, add food, drink and people: what a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon!

If you are looking at Oak Point, drive or walk around and ask people questions. The postal center is a good place to catch us, and almost all of us will be happy to talk to you. It isn't anything they put in the water: we really do love living here!

If this brief review didn't answer all your questions, feel free to write to me at the address below. I'm not an employee of Oak Point Homes, not a salesperson, just a homeowner happy to help.

I have had some people contact me with questions; I'll post them here as the answers may help others.

• What about the Casino?
  
  Yes, it will be very close to Oak Point. It's not a bad thing: it is going to be tough around here while they fix Rte 44 (but that was going to happen with or without the Casino) but after that, local traffic should improve for us - the stoplights on Rte 44 will all be gone.. and there will be NO casino access except from Rte 44, so our roads should not be affected.
  
  Also, our gas and electric rates should go DOWN after the Resort is built.
  
  
• What do utilities cost?
  
  They are reasonably low. We are paying less for electricity here than we were paying in Sharon (MA) where we came from. We used oil there, so I can't compare directly, but our gas bill is less than our oil bill was. Water is higher than it was in Sharon, but Sharon was much lower than the towns around us (because we were not in the MWRA).
  
  
• What are the taxes and fees?
  
  The sales office should be able to tell you that. The fee includes taxes, use of facilities, lawn mowing, snow plowing, trash pickup.. and you may be able to deduct some of the monthly fee in MA. Your lease spells out how it can be increased in accordance with the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
  
  On the "deductible" issue: a "tax guy" here said that the fee is deductible (MA only, not Federal), but someone else says it is not, so that's up in the air for me. If anyone knows the definitive answer, please let me know.
  
  
  Someone recently complained that I "sidestepped" the question of fees. That's not the case at all: I didn't say what the fees are because I simply don't know what they are currently.
  
  People who came here years ago pay less than my wife and I do. People who come now will probably be paying more, though I do not know that for sure. Again, the sales office can tell you exactly what the current fees are for new folks..
  
  
• What's the average age?
  
  I don't know. If I had to guess, I'd say late sixties - but there are a number of folk under 60 right on this street. We know some people in their late eighties too - and some of the young'uns would have a hard time keeping up with them!
  
  
• Are there many singles?
  
  Again, I do not know. There is a singles club that meets monthly, but I'm married and of course haven't attended. Unfortunately, we are at the age where we sometimes lose our spouses, and I do know people who have been widowed since coming here.. as in most places, you'll see mostly couples at dances and functions, but that doesn't always mean they live together.
  
  I did happen to walk by one of the Single's club meetings the other night; I think there were about fifteen people, perhaps a few more. They were busy, so I didn't interrupt to get more accurate information.
  
  
• Are you pressured to be socially active?
  
  Gosh, no. There are lots of clubs and activities available to you, and plenty of friendly people, but if you want to keep to yourself and watch movies at home, you aren't going to feel like you did something wrong..
  
  
• This is in the boonies!
  
  Well, yes and no. Yes, we are in the country, but there are large malls and shopping centers nearby. Plenty of restaurants, and when that Casino-Resort is built, we'll have world class entertainment on our doorstop. We aren't far from the Cape, from Boston and Providence, there are two nearby commuter rail stations, we have Oak Point sponsored bus trips weekly.. it's quiet here, but there's plenty to do close by.
  
  
• The houses are too close together!
  
  Was that a question? OK, yes, some homes are pretty close together. But some aren't. Our lot is almost 20,000 sf, and we have no one behind us or to the left and a big patch of lawn between us and the neighbor on our right. But even the more closely spaced homes are a lot better than most condos, right? Look around, ask questions: you can probably find what you want. There are often resale homes available also: one might be in just the location you want.
  
  

Comments:

Author: TonyLawrence Mon Jan 28 12:32:13 2008

I do keep getting email asking about the cost of utilities.

I'm not sure it makes sense for me to say what OUR costs are. We are careful of water usage, and only run sprinklers sparingly, so the appx. $300 we spent on water last year might be much lower than someone who uses sprinklers every day and higher than someone who just lets the grass go brown..

As to heat and electricity, we never use A/C and keep our thermostat low in the winter - it's usually set at 64 or below, 59 while we sleep.. I'm sure that's much lower than most people. On the other hand, I have a lot of computers running, so who knows?

Our bill last week (Jan 24th 2008) was $247 for electric and gas, but I'm not sure that means anything at all unless you live in the same size house and have the same heating habits we do. Previous month was $200, in August it was $70.00

Hope that helps but I'm not sure it does.

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