Burlington

Mill Pond is a leafy suburban neighborhood on the northeastern edge of Burlington. From hidden reservoirs and secluded paths to lush wetlands and snowshoeing trails, it’s brimming with unexpected finds. “You get all the amenities and great features of Burlington, yet you have access to great trails where you can walk and ride bikes,” says Lorie Glantz, a local Realtor and co-founder of the Top Home Team who opened the Coldwell Banker office in town and lived in Mill Pond for 25 years. “A lot of people walk their dogs back there, and you get to experience the calmness of nature and the water and yet be close to Boston.” Some benefits to living in Mill Pond — and Burlington in general — are hard to see on a map. “It’s really the people of Burlington that make the town really amazing,” Glantz says. “It’s the kindness of the people here. I’ve lived in a lot of places. I’m from upstate New York, I’ve lived in New Jersey and Palo Alto in California. I’ve never made friends faster, and those people that I met when my kids were 18 months old, I’m still friends with now that our kids are in their 20s. It’s a very inclusive community, we take really good care of each other, and it’s a great mixture of people.” Ranch-style houses and Cape Cods, spacious colonials and split-levels and luxurious contemporary-style homes make up much of the neighborhood, often sitting on just under half an acre. Some homes date back as far as 1930, but there are also many newer constructions. Three-bedroom fixer-uppers start around $700,000, but large five-bedroom homes on half an acre can climb to nearly $2 million. And Glantz says prices are on the rise. “Since 2019, it has gone up 19.6%,” she says. “From 2014 until the end of 2023, the prices went up 46%.” This means that there’s a lot of equity-building potential in Mill Pond, but competition is fierce, in part because people rarely want to leave. “People tend to have bought in the 1970s, and I would say that out of 15 homes on the street I used to live on, there were 12 original owners still there,” Glantz says. “So once people get a home over there, they tend not to leave until they have a life event that necessitates them to change.” Children attend one of four elementary schools like Fox Hill Elementary School before moving on to Marshall Simonds Middle School and Burlington High School. All three schools have A-minus ratings and Burlington High’s arts programs are popular, with the theater putting on two major shows a year where even parents pitch in to help build sets. At 140 acres, the Mill Pond Conservation Area is the neighborhood’s largest and most popular green space. Designated trails provide spots where residents can ski and snowshoe, and camping and horseback riding are both allowed with permission. Hikers enjoy the 2-mile looping trail that winds through the woods and near wetlands. “I would take the kids down to the Mill Pond on a Sunday afternoon and we’d skip stones across the reservoir,” Glantz says. “It’s just a very positive thing because I used to do it with my parents as a kid. And just enjoying the trees and the sunshine and the water was an amazing experience.” Nearby, Rahanis Park is also popular for its playground, multipurpose athletic fields and a dog park surfaced with artificial turf and pea stone to keep playing dogs relatively clean. Residents pick up groceries at Shaw’s or Raja & Rana’s Indian Market, a cozy store filled with authentic ingredients and Indian grocery items. The Used Book Superstore is also a local favorite, offering more than 100,000 books which many locals pop in to peruse several times each week. Locals often start their days at The Bagel Bar or grab coffee with friends at True North Coffee Café, but the family-owned LaCascia’s Bakery has been the go-to for bakery and deli needs for over 40 years. Less than 5 miles away, Burlington Mall offers dozens of shopping and dining options and is where the movie “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” was filmed. U.S. Route 62 runs through Mill Pond and it takes just a few minutes to hop onto Interstate 95 or Interstate 93, the latter of which takes residents to Boston about 15 miles away. The CAP Index, a 2 out of 10, is lower than the national average. The annual Family Fishing Festival at Mill Pond Reservoir hooks a large crowd of folks for a weeklong event where participants can bring their fishing supplies or borrow from the Burlington Recreation Department. “They do a contest for who catches the longest fish,” Glantz says, adding that the winner earns a prize. Municipal Truck Day is a long-running beloved event featuring close encounters with a fleet of heavy vehicles including big rigs, armed SWAT vehicles and excavators.