What is it like to live in Lynnfield?

The bedroom community of Lynnfield was perhaps best known as the home of many of the area’s most popular professional athletes.

Though it offers easy access to shopping and services, Lynnfield itself maintains its bucolic feel. Dina Rudick/Globe Staff

By James Sullivan - Globe Correspondent

July 12, 2014

2 minutes to read

Bucolic and woodsy yet situated just 15 miles north of Boston, over the years the bedroom community of Lynnfield has been the home base of many of the area’s most popular professional athletes, who lived here for its relative seclusion and its proximity to the city. Carl Yastrzemski, Dwight Evans, Phil Esposito, and many others have called Lynnfield home.

The town’s appeal combines rolling acreage in quiet neighborhoods “off the beaten path’’ with the convenience of Route 1, the old “Newburyport Turnpike,’’ and its comprehensive range of retail and restaurants. The August 2013 opening of the upscale MarketStreet shopping district just off Route 128, the town’s other major artery, adds to the attraction for prospective home buyers.

BY THE NUMBERS

1638

The year Lynnfield’s first settlers arrived

The town was not incorporated until 1814.

11,596

Population (2010 Census)

The number of residents has remained relatively steady over the past four decades.

$106,860

Median income for a household in the town as of 2010, according to the Next Door comparison tool at BostonGlobe.com.

As of 2010, that figure for Massachusetts was $62,072, according to the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center. For the United States? $50,046.

41 & 12

Number of shops and dining establishments, respectively, in the modern, pedestrian-friendly, open-air MarketStreet Lynnfield shopping mall. By the summer’s end, three more shops and two more restaurants are to open.

PROS & CONS

Pro

Peace and quiet

Though Lynnfield families have direct access to all kinds of shopping malls and services along routes 1 and 128, the town itself has relatively little commercialism. In Lynnfield Center, Village Pharmacy, an all-purpose business straight out of Norman Rockwell, epitomizes the community’s small-town feel.

Con

Lack of diversity

As of the 2010 Census, the town of Lynnfield was 94.7 percent white, and it often feels like that number is 100 percent. Residents sometimes refer to the “bubble’’ the town’s children grow up in.

Pro

Property values and school system

The median home value in Lynnfield is currently $551,400, according to Zillow.com; compare that with nearby Reading ($484,800) or Middleton ($452,400). The figure has increased 10 percent in the past year. The town’s public school system receives consistently high rankings for standardized test scores and sends a significant percentage of students to four-year colleges.