Photo: Massachusetts Office of Travel & Tourism

With its scenic beaches and historic homes, there’s plenty to enjoy about living on Boston’s South Shore. We easily found five great reasons to consider making a move.

Housing

You’ll find a diverse mix of housing on Boston’s South Shore. From sprawling oceanfront mansions to summer cottages, cozy bungalows and condos, you’ll find a lot of variety. In Plymouth, choose from Colonials and farmhouses, or modern ranch-style homes, condos and apartments.

Not far from Boston, Milton provides your choice of a stately single-family home with plenty of acreage or newly renovated condos. You’ll also find a full range of housing options in Quincy, from cozy condos on the waterfront to multi-million-dollar

Photo: Massachusetts Office of Travel & Tourism

Whether you’re lured to Cape Cod by the promise of heading to the beach or hitting the water, the Gateway to the Cape begins when you reach the towns of Bourne and Sandwich. Both places are full of history and full of charm.

Bourne is the very first town you come to when passing over the Sagamore Bridge, Bourne Bridge or the railroad bridge, but it actually used to be a part of Sandwich. That’s the second town you come to when traveling Route 6.

As the oldest town on the Cape, Sandwich first became a town in the 1600s. Known to this day for its once popular glass-making industry, the town’s claim to fame all these years later is still the Sandwich Glass Factory.

You’ll also find a number of bed

Photo: Bill Damon

As we round out the year and prepare for 2021, several Boston neighborhoods are gearing up for some big changes. While all are unique in their own ways, there are five Boston neighborhoods you’ll definitely want to watch.

East Boston

Development is in full force in East Boston. Most of it is residential and has been happening over the last couple of years. A big reason to watch East Boston is Suffolk Downs. The former racetrack is expected to be transformed into a new mixed-use space, right off the Blue Line.

South End

A popular neighborhood for young professionals, millions of square feet of new commercial and residential space has already come to the South End, and it’s not over yet. Recent projects including a new

More single-family homes are coming to The Cottages at New Seabury. The development’s fourth phase is expected to bring another 88 homes to the area.

Infrastructure work for Phase 4 is currently underway. The new homes will come in the same eight floor plans already constructed during earlier development. Phases 1 and 2 are both already finished and sold out.

Phase 3 of The Cottages is under construction. All homes in this phase, however, are sold. Phase 3 consists of 74 single-family homes.

The award-winning development features stylish cottages with open floor plans and white picket fences. Generally, the homes range from around 1,400 to 2,300 square feet of living space.

While designed with a traditional Cape Cod cottage in mind, The

Come home to the “pulse of Jamaica Plain”, with the stylish new VITA condominiums. The sleek new property offers around 80 condos topping first floor retail space in the building, including a Planet Fitness.

The five-story property also offers its residents access to garage parking and bicycle storage. In addition, residents are left to enjoy a large roof deck with space for lounging, grilling and a fire pit.

This pet-friendly property in JP additionally offers up community gardens, a community room and a pet spa. As well, you’ll find concierge service, a Zipcar and electric car charging at VITA.

The condos of VITA come in one-, two- and three-bedroom floor plans. You will also find some units with a study.

The spacious condos start at

Photo: Theresa O'Connor

Drivers along Route 6 will want to keep an extra eye out for new road signs in the coming weeks. State Department of Transportation crews will begin putting up new exit signs with new exit numbers later this month.

It’s part of a larger project happening across the state. Already, exit numbers on Routes 140 and 195 have been replaced. Route 25 is also in line for new signs.

It’s all to comply with a federal mandate. The idea is to make it easier on drivers, easier on emergency responders and to make the exit signs more uniform across the nation by using mileposts for all highway exit numbers.

The federal mandate requires Massachusetts to renumber its exit signs so that they actually reflect the number of miles to the

Traced back to the beginning of Chatham, the Nickerson family still retains strong ties to the region. This dates all the way back to the times of William Nickerson, who’s considered to be the founder of Chatham.

Earlier this year, the owner of a home believed to have built by the son of William Nickerson in the 1700s was donated to the Nickerson Family Association. It’s thought to be the oldest house in Chatham, and the donation helps spare it from demolition.

Plans called for moving the one-room house to the Nickerson Family Association campus. The Association is hoping to use grant money and other funds to move and restore the oldest portion of the home.

A larger structure was reportedly built around it in the early 1800s but isn’t part of

Photo: Chris Devers

When it comes to real estate, there are certain suburbs that simply offer more bang for the buck. In the Boston area, one of those is Hanover.

The suburb recently ranked as one of Realtor.com’s top ten suburbs for getting more home for less. Analysts looked at the size of the home and the price, then came up with a best size-to-price ratio.

The suburbs the website listed were not necessarily the most affordable towns. Instead, Realtor.com considered places where you could get the most space when compared to other suburbs in the same city.

According to Realtor.com, it’s a savings of about 34-percent per square foot in Hanover when compared to Boston. The suburban median listing price is around $670,000, which is higher

For new construction in less than three months, consider the quick delivery homes being sold right now in Sawyer’s Reach. This new community of condos, townhomes and single-family homes is currently under construction in Plymouth.

The development consists of five buildings of condos, around 40 townhomes and 20 single-family homes. Priced starting from the mid $300,000s to the mid $400,000s, the condos of Sawyer’s Reach typically range from around 800 to nearly 1400 square feet of living space.

The Cotuit I floor plan is currently listed for a February delivery date. The floor plan includes two-bedrooms and two-baths, with around 1,000 square feet of living space.

The available condo designs in Sawyer’s Reach range from a one-bedroom plus a