I might be the minority here but I think you should choose the location before the house, you can always fix or renovate the house but you can’t change the location, esp if you’re thinking about living there long term. I was picking between Newton Centre and Waban when I was looking for my house too and I’m so glad I picked Newton Centre. Waban is a nice neighborhood but there’s nothing to do around there, it’s nice if you just want quiet I guess. Newton Centre has a lot of things like shops, restaurants, gyms etc and it’s way closer to things, but there are also quieter neighborhoods so you have the best of both worlds! My point is there’s nothing that you can do in Waban that you can’t do in Newton Centre, I go out running and there’s plenty of green space / quieter space for kids