Boston area ATOT members: where to live?

[cyclohexane]

Moving to Boston area, need to find an apartment within ~30 min driving distance to the city. Any particularly good areas? Preferably not too expensive, but not in the ghettos either.

 

[Zeze]

PM me if you have Qs.

What stage of life are you in- single, married, kisd? making 40k 80k 120k?

Based on my gut feeling, I'm going to assume you are 22-26 years old, single, making humble salary (30-60k):

Somerville, Arlington, Medford, North Cambridge area are all pretty cheap yet not ghetto or dangerous. All of them have excellent access to the city using Orange line or Red line.

You are looking at about $700-1000pp rent with a roommate or two.

There's a saying- every Bostonians lived in Slummerville (Somerville) at least once in their life.

Stay north of Boston for those towns I've mentioned. It's cost effective, nice enough, not dangerous nor ghetto. Most residents are youngsters like you.

And they all have very trendy areas for bars, having fun, etc with all the young crowd you want (Davis Sq, Porter Sq, Harvard Sq, Cambridge itself, and of course the entire Boston).

Those towns I've mentioned, as long as you are close to a T stop (their train), you don't even need a car.

Source: I've lived in Medford, Somerville, & North Cambridge.

I miss my Boston days... I lived with a newly renovated place with 3 other roommates and paid mere $450 for rent at one point- the place was so nice... close to Davis Square for partying yet minutes away from this beautiful park & bicycle trail that spanned all the way into Arlington.

 

[Markbnj]

30 minutes to the city probably gets you all the way up to southern NH, or at least it did back when I was living there 20 years ago.

 

[Zeze]

30 minutes to the city probably gets you all the way up to southern NH, or at least it did back when I was living there 20 years ago.

Yes... at 4am on I-93, doing 80 mph non-stop (speeding). Otherwise it's 45-50 mins at peak.

My folks lived at the border of NH/MA. I'd go out constantly at night... I used to be able to to 32 mins sharp from my door to Boston Common.

If OP truly meant full driving 30 mins, he has bigger options like Woburn, Winchester, etc.

 

[Tiamat]

Where u stay in Boston is predicated on what your needs are. If you are by yourself and like city life, then back bay/Fenway/symphony/Newbury is where you want to stay. Rent isn't too bad at $1400-1600$ per month for a one bedroom. I stayed near symphony hall for about 5 years. If you want less rent, allston/Brighton/BC/bu/Brookline isn't too bad, probably $900-1300 for one bedroom. If you don't care for college and city life, your options expand tremendously. Boston is all about sports, shopping, eating, walking around, Charles river, and most importantly, convenience - MBTA stop every block or so, multiple Starbucks/dunkin donuts/ATMs each block. You can traverse Boston by foot in less than 40 minutes. You pay for all of that even if you don't care for these things unless you stay outside of Boston. Traffic can be shitty. People commute as far as NH, Worcester, framingham, Peabody in order to get an affordable living arrangement or even a yard.

 

[cyclohexane]

Looking at probably around $1500, 1 bedroom. No roommates (1 wife is enough).

I'll look into those areas, all good suggestions.

 

[NetWareHead]

I used to live in Billerica MA and that is right off of rt 3. Between rt 495 and rt 95/128. My commute into boston without traffic was roughly half hour. I now live in Manchester NH and my commute would be 45 minutes.

 

[crashtestdummy]

It depends on what you're looking for. If you want to live in a reasonably urban area, I'd look at Somerville (near Cambridge), Jamaica Plain, Allston, and Coolidge Corner. All are in your price range, close to the city, and near public transportation. Somerville and Coolidge corner have a lot of young professional types and some really nice restaurants and bars. Allston has the youngest crowd, and is dominated by BU students. JP is sort of our Brooklyn. Lots of hippies and hipsters, good food, slightly higher crime (though by no means dangerous) than the others.

Here is an apartment price map with data scraped from Craigslist that should give you some idea of what to expect.