Best areas of Boston to live... (Brookline, Medford: for sale, real estate, apartments)

[soleilove]

I'm considering moving to Boston and I'm trying to find out the best areas in Boston to live. I work from home, money is not an issue. I've heard of Beacon Hill and Back Bay are these the best? Any others? I don't drive, and don't plan to anytime soon.

[Ctfrancia]

i would say it depends a lot on what you plan on doing or want to do in Boston. if you don't plan on going much outside the city you can easily just own a bike and get everywhere quicker then a car.

Beacon Hill is very nice its right next to the Commons. Beacon hill though is very expensive to live in... on second though boston in general to live in is expensive.

Back Bay is a nice place Commonwealth ave, Marlboro, Beacon st, those roads are nice in my opinion.

all of boston in my view is nice, depending on what neighborhood you are in depends on your experience.... ehhhhhh except Chinatown... well its not AS bad as it used to be... its still kinda bad.

with more info i could possibly give you more of a recommendation

[soleilove]

Originally Posted by Ctfrancia

i would say it depends a lot on what you plan on doing or want to do in Boston. if you don't plan on going much outside the city you can easily just own a bike and get everywhere quicker then a car.

Beacon Hill is very nice its right next to the Commons. Beacon hill though is very expensive to live in... on second though boston in general to live in is expensive.

Back Bay is a nice place Commonwealth ave, Marlboro, Beacon st, those roads are nice in my opinion.

all of boston in my view is nice, depending on what neighborhood you are in depends on your experience.... ehhhhhh except Chinatown... well its not AS bad as it used to be... its still kinda bad.

with more info i could possibly give you more of a recommendation

I don't know much of what there is to do in Boston. I plan to walk as much as possible, whatever I can't walk to I'll take the bus or train. I live in NY right now and am use to 1 hour + train rides so that's not an issue for me. I would love to explore the city of boston and what it has to offer. I've heard of Newbury Street, and Copley Square and the Freedom Trail and Prudential Center and a few other things. I would love to explore all of what the city has to offer. I don't know what their is outside of the city. So do I need to know? I know how to ride a bike but I don't want to

I heard Beacon Hill is very hilly but also has a flat side? I'm not into living on the hilly side.

What's the boston waterfront like?

My main thing is that I have to be in walking distance to a grocery store and a place like Walgreens, duane rede, ride aide, etc... you know a place that sells shampoo, soap, etc.. but you can get that in a lot of grocery stores now too actually.

I would prefer to not live in an apartment that's the size of a shoebox. I can't live in an apartment that's the size of a shoebox. I'm not a fan of apartments with exposed brick, so if the place is full of exposed brick don't send me there. lol. And if the building is old the apartment inside has to be renovated. I will not live in an old building if there isn't a renovated apartment.

I might sacrifice space for location depending on how the place is laid out. If the place had a nice layout and didn't make me feel closed in I would consider it.

I know Boston is expensive, but so is NY where I live now, so money is not an issue for me.

I don't know what else to say, I hope I was helpful.

[CityGirl52]

You are a perfect candidate for Southie. It's only a 2 mile walk from South Station in the Financial District in downtown Boston. There's a Rite-Aid Pharmacy for all the do dads we all need located at 710 East Broadway. There's even a CVS located at 425 West Broadway between Dorchester Street & F Street.

There's numbered and lettered streets in the neighborhood of South Boston. It's pretty gentrified now. You'd be able to find a decent apartment ALSO with the style you have in mind. I know what you mean about the exposed brick, (gag me!!!) it's a little bit much now and you DO get sick of it, plus it gets 'cold' in the winter months. I think you would enjoy living in South Boston too because they have City Point beach and Castle Island to run/walk or ride your bike. It's also good for hanging out at the beach. My friends are a riot in the neighborhood that grew up there, they call the beach "South Beach" now with all the new people in your age group living there now more and more, lol!

There's MBTA buses going thru the neighborhood all the time, there's the City Point bus that would bring you right in to downtown thru the Financial District AND then there's also the #9 Bay View bus that brings you up thru Chinatown area and thru some parts of the waterfront area. One of the buses brings you to Andrew Square and then the other one brings you right to the Broadway station for the Back Bay AND the City Point bus brings you right in to the Back Bay, it has to be marked though Back Bay - City Point, but usually you'll see that on the front 9 times out of 10 with that bus route. Plenty of bars and restaurants in the neighborhood for you to just stay right in this neck of the woods, you wouldn't have to be in downtown Boston as much, it's there when you want it though, any time!

So check this neighborhood out to see what you think. The beauty of living there is they have the beach for walking, running or riding your bike, whatever floats your boat, it's right there.

You could also check Charlestown out it's over the foot bridge from the North End & North Station. It's one square mile & buses going thru the neighborhood as well that would bring you right to Haymarket Station OR Sullivan Square. There's the Main Street bus there and also the Bunker Hill bus. It's got the waterfront with various restaurants, bistros and cafes springing up more and more. The Marriott Residence Inn has a neat patio overlooking the harbor area and upstairs they have "Max & Dylan's" and Todd English's Olives is directly across the street in City Square. The Ironside Grille is right around the corner and the Warren Tavern is at 2 Pleasant Street as well as Paolo's on Main Street and the Moroccan restaurant Tangierino and down at the Navy Yard that's within walking distance from where you'd live in the town you could go to the Navy Yard Bistro & Wine Bar as well as the Tavern On The Water.

There's a CVS and a Johnney's Food Master in the Bunker Hill Mall right on Main Street. There's a Stop & Shop out at Wellington Circle in Medford that a lot of people will drive out to instead of going to Johnney's as some times the neighborhood supermarkets raise their prices due to the welfare recipients. I never knew that until I found that one out when I lived in Southie and there was this supermarket called "Flanagan's" there at the time and that's what they used to do. Whether it's still going on or not, it's something to think about when you're comparing prices, just the same! ALSO just so you know, if you DO end up moving to the neighborhood of Charlestown, you could shop at the Market Basket in Chelsea, it's got over 32aisles, it's great! I have friends that will shop there and drive all the way down from the North Shore to this particular Market Basket. It's got the best prices in New England, so remember that. It's only over the Tobin Bridge from Charlestown, it actually might be closer than the Stop & Shop in Medford IF you do this move, put this place on the back burner for down the road!

Good luck wherever you decide to live. I'm sure it's daunting trying to figure out what part of the City to live in. If you're in your 20's then you'd love one of these neighborhoods. Charlestown will be more expensive though than Southie! It's all relevant though. Charlestown is like a mini-Beacon Hill these days, it's got some gorgeous property thru there, but Southie does now too more than ever! Like I said, Southie has the beach, you can't even compare it, it's awesome to me living in Southie, and I'm from Charlestown originally, I'd live in Southie again in a heart beat, just for that awesome Castle Island alone!

You could check Craigslist, but like I said in one of my former posts to some one today, with that Craigslist you'd have to weed out a lot of the junk IF you know what I mean. You need to go to a reputable realtor that won't pull any punches with you. There's a few good ones on this list of them that I googled, so check them out first before you take that foolish Craigslist route, seriously!

http://www.google.com/search?sourcei...2c+ma+realtors

Good luck, you'll find just the right place, in fact, you're going to be happier here than in NYC when you see what you can get, I know it's expensive in Boston, but I see what you guys have to offer in NYC and it's WAY more expensive for what you get there than it is here, so you're going to be happy as a clam here, girl friend!

[soleilove]

Thanks city girl for all your help. From my early research of South Boston I'm not sure if that's the place for me. Charlestown I might like better, I'll look into it more though.

And yes, I know what you mean about Craigslist. I've looked on there and wasn't pleased with what I saw. A lot of the listings there the people don't even clean up their place. I saw a lot of small, ugly places with clothes and trash thrown all over. Eeek.

Right now I've been combing bostoncondoloft.com. I've been perusing there MLS listings. I found some cute places. I don't know squat about their locations though.

[Tombstoner]

An area that I really like (so much so that I just bought a place there) is the eastern part of the Fenway sometimes called "Symphony" because Symphony Hall is located there.

Now a lot of people will jump up and say "that's a student ghetto!" and they are partially right. Some streets are full of Northeastern, Berklee, NEC and other students (Gainsborough, Hemenway, and Symphony come to mind), but other streets are really for grown ups.

Just a few of the pluses that lured me there: I am a 1 minute walk from the Museum of Fine Arts and a 3 minute walk to the Isabella Gardiner (many people's favorite art museum), I am 10 seconds (literally across the street) from the Fens--a lovely park with great sculptures, gardens and a terrifically diverse group of people having a great time playing softball, baseball, basketball, frisbee, etc. The same people who claim that it's a student ghetto will also claim (again, not entirely unjustifiably) that the park gets seedy after dark. I suspect that is true (though I have often been out at 10pm or so and have never felt unsafe at all; in any case it's easy to avoid at night by staying on the main routes).

But back to the good stuff...of course Fenway Park is 10 minutes walk as is Kenmore Square for nightlife, bookstores, and a range of restaurants. Another bunch of restaurants is on Boylston (5 minute walk) and your Trader Joe's necessities can be met in a further 2 minute stroll. Speaking of groceries, a massive Whole Foods is a 5 minute walk from my place (I timed it) and of course, Symphony Hall, Jordan Hall, all the Berklee performing spaces, etc. are right there--5-7 minutes depend on the venue. Cross the street from Symphony Hall and there's the nicest hardscaped open space in the city to my mind: the Christian Science Plaza--a great place to people watch or take in the Boston skyline. I can walk from my place to the Prudential shopping complex in 10-12 minutes--Copley Square, Copley Plaza, Newbury Street, etc. are just another 5-7 minutes beyond that. I frequently take my longer walks/runs up to the Esplanade (15 minutes away). But wait! There's more!

This part of Fenway is great for transit. A Green line "T" stop is 1 minute from my door, and the Orange line (Ruggles) is 3 minutes. To get to other Green line stops...Hynes is 6 minutes away, Fenway 10 minutes. The #39 that goes down Huntington to Copley pretty frequently is 1 minute away as well.

In sum, I think it's hard to beat this area of town for culture, outdoors, shopping, dining, university vibe, etc. Of course, this presumes that you don't mind a university vibe (and some people might, but Fenway is not Allston--a part of town where the student vibe is pretty scuzzy). As a newcomer, a lot of well-intentioned people who had never lived in the area wanted to steer me away from it. I think it's a matter of finding the right building on the right street--I think I chose well.

[ogre]

Beacon Hill and Back Bay have both been affluent areas for a looooooong time. Both have classic central city townhouse architecture. Since you're currently in NY, think of the older, long-established upscale brownstone neighborhoods in Manhattan, though the architecture in the Boston neighborhoods will be different in the details. Beacon Hill is much smaller than Back Bay, and has a more intimate feel overall, more like an actual neighborhood. Back Bay generally is busier, with more major streets and more traffic, though there are some quiet side streets. Beacon Hill is a low hill, not really high like some of the hills in SF, with sloping streets leading up the hill, flat in some parts on top and down near the base of the hill on a couple of sides.

If money truly is no object then you could live in Beacon Hill or Back Bay without being in a shoebox. If saying that money is no object means more that you can basically afford the costs of living right in town in an expensive city, then it's possible that a reasonably spacious place in either of these areas would be out of reach as far as cost.

You might want to check out the South End. It's another section with townhouse architecture, gentrified in a number of areas, rather than the longtime affluence in Beacon Hill and Back Bay, so you're looking at coffee shops, art galleries, etc., the usual features of neighborhoods that have moved up economically in the past couple of decades. Check the details closely if you consider any location in the South End. Some areas are still sketchy, and some areas are not especially convenient to public transit.

[shiver]

As noted by other posters, Back Bay and Beacon Hill are the most exclusive and expensive neighborhoods in Boston. $2500-$3000 a month will get you a renovated, nice, non-shoebox one bedroom apartment in both areas. If money isn't an issue, based on your comments, I think these areas may be the best fit.

Exposed brick is pretty popular aren't here; moreso in Beacon Hill than Back Bay. When renovating, people purposely leave it in because buyers/renters tend to like the character it adds. When speaking to realtors, make sure to mention that you don't like it.

There are some really high-end high rise buildings on the water. On Long Wharf and Rowes Wharf, I believe. They may be condos for sale instead of apartment rentals, but there are probably some owners who are renting. I'm not sure how expensive, but it may be in the 3K+ a month range.

Some of the high end listings may not make it into Craigslist. You will probably need to spend some time calling the different real estate agencies in the area. See who has some of the nicer places advertised and start there. Good Luck!

[holden125]

Originally Posted by CityGirl52

You are a perfect candidate for Southie.

No offense intended, but the OP seems to me far too high-maintenance to be happy in Southie.

I'd go for the Back Bay. As has been pointed out, Beacon Hill is a hill. It has many old and small apartments with exposed brick. The flat of Beacon Hill is only a block or 2 wide.

[lz1982]

And if the OP wants something slightly less dense but still citylike, Brookline might be a good bet. Areas like Coolidge Corner and Washington Square are hip and affluent. Technically, Brookline is a suburb, but those areas don't feel like it.