Buying a house in Boston

[Whatsnext75]

Good points

[Urban Peasant]

Boston has become an expensive city for many people to live in, enough said. The O.P. is unfortunately 20 years too late to buy an affordable house because back then, houses in blue collar neighborhoods cost as little as $100k. My Dorchester neighborhood is full of firefighters, policemen, postal workers, carpenters, electricians, etc both active and retired. Many of those retired were even able to afford to buy a house on their pensions alone back in the day. Nowadays, you can still live off your public salary or pension but for most money will be tight, especially if you are not only feeding yourself, and buying a home will be difficult. And no, it is not that easy to just pack up and leave a place or else many of us would have done so already.

As for the residency requirement, people have for years been clamoring to get rid of it so this is not new. It will have to take some strong political commitment to get rid of it and judging by the responses to this post, many are not in favor of getting rid of it that easily. To the O.P., good luck in finding a home. It is really tough out there right now as there isn't even much inventory to be bought and unlike what some other posters said, many of the suburbs of Boston are actually more expensive than the City itself, especially when including property taxes, and so you wouldn't want to move there anyways.

[Whatsnext75]

yeah im suprised this rule is still in place. my husband is a little older, had another job prior to this plus I make a decent salary so its not like we are in dire straits but its frustrating. some of the kids who start this job young live with their parents for a while if they were born and grew up in the city. id say thats the best way to go. I also dont think expensive living is a 'blue collar' issue. many 'white collar' jobs make less than 80 to 100k.

[G-fused]

OP, sounds like you need to compromise. It's not a unique thing to do. Personally, I think you should be happy with your situation.

The way you put it, it's like if both of you were in the private sector making 150k each you would be unhappy because you couldn't afford a 10,000 sq ft home in Weston.

What you have is good, be happy with it, be flexible, and have a better outlook. But hey, if you'd rather complain and be unsatisfied, go ahead I guess. It just doesn't sound like you have much to be upset about.

Best of luck

[Whatsnext75]

'The way you put it, it's like if both of you were in the private sector making 150k each you would be unhappy because you couldn't afford a 10,000 sq ft home in Weston.'

I'm sure there's people who move here and feel this way! lol

Yeah I should be more positive and thankful...it's just hard sometimes. My cousin just sent me a picture of her new house in Oklahoma and it's huuuge...but I would not want to live in Oklahoma.

[pennyone]

Originally Posted by Whatsnext75

'The way you put it, it's like if both of you were in the private sector making 150k each you would be unhappy because you couldn't afford a 10,000 sq ft home in Weston.'

I'm sure there's people who move here and feel this way! lol

Yeah I should be more positive and thankful...it's just hard sometimes. My cousin just sent me a picture of her new house in Oklahoma and it's huuuge...but I would not want to live in Oklahoma.

Precisely.

[flowbe202]

Originally Posted by Whatsnext75

Yeah I should be more positive and thankful...it's just hard sometimes.

It's probably as hard as it is for us to read your posts.

Originally Posted by Whatsnext75

My cousin just sent me a picture of her new house in Oklahoma and it's huuuge...but I would not want to live in Oklahoma.

[xo_kizzy_xo]

A FT teacher for the Boston Public Schools must live within the city limits UNLESS they were grandfathered. I know this because we had a neighbor who'd been a BPS teacher for umpteen years and had taught during the busing crisis. IIRC she once said that all teachers were exempt simply because of supply vs. demand.

If you're a substitute you can live outside of Boston; however, don't plan on being hired FT if you're not willing to move.