Moving to Boston , need help! (Cambridge, Quincy: apartment, condos, how much)

[Agnesv]

I am a 24 year old girl and will be moving to Boston working in the downtown area.Can anybody suggest a good place to get a 1 bedroom apartment below $1100 in Boston preferrably a place where i can easily get transport to work.My only requirement is a safe and non ghetto area with a little diversity.Your input will be greatly appreciated.

[ogre]

How long a commute can you handle? I'm asking this because Boston is pretty expensive, and there will be more options that fit your budget if you live out away from the central city. You still might find a studio in a decent neighborhood closer to downtown on your budget, but the choices would be more limited than they would be a bit farther out from downtown. Another question is whether you would consider finding a roommate, which is what many young people in Boston do to save on housing costs.

Still another question is what your idea of a safe neighborhood is. Maybe you're already aware of this, but without knowing your background it's reasonable to consider the possibility that you're not familiar with living in big cities, so you need to know that no neighborhood right in the city will be Mayberry safe, though Boston is relatively safe as large cities go.

If you want to try and find something right in the central city area, you might look at Back Bay (expensive, but maybe), or the South End if a young professional crowd would be appealing, or the Fenway if you'd be comfortable in an area more on the outer fringe of the central city, with a substantial student population. A bit farther out from downtown, the Brighton and Allston sections also have large student populations in some sections. Both of these areas have a lot of solid but older urban residential housing (some condos and a lot of stand-alone houses built close together), with local commercial districts scattered throughout. Cambridge, along Mass. Ave. and the red line, might be another possibility. Mix of student and professional populations in Cambridge. Similar mix in Somerville, which is farther up the red line than Cambridge, with a dense urban residential and local commercial character.

Depending on how long a commute you can handle, and how much city life you want at your doorstep, you might also look at Brookline, for a mix of urban and suburban life (though it's an expensive town--likely a town where you'd want a roomie to share expenses), or Newton (also expensive, but maybe a bit less so than Brookline) or Quincy for a suburban/urban mix that leans more toward suburban than the sections of Brookline near public transit. Whether any of these towns would work might also depend on what you mean by "a little diversity." You could find some small enclaves, but that's about it. "Diverse" would not be the first word that would come to mind to describe these towns, though maybe just a little.

[Agnesv]

Thank you ,that was very informative will take all your points into consideration.I do not mind a long commute as long as i can get to and from downtown so will check out some of the areas mentioned.I am a minority so what i meant by a "little diversity" was my preference to see one or two people who look like me occassionaly,however this is not a priority compared to safety.