How do they afford it? (Boston, Cambridge: townhouse, buying, school districts)

[MagicTouch]

CA is much worse than MA, the housing and rental costs are higher. Taxes, gasoline, traffic, smog etc are so much worse. I've lived in CA my whole life 40+ years and I can't afford to even buy here. Rent for a 1bd +loft is about 1800 a month. Where I can get a new 2 bdr 2 bath for less than 2k in MA. Electric costs run an average of 3-5 hundred during the summer and then gas can run about 100-200 a month in the winter. I've heard the nice thing in CA is the weather, well that is questionable depending on where you live. I can't wait to leave CA and move to MA. The change should be exciting.

[Steve W]

Originally Posted by LeavingMA

I think a lot of MA people always compare other places they visit with their own state. I have friends who travel and all they do is complain other states aren't like MA, etc. They should just accept the differences and relax. Differences don't make things bad.

Therein lies the crux of the situation. My wife & I moved to the Piedmont of NC in May '06 from MA, where we both lived all of our lives. We do NOT expect NC to be like MA in any particular way and we are happy that is is NOT like MA in many other ways (politics, cost of living, weather, overcrowding).

Briefly: If you love where you live, by all means stay there. If you move somewhere else, don't make it your first mission to try and change the new place to duplicate the old! That applies especially to government, but also in lots of other subtle things.

Having said all that, I do miss getting Sox games all the time and, of course, Rem Dog...

[Parsec]

Originally Posted by Steve W

Therein lies the crux of the situation. My wife & I moved to the Piedmont of NC in May '06 from MA, where we both lived all of our lives. We do NOT expect NC to be like MA in any particular way and we are happy that is is NOT like MA in many other ways (politics, cost of living, weather, overcrowding).

Briefly: If you love where you live, by all means stay there. If you move somewhere else, don't make it your first mission to try and change the new place to duplicate the old! That applies especially to government, but also in lots of other subtle things.

Having said all that, I do miss getting Sox games all the time and, of course, Rem Dog...

Have you looked into the sports packages on the dish?

[bumpylemon]

i cant live here anymore...im sick of a 900 dollar a month rental apartment in masss.....my wife and i are off to phoenix to have a 900 a month 4 bedroom house....mass is raping us young people and its not fair

[LeavingMA]

Originally Posted by bumpylemon

i cant live here anymore...im sick of a 900 dollar a month rental apartment in masss.....my wife and i are off to phoenix to have a 900 a month 4 bedroom house....mass is raping us young people and its not fair

Its amazing looking elsewhere i see what i can rent for around $350-$700 which would costs somewhere around $1,000-$1,800 here. And then with a house, you can buy something for around $1,200 a month and not need to do any work to it. Here, if your mortgage is around $1,200 you can bet you need to spend another $50,000 or more just to make the place modern.

[starzfalldown]

Originally Posted by MagicTouch

CA is much worse than MA, the housing and rental costs are higher. Taxes, gasoline, traffic, smog etc are so much worse. I've lived in CA my whole life 40+ years and I can't afford to even buy here. Rent for a 1bd +loft is about 1800 a month. Where I can get a new 2 bdr 2 bath for less than 2k in MA. Electric costs run an average of 3-5 hundred during the summer and then gas can run about 100-200 a month in the winter. I've heard the nice thing in CA is the weather, well that is questionable depending on where you live. I can't wait to leave CA and move to MA. The change should be exciting.

Welcome to Massachusetts!!!

Good Luck!

[starzfalldown]

Originally Posted by bumpylemon

i cant live here anymore...im sick of a 900 dollar a month rental apartment in masss.....my wife and i are off to phoenix to have a 900 a month 4 bedroom house....mass is raping us young people and its not fair

Good luck with the second worst mortgage foreclosure market in the country, some of the worst crime, and water as a VERY precious commodity.

You get what you pay for.

[MagicTouch]

Originally Posted by starzfalldown

Good luck with the second worst mortgage foreclosure market in the country, some of the worst crime, and water as a VERY precious commodity.

You get what you pay for.

So true you do get what you pay for, and it's hot (all the time) where they are going. I don't mind the heat, being from CA, but they will be paying during the summer (for AC) and during the winter (for heat). I give them a year ... at the most.

[mdovell]

the real answer is we can't and that's why we are moving out. Much of the state is overpriced but it's for some other reasons....

Taxes generally are somewhat high but that's because much of the economy is tax exempt...unions don't pay taxes, educational institutions don't, non profits don't, hospitals probably don't (not the hmo but the hospital itself)

This makes it FAR harder to cut any taxation.

Then there's the property taxes. Basically the state government put a cap as to how much they can go up (this was a reaction in the late 70's early 80's that effected seniors) well the towns can override and raises the tax rate IF the people vote enough...but about 85-90% of the time it doesn't work...

Ok so if that's the case then....well the towns then take a look at properties and raise the assessment so a house that's 240K in 1004 is 295 in 1999 is 345 in 2003 is 410 in 2005 is 450 today....

Imagine if they did this with cars "Yes your '72 Gremlin is a classic and therefore worth another 5K...taxes have been reflected of this correction"

It is far harder to deal with a shortfall of cash on a state or local government than federal since they cannot print money up. Moreover change is slow....up until 1990 retailers weren't allowed to open on sundays, walmart didn't come into the area until the mid 90's, liquor stores couldn't open on sundays until the past few years, tatoos were illegal until a few years ago etc

I won't say that the government ignores everything because I do think the current governer at least somewhat understands...but he doesn't have enough power to do much and if anything happens it will be slow. There's no "berlin wall" to take down to make things cheaper here. This is going to take time and that isn't something people have patience for (including myself)

[puffle]

You do get what you pay for and there is still a "price" to pay for paying less.