Considering moving to Boston-where exactly? (Cambridge, Somerville: apartments, rentals, insurance)

[VirginiaMountainLover]

Hi,

I'm a mid-forties legal assistant who is finishing up a paralegal Master's Degree program through George Washington University. I've been to New England a couple times on visits but never to Boston. I'm considering job hunting/moving there because the pay could be higher and I've heard lots of friends rave about what a beautiful and interesting city Boston is.

I've been checking Craigslist ads and other sources, just for funsies, to check housing costs and have been astonished how high they are! Right now I'm living in Roanoke, Virginia and paying $825 for a beautiful two-bedroom townhouse with a garage and washer/dryer etc. The problem with staying here (or really living anywhere besides a very large city) is, in my experience lawyers in smaller cities don't really use "paralegals" in the proper sense (for legal research, drafting, etc). They basically all have regular old secretaries - file this, answer the phone, type this - and pay them like secretaries as well. They often use the term "paralegal" interchangeably with legal assistant or secretary but neither the pay nor the responsibilities reflect this.

I'd love to move to New England because I'm politically liberal and I love cold weather and snow. I loathe and detest summer with a passion that really defies logic. In fact, I have a panic attack almost every summer on just a random really hot, muggy day. I realize New England has occasional hot days, but it can't possibly be as bad or as consistent as Virginia.

So my question is, for affordability's sake (I'm a single woman with no partner or spouse to share expenses with), where do Boston workers sometimes live and commute from? I'm not trying to spend four hours a day commuting, but maybe up to an hour each way could be doable.

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!

[BostonMike7]

What's your standard of living?

$825/month might get you a studio or tiny 1 BR in a bad part of town. The question is how much can you afford? I owned a 1 BR condo in a close suburb of Boston that I was getting $1500/month for. 2BR might be $2K/month in a nicer area. If you want a townhouse again, with a garage and such, you'll have to look to some of the suburbs and be ready to pay $2500+/month for it.

Boston is not a cheap town to live in...especially when you are a single and living on your own and want to maintain a similar lifestyle to what you had before.

[Dm84]

$825/month gets you roommates in Boston. Yeah you could live an hour or two outside the city and might find a 1 BR in an economically depressed outer suburb, but you'll then be saddled with $300+/month commuting costs and hours of your life lost each day. The alternative is living in a dangerous neighborhood in the city but even then $1,000/month is what you'll be looking at.

I think if you are shocked by the housing costs this is the wrong move for you. Everything here costs more, housing is just the line item that stands out the most.

[kingeorge]

As other said all depends on your projected earning and lifestyle you want to have. You would have to have pretty high starting salary to make it on your own. What about roommates? if you are open to that lifestyle then you are looking at $1000 to share. Studio is probably no less than $1200 nowadays, and so on.

E.g. you could live in Somerville or Medford which are full of your professionals and tons of rentals, including easy commute to Cambridge or Boston, but please check what is being rented there, and what you can afford. Those are pretty hip places to be.

For more commute and possibly more space you can look at Melrose, Wakefield, or Reading and see what is going rate for places. Rule of the thumb, if rent is too low, it is probably in a bad place, or older then dirt. Most places you will find are older and unupdated in general. Life is too expensive for type of updates you take for granted elsewhere in the US.

If you do not mind little bit gritty, then Everett or Malden might work for you too.

Be prepared to shell out on the spot first, last, and security deposit, so budget for it, as well as for heat, and much higher expenses for everything else. You will also need to think long and hard about having a car, and pain of insurance and street parking in some areas, or living in the burbs with driveway and long commute with en expensive parking everywhere you go.

Some food for thought. Good luck.

[vtecluder617]

Cambridge or maybe even Brookline come to mind. Great areas with tons of things to do. Easy access to Boston via public transportation. Relatively safe. Very Liberal areas (especially Cambridge). Tons of other professionals residing in the area. I guess the only real downside, is those 2 areas will NOT be cheap. Easily $1500+

[Dm84]

Originally Posted by vtecluder617

Cambridge or maybe even Brookline come to mind. Great areas with tons of things to do. Easy access to Boston via public transportation. Relatively safe. Very Liberal areas (especially Cambridge). Tons of other professionals residing in the area. I guess the only real downside, is those 2 areas will NOT be cheap. Easily $1500+

Might as well throw Beacon Hill and Back Bay in while you're at it lol.

[chicagoliz]

You say you have lots of friends who talk about how great Boston is. Do any of them live there? Would it be possible to stay with them for a short time or come up several times to really job hunt and see what it's like in the area and investigate possible apartments, or even roommates?

You're in for a shock, coming from Roanoke, which is going to be especially cheap compared to Boston.

You're right that the paralegal profession encompasses a wide range of pay grades and responsibilities, and sometimes combine with legal secretaries, sometimes not. There are offices that essentially merge the roles of paralegal and secretary. There are offices where paralegals know more than a lot of attorneys and do almost everything except sign the pleadings and appear in court, and there are offices where paralegals are really just office clerks. They might be paid anywhere from minimum wage to $100K or more, depending on the specialty area, and type of firm. Your best bet might be to see what the market is like, starting with the large firms and whether they're hiring paralegals, and also to speak with some legal recruiters.

If I were in your situation, as a single person, I'd really want to be as close to the action as I could be and wouldn't want a huge commute out to a boring suburb filled with married people and kids. As was noted above, if the housing fairy could grant you a wish, someplace like Cambridge, Somerville, Brookline, or Jamaica Plain would be great options. But to even get close to one of those areas, based on your current budget, you'd need a roommate or two.

What you really need is to know your income, which means you need the job first, to know even where to begin to look. So if you can spend some time in Boston meeting with recruiters, trying to set up some interviews, really getting to know the legal market as well as the housing market, I think that's going to be your best course of action.

[scratchie]

Originally Posted by VirginiaMountainLover

I'd love to move to New England because I'm politically liberal and I love cold weather and snow. I loathe and detest summer with a passion that really defies logic. In fact, I have a panic attack almost every summer on just a random really hot, muggy day. I realize New England has occasional hot days, but it can't possibly be as bad or as consistent as Virginia.

It's probably not as consistent as northern VA, but it gets hot and muggy in Boston, and air conditioning is not as omnipresent as it is in the south. In all seriousness, you might want to consider somewhere in northern Vermont or Maine.

[Beantown_mama]

If you are looking to move somewhere with colder winters and cooler summers, have you thought of Portland Maine? It is a great city - smaller than Boston and a little artsier. It is also a little more affordable than Boston. Not sure about your job prospects there?

[495neighbor]

You should probably do a map search to find out what areas have the most law offices. The kind of law you want to work in is another consideration. If you plan to work for an intellectual property firm, those law offices are concentrated in the Seaport District and Financial Districts in downtown Boston.