Common home features in Boston Metro Area? (Newton, Framingham: apartment, rental market)

[Peabody99]

Originally Posted by gf2020

You'll need to increase your budget by at least 50% to find something more appealing in the towns you have mentioned.

And that's a china cabinet in the dining room.

Nice dining room! I love the mirror, color and floors

[495neighbor]

A lot of the older duplexes and multi-family rentals with odd layouts were originally single family homes. Investors purchased these in the 1970s and 80s buying the entire home for 20 to 50k and dividing the spaces into rental units. The tiny kitchen with little counter space is likely half of the original kitchen.

A convenient feature of some of these kinds of apartments is a pantry. I wish builders would start including them in modern kitchen design.

[flowbe202]

OP needs to worry more about finding a 2-3BR deleaded apartment that will take kids under 6yos than WTFing about china cabinets and window size.

Not all apartments have washer/dryers in the unit.

Not all apartments built before 1978 are deleaded.

You can never start too soon looking for a rental in the Boston area.

[mmyk72]

OP, The features that you want (counter space, >1 bath, lots of light, garage, etc) are typical in newer constructed townhouses. You might be lucky to find one that is rented out by the owner (happened to my cousin as her LL needed to move and decided to rent out the unit). Most rentals are typically older and built without many aesthetics you described. Ones that have them cost more than you price window however.

Even for people looking for such TH to buy as opposed to renting, any time something like you described is listed on the market, there would be bidding wars because there are not many of them around in those super desirable towns.

[Ninotchka P]

LOL.

We rented one of those typical duplex units in Arlington. It had one bathroom, very little kitchen counter space, a shared driveway but no garage, a few shelves of basement storage, and a beautiful and extremely useful built-in cabinet in the dining room. It also had a very small fenced in backyard and a washer/dryer hookup in the kitchen. The rooms were spacious with nice windows. Heat cost wasn't too bad - the older turn-of-the-century duplexes were actually built more sturdily than the small capes and ranches that came later.

You should be able to find a small, shared yard, or in the towns you're looking in, at least be near a park. The second bathroom will be very difficult to come by. If you can find a Philadelphia-style duplex, they are larger (two stories, at least on the upper level) and may have an additional bathroom.

It's true that not all apartments are de-leaded. Of course, landlords can't legally discriminate by not renting to you because you have small children. You would have to prove it though. It's a big issue for the MA rental market.

[kingeorge]

OP good rentals are hard to come by. Concentrate on the best community with long term in mind. Moving with young kids that just started feeling sense of familiarity after only year or two is expensive and crazy. If you find nice place, good community, and deleaded space, grab it and run with it. There is big competition for bigger deleaded apartments, and you will not have too much to choose from. Educate yourself on lead so you understand the game.

MA offers plenty of pluses, but also many downgrades because of the high COL. Seriously consider all the implications especially if you have other cheaper options elsewhere in the US.

Good luck.

[SalamanderSmile]

^^^ all of that plus keep in mind that you will be indoors with 2 kids for much more of the year than you are perhaps used to, so the more space you can afford the better.

[Parsec]

This post is pretty funny because I went through the same exact thing when I first moved here 10 years ago. I ended up all the way out by I-495 because I couldn't find any closer apartments with A/C and washer/dryer within my budget. Coming from a newer city, I THOUGHT those were 2 basic amenities that human beings could not live without. Boy was I wrong. I got depressed living that far away, so I gave up my 1200sf apartment with A/C and W/D for a 650sf apartment with no A/C or W/D. My rent also increased. All so I could live closer to civilization

[chicagoliz]

Originally Posted by Parsec

This post is pretty funny because I went through the same exact thing when I first moved here 10 years ago. I ended up all the way out by I-495 because I couldn't find any closer apartments with A/C and washer/dryer within my budget. Coming from a newer city, I THOUGHT those were 2 basic amenities that human beings could not live without. Boy was I wrong. I got depressed living that far away, so I gave up my 1200sf apartment with A/C and W/D for a 650sf apartment with no A/C or W/D. My rent also increased. All so I could live closer to civilization

My husband and I have done this exact same thing a couple times in a couple of cities (with apartments and houses.) They don't say "LOCATION! LOCATION! LOCATION!" for nothing. We've had nice spaces with lots of room out in the stix and been miserable in terms of how long the trip to the city was, sometimes making the city virtually inaccessible for many purposes. We're making a move to the Boston area soon and we're prepared to go into a much smaller, older house, with fewer bedrooms, a smaller yard, etc., because we're not willing to give on location.

As far as kids go -- I'd rather have a local city park I could walk to with them than a large backyard with a swingset, but no where to walk to.

[FromEverywhereUSA]

Originally Posted by SalamanderSmile

^^^ all of that plus keep in mind that you will be indoors with 2 kids for much more of the year than you are perhaps used to, so the more space you can afford the better.

My husband has argued this, as well. I was originally thinking maybe we could compromise on space for a little while, but cabin fever is real and it hits us pretty bad. On the other hand, if my husband ends up with a really long commute where he can't take public transportation, we'll never see him and when we do he'll be in a terrible mood from all the traffic. Ugh, dilemma.

But to those thinking we should just stay where we are or move elsewhere, understand that we currently pay $2600/mo for a 1200 sqft 2br1b duplex unit, and the market rate is $3300/mo and rising fast. Also, we have zero family within reasonable driving distance here (SF Bay), but lots of family in New York, and hubby's company has an office in Boston. So, even with the drawbacks, Mass is a better option for us than Cali right now.

Thanks again for the great info. I didn't know that lead was a major issue in the rentals out there, so I will look more closely now.