Moving to MA from NJ.. good apartment suggestions off I-93?

[timberline742]

The budget is high enough. I was looking at the real estate listing up at a realtor in Davis Sq, and there were a bunch of Ball Sq, Teele Sq, Union Sq listing of really nice looking 2 bedrooms for $1800-2000. If you can get those in Somerville for that, you can get it most places around. Just avoid complexes. And if you rent from an owner there is a decent chance there will be minimal if any rent raises year to year. I've had a total of $100 increase in 4 years. Plenty of people I know have had none in many years.

[chicagoliz]

Originally Posted by njburrito

Hmm we've never thought of Melrose! Is that a safer town or does it have a pretty decent reputation? It's definitely closer to Boston. It looks like Stoneham is also nearby-- is that a good area? It looks like apartments are fairly cheap in Stoneham so I'm curious if there's an underlying reason.

I'm old and married with two kids and we just moved back to the Boston area after being away for over 20 years. My husband and I met in law school at BU, so although we had lived in Boston, since we were students we pretty much never went beyond Boston/Brookline/Cambridge and sometimes Newton. So we didn't really know many of the suburbs all that well.

And I remember very, very well being in my 20s right after law school when my husband and I were in Chicago and couldn't afford much -- we did go to the suburbs for a while because we could afford it so much more, but one of the happiest days of our lives was when we left those suburbs to move into the city. So I really recommend at that age being in the city or as close to the city as you can.

Our real estate agent suggested Melrose as one possibility for us -- it is a very up and coming place and it is close to the city, on the T, and has a neat vibe. The mayor is supposed to have a great blog (so google that). We visited it and it did seem like a great town -- nice downtown, some cute restaurants, and they had a big arts festival that looked good. Plus, it seems like it has good access to the city and to 93. The schools are on the upswing, and we got to the point where we really liked the town, but it was a little further commute to my husband's job, and the schools were not ranked as highly as the other towns, so we kind of thought the house had to be perfect if we were going to Melrose. (Melrose was a lot more affordable than many of the other towns, and our budget was on the low end for the other towns but on the high end for Melrose.) But, in your situation, I absolutely would consider it much more seriously.

It struck us as a safe town, with some very cute neighborhoods, a nice downtown, and some good offerings. I don't think Stoneham has quite the same vibe and it's slightly further out and I don't think it has the same T access. But we didn't investigate it much, to be honest. All we ever think of when we hear Stoneham is Nancy Kerrigan, since that family lived in Stoneham and the whole leg incident happened when we last lived here and was on the news 24/7, with all the reporters reporting live from Stoneham.