Moving to Massachusetts from the South, would love any recommendations for cities to consider for new home

[riblue]

Do not get discouraged by the very real fact of the high cost of living in much of New England. The key is to keep your costs down and as a young person I assume you have not acquired a lot of debt, besides school. I lived happily on a very modest income, less than $33,000 a year. I was a career bookseller in a bookstore, fun job but a lot of work. And reading was not part of the job, lol. I did spend at least 40%of my income on housing but I did not have the expense of a car. And still to this day I have a debit card but no charge card. I also managed to save money and have a nice 401k. You do not need a lot of things and to spend a lot of money to live happily. As an aside, Cambridge and environs has a terrific roots music scene.

[charolastra00]

Originally Posted by TexasToSomewhere

I'd like to point out here for a second that I have lived in Texas and have visited Mass area/know my mother's finances to comfortably say that the cost of living in Austin IS EXTREMELY HIGH NOW. Th traffic IS mind numbing even compared to Boston and we have NO PT except for some city buses that are still stuck in that same traffic. I can't leave this state without an 8 hour drive ahead of me.

You have a 2 bedroom for a little more than $1000 a month. Austin is DIRT CHEAP.

Even studios in our most dangerous neighborhoods go for more than that in most of eastern Massachusetts. New Bedford is significantly cheaper, but, as they say, you get what you pay for and it is far removed from the higher paying jobs in Boston and has limited public transit.

[mvpsharky]

Clearly nobody is listening to the OP ... obviously she knows the the COL in both TX and MA and has already decided she wants to move .. so why not help instead of trying to discourage her? lots of negative opinions and not much help. With that said .. I would agree with what a few others have suggested .. look into Providence and surrounding areas ... it's a great little city .. closer to NB than Boston, easy train ride or bus to Boston, lower COL (I live comfortably on 45k) close to beaches, one of the best restaurant scenes in the country ... I have a large, double living room, 2 bed apt in a Victorian house .. rent is 950 ..so there are deals to be found ...

[springfieldcollegealum]

Hi, if you plan on transferring colleges, you'll need to look at possible transfer schools. I know UMASS in Amherst has Environmental Sciences but you may have difficulty around that area securing decent employment. Maybe URI or UCONN and then possibly work in Providence or Hartford. I don't live in New England anymore but when I did, I spent a lot of time in the woods of Western Mass, VT, CT, RI-I got around everywhere. Everything is so close compared to the west or southwest. You could easily locate anywhere within an hour or so of your mom. I live in the southwest now but I am in the highs of my career after living in DC for part of my work life. When I retire, I plan to visit in New England again and around Charleston, etc. because they are interesting places. You're young and you can figure it out. I got interested in the east coast before I went to grad school there-took a summer job teaching tennis at a camp in a Boston suburb to get my feet wet. I play tennis and where I live now the climate is better year round.