Why are leasing opportunities concentrated in the Newton/Arlington areas? (Boston: houses, neighborhoods)

[syracusa]

As I mentioned in another thread, we will have to relocate to the Boston area from Atlanta by the end of the year. After some research coupled with greatly appreciated information obtained on this forum, we decided our most sane option would be to rent - and postpone buying indefinitely.

However, we noticed that most renting opportunities seem to be in Newton and Arlington. We would like to consider other areas too but there are hardly any places available for rent elsewhere. We keep coming across places in these two towns where a 2000$ rent does not get a family of 4 much.

We are looking for a family-friendly neighborhood, 4BR 2 baths (or 3 BR + some kind of bonus room), good to excellent school system, accessible to Reading where husband's workplace is located, 2100$ a month maximum renting budget.

What other places should we look for that would meet these criteria and where opportunities for rent might be more numerous? Thank you again!

[ScituateAl]

Where else are you looking but not finding rentals? I would think craigslist would be filled with options. If not, realtor.com does provide a limited set of rental listings as well. Other towns may have other options like newspapers, etc. that may be online as well.

[syracusa]

We look on Craigslist a lot. Most are in Newton/Arlinngton.

[holden125]

There are more 2-family and other rental houses in those towns than in suburbs farther out. Newton is also a town of some 80,000 people (almost as many as Cambridge) so you can imagine it's well represented for that reason.

While there are likely more rentals there than in, say, Wakefield, it's also true that Craigslist started as a tool used primarily by younger urban-oriented people. I think the rentals listed on there tend to skew into the locales that appeal to people who want to be as close as possible to the city. Local realtors in other suburbs might have additional listings not on CL.

Have you identified locales you do want to focus on? You can also do a search for those towns or neighborhoods. If you've been looking on Boston CL, you can also click on "northwest/merrimack" or "north shore" at the top of the page to focus closer to Reading. This may eliminate many Newton-Arlington ads.

[brightdoglover]

You might want to try a relocation agent. House rentals are sort of not really the thing in towns here, which is good in that most homes are owner-occupied, making a stable environment.
Best wishes on your move.

[syracusa]

Thanks a lot.

We are thinking about getting an agent after all, but they are expensive especially when they catch you at both ends.

In GA, we will have to pay the agent as property owners leasing to a tenant. In Ma we will have to pay the agent as renters. So far we've been trying to avoid going through an agent in Ma, but we might have to consider it anyway.