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Hello everyone. My husband and I are planning to move to Boston area this September. Curently we live in downtown West Palm Beach, FL. And we are tired of crazy hot and humid weather all year around. We are tired of tons of spanish-speaking people who doesn't bother to learn English. There is not much to do here ether, unless you really enjoy beach and sun.
We are young couple in our 30th. No kids and don't plan any. We love museums and art, architecture and smart people, good food and modern places. J does IT (ethical hacker) and I am a wedding photographer a good one .
We haven't been to Boston yet, but our first visit will be in May. And of course we are doing our research on line, but still I do have some questions and hope that I'll get some answers here.
It is possible to find a property ( if it is a condo or loft would be great if it'll be over 1000 sq ft) under 500.000 in a good area? I don't think that Roxbury and Dorchester will work for us. What are areas we should focus on?
What about crazy driving? Is it really THAT bad?
Hello everyone. My husband and I are planning to move to Boston area this September. Curently we live in downtown West Palm Beach, FL. And we are tired of crazy hot and humid weather all year around. We are tired of tons of spanish-speaking people who doesn't bother to learn English. There is not much to do here ether, unless you really enjoy beach and sun.
We are young couple in our 30th. No kids and don't plan any. We love museums and art, architecture and smart people, good food and modern places. J does IT (ethical hacker) and I am a wedding photographer a good one .
Boston is an interesting mix of old and new. So, I'm not sure I would use the word "modern" to describe this city.
Quote:
Originally Posted by night4mia
It is possible to find a property ( if it is a condo or loft would be great if it'll be over 1000 sq ft) under 500.000 in a good area? I don't think that Roxbury and Dorchester will work for us. What are areas we should focus on?
I'm going to say you're going to need to probably triple your budget at least. Also, be prepared that the housing stock in the Boston area is older. So, you'll be dealing with properties that don't have A/C (really nice to have during the summer) and they won't have new appliances and granite counter tops.
Allston & Brighton are inexpensive areas but full of students. You might like the more funky vibe of Jamaica Plain which is getting more expensive by the day. Somerville is a good choice as well.
Quote:
Originally Posted by night4mia
What about crazy driving? Is it really THAT bad?
After Boston, the area I've spent the most time in my life is South Florida. I can say without a doubt that driving in Boston is SO much better than driving in South Florida. People drive like maniacs down there especially around Miami. Every time I'm on I95 in South Florida I can't believe the tailgating and the cutting off that goes on. It's crazy.
Welcome ahead of time to Boston as you are a stranger here but once. Crazy heat is not fun and we do have our change of seasons. Your visit here will tell you alot about the areas. As for Roxbury and Dorchester, both have good and not so good areas. Boston overall has gotten safer over the years in my opinion.
LOL as for our driving, we can change a tire going 30 miles an hour. It is not really that bad in fact, I really believe that we have gotten a bit better in recent years.
Boston is an interesting mix of old and new. So, I'm not sure I would use the word "modern" to describe this city.
I'm going to say you're going to need to probably triple your budget at least. Also, be prepared that the housing stock in the Boston area is older. So, you'll be dealing with properties that don't have A/C (really nice to have during the summer) and they won't have new appliances and granite counter tops.
Allston & Brighton are inexpensive areas but full of students. You might like the more funky vibe of Jamaica Plain which is getting more expensive by the day. Somerville is a good choice as well.
After Boston, the area I've spent the most time in my life is South Florida. I can say without a doubt that driving in Boston is SO much better than driving in South Florida. People drive like maniacs down there especially around Miami. Every time I'm on I95 in South Florida I can't believe the tailgating and the cutting off that goes on. It's crazy.
Thank you so much for your respond. When I say modern I mean place has very interesting and unique cafes and restaurants, not afraid on unusual art and performances, open minded people, not necessary traditional. Also gay friendly (even if we are not gay-we really support gay rights).
We lived too long (3.5 years) in the South and I hate it. I come from Europe and I was shocked by how people are in the South.
So you are saying that it is impossible to buy anything for 0.5 million dollars in Boston? Even 30-40 from downtown min by public transportation?
May I ask why students areas are bad? If they are bad )
Welcome ahead of time to Boston as you are a stranger here but once. Crazy heat is not fun and we do have our change of seasons. Your visit here will tell you alot about the areas. As for Roxbury and Dorchester, both have good and not so good areas. Boston overall has gotten safer over the years in my opinion.
LOL as for our driving, we can change a tire going 30 miles an hour. It is not really that bad in fact, I really believe that we have gotten a bit better in recent years.
Thanks! I really miss seasons. Especially Autumn.
I know that Boston not as nearly dangerous as New Orleans. But I am not sure that I would like to live in Roxbury-I herd that it has a lot of black people. Just for the record we are not racist people. But even some of my wedding clients and their guests give us that look " what do you want from us white girl". I am not really comfortable with that.
If you want to go someplace that isn't heavily populated with "people who doesn't...learn English" (your grammatically incorrect words) this probably isn't it.
If you want to go someplace that isn't heavily populated with "people who doesn't...learn English" (your grammatically incorrect words) this probably isn't it.
All my life I lived in a very big cities: Moscow, Minsk, London, Munich. And after I had to move to the US in 2010 I end up living in a small town in the South and after that in NOLA. And I hated it, every day there was horrible. Overly friendly super conservative people. Who was asking me stupid questions like " and how do you celebrate Thanksgiving Day in Russia?" Now I want to go back to a European like city and seem Boston would be a good fit.
English is not my native language and I don't know it as well as some one who was born and raised in the US. Yeah I know I should of written "don't"...nobody's perfect.
All my life I lived in a very big cities: Moscow, Minsk, London, Munich. And after I had to move to the US in 2010 I end up living in a small town in the South and after that in NOLA. And I hated it, every day there was horrible. Overly friendly super conservative people. Who was asking me stupid questions like " and how do you celebrate Thanksgiving Day in Russia?" Now I want to go back to a European like city and seem Boston would be a good fit.
English is not my native language and I don't know it as well as some one who was born and raised in the US. Yeah I know I should of written "don't"...nobody's perfect.
I think goyguy was pointing out not to cast stones. There are quite a few grammatical errors in your posts, considering that you specifically cite "people who won't learn English" as one of your reasons to move. I might suggest the same of you, based on your posts (and yes, I'm multilingual as well). I grew up in the South where "Learn English" was a common phrase (even aimed at me, a native English speaker who often spoke Spanish in public) and moved to Boston in part because people will take you to task for such a statement, especially if your own English is not spot on.
For instance...
Quote:
Originally Posted by night4mia
So you are saying that it is impossible to buy anything for 0.5 million dollars in Boston? Even 30-40 from downtown min by public transportation?
In your previous post, you said that your budget is 500.000. In US English, that's $500 dollars, leading MikePRU to assume that your rental budget is $500 a month. The "." indicates a decimal. What you should have used was a comma.
Hello everyone. My husband and I are planning to move to Boston area this September. Curently we live in downtown West Palm Beach, FL. And we are tired of crazy hot and humid weather all year around. We are tired of tons of spanish-speaking people who doesn't bother to learn English. There is not much to do here ether, unless you really enjoy beach and sun.
We are young couple in our 30th. No kids and don't plan any. We love museums and art, architecture and smart people, good food and modern places. J does IT (ethical hacker) and I am a wedding photographer a good one .
We haven't been to Boston yet, but our first visit will be in May. And of course we are doing our research on line, but still I do have some questions and hope that I'll get some answers here.
It is possible to find a property ( if it is a condo or loft would be great if it'll be over 1000 sq ft) under 500.000 in a good area? I don't think that Roxbury and Dorchester will work for us. What are areas we should focus on?
What about crazy driving? Is it really THAT bad?
I'll give some answers without the moralizing commentary that others seem so eager to include:
1. Boston has nice seasons of varying length, but which are roughly equal. Summers are generally hot and tend toward being humid, though I doubt anywhere close to the weather in WPB. There are plenty of long stretches of very comfortable high 70s/low 80s with reasonable dew points. Autumn is a favorite of mine, beautiful leaves, very temperate with warm days and cool evenings during which you can often sit outside even into early October. Winter usually has a fair bit of snow and cold snaps with temps a good bit below zero for a few days on end. However, it can be variable - the current and past winter years have been colder and snowier, with the one before that being extremely mild. Spring is decent, a bit muddy, but generally warm with a few cooler stretches during the transition from March to April.
2. There are people of varying background here who speak English to varying degrees. You'll hear a variety of languages on the buses and such.
3. There are many museums and art galleries of various sorts here, not a huge amount, but enough that it would take you a bit of time to visit them all and really "see" them. There are also a number of cultural activities here such as the symphony, a decent theater scene, and a dining scene of growing respectability (not NYC, but pretty good depending on what your standards are). Nice, varied architecture that can go from the old brick of Harvard Yard, to the brownstones of Back Bay, to the stately row homes in Beacon Hill. Plenty of history too. I think that if you are used to European cities, that Boston will suit you much better than most places in the South. It isn't exactly a replica, and there are plenty of elements that are undoubtedly American, but it is as close as I've seen in some sense.
4. I think your partner would find, assuming that he is good at what he does, plenty of job opportunities here. IT positions are everywhere and generally pay well (though Boston is probably far pricier than WPB, so though the gross salary may be higher, things might even out). As for photography, I don't actually know what the scene is like. I assume you'd need some contacts to get going and such, but if you are an established photographer, you already know all of this.
5. I would absolutely visit first and see how you like it. Boston will be a big change from the Southern cities, and you might love it, but you also might not. I'd also advise having one of you find a job before packing up and moving here. This way, you have a sense of where at least one of you would be commuting to for work. This would give people here a better idea for recommendations as to where you should live. Also, when you do have a job, I would spend a year renting. It may seem like anathema, especially if you currently own, but just because everybody on here is slathering over JP might not mean you like it all that much, you might far prefer Brookline, or somewhere over the river like Somerville. So, if you rent, you aren't locked into some place right away and you have the time to explore other parts of the city as well. If 500k is your budget, I think that you could find somewhere 30-40 minutes out for around that. It might be right around your requested 1000 sq. ft. and might also not be a brand spanking new place, but a condo should be doable. Again though, different parts of the city have different feels and some parts are a pain to commute from depending on where you work, so job first, then recommendations!
6. On driving - I don't think that crazy driving in the sense of people being bad or dangerous drivers is necessarily the issue (at least any more). With another poster, I feel that FL drivers are far worse in most cases. It is more the complicated nature of getting from point A to point B for new drivers here. Streets curve back on themselves, veer off in odd directions (you'll need to become familiar with a 'hard' and 'soft' L/R), and are often just plain confusing to navigate, even with a GPS. It is here that people think that Boston drivers are crazy - those who have the feel for where they are going don't have patience for someone creeping down the Storrow drive entrance ramp trying to decide whether they need to peel to the left or right, or weaving back and forth trying to get into the lane that won't take them onto the Mass Pike. So we honk, tailgate, and generally just get annoyed when people pull these kind of stunts. It is hard for us to remember when we ourselves were doing the same. For this reason, I would suggest that unless you and your partner are wealthy or have high tolerance for frustration, that you get used to the the idea of using public transit for at least some of your transportation needs. Boston isn't a huge driving culture, and it can take what seem to be an inordinate amount of time to drive a couple of miles across the city. Parking can be a nightmare, in that it is very expensive and in high demand in the denser portions of the city, and in equally high demand in the residential portions.
Hope this helps, and just ask for more clarification if you need it.
I think goyguy was pointing out not to cast stones. There are quite a few grammatical errors in your posts, considering that you specifically cite "people who won't learn English" as one of your reasons to move. I might suggest the same of you, based on your posts (and yes, I'm multilingual as well). I grew up in the South where "Learn English" was a common phrase (even aimed at me, a native English speaker who often spoke Spanish in public) and moved to Boston in part because people will take you to task for such a statement, especially if your own English is not spot on.
For instance...
In your previous post, you said that your budget is 500.000. In US English, that's $500 dollars, leading MikePRU to assume that your rental budget is $500 a month. The "." indicates a decimal. What you should have used was a comma.
Well, first of all I don't think that we are here to discuss my English. I know it is not spot on, but here we are talking and do understand each other. Oh and I honestly thought that if you want to write $500 you write it is 500.00, no?
If you or someone else will continue to do so, I am open to move to a different forum about Learning English ))))))
And before I will ask a few more questions about lovely city of Boston, I'll like to say that I do believe that if you decided to move to English spoken country-please bother to learn a basic English. If you decided to move to Us you need to do it legally with all that paperwork + paying thousands of dollars and not just clime over a fence. I do believe in paying taxes and speaking basic English. I know some people who came here illegally and lived here for 10 years illegally and could not say 20 words in English.
Here I asked for advice about Boston. So please lets talk about Boston.
Is it is true that it is a lot more expensive to have a car in Boston? Does Boston have tons of homeless people?
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