CA Single Mom Looking 4 Best Place to Live in Boston Area??? (Worcester: fit in, best towns)

[ravin029]

I'm trying so very hard to get to the eastcoast, if anyone could help me out, I've never been to Boston, but that's not my concern. My heart is not in CA. I grew up in KC, MO, but I have no desire to go back there, I lived in the south (LA) for some time and loved it but wouldn't want to raise my son there. He's 8 by the way. I really look forward to being near all of you I'm sick to not be there now, but I'm working on that now, for I'm looking at a job offer in Quincy. I'm not sure if I want to live in this area, I'm pretty sure Boston would be more idea for me. I need a great school for my son, I'd prefer a private school. My budget is tight, single mom here I need some place decent enough to feel comfortable in my suroundings. All your advise would be so helpful. I may not be able to go out there and look at the place for I'll probably start working and move into my new place the first time I see Boston. That's okay, I can deal w/ that. The closest I've been to Boston is NYC. I loved it there. I like that I'll be a few hours away from NYC vs the few day's by car away I am now. I thank you all who reply to my message and I hope to be there soon.

[bluewatergirl888]

You should try looking in Milton. It is the next town over from Quincy. It can be pricy, I’m not sure what type of budget you have. Money Magazine just rated it #7 in the best towns in America list. Good luck.

[MagicTouch]

I just moved from CA to MA ... exactly a week ago today. I chose Bedford for the peace and quiet. It is very safe, family oriented and has good schools. I know Lexington and Concord are also safe, family friendly and have good schools. These areas are said to be pricey, but I find the price comparable to CA. So I had no issues with the cost. If I may ask ... what kind of job are you looking for, what field are you in?

I wish you the best in your job and house hunting efforts !!

[ogre]

When you say you don't think you want to live in Quincy, but are "pretty sure Boston would be more the idea" for you, are you saying you'd like to live right in the city? If so, do you mean in and near downtown, or more of an outlying residential neighborhood? If you'd be interested in the suburbs, what kind of town would you like? More rural, or more of a larger town with shops and restaurants, for example? Info like this would help people narrow down the possibilites for you. Also, not to be negative, but to be realistic, the Boston area has high housing costs. The best places for you to live in the area could depend on your housing budget. If you don't mind providing a ballpark figure on your preferred housing costs, this too could help people narrow the possibilities. Best of luck with your search, and here's a future welcome to Boston.

[ravin029]

Thanks a bunch for all your info! This helps sooo much on where I want to stay tramendously. First of all, I wanted to tell MagicTouch I’m not sure what part of CA your from but I’m pretty sure were from totally different areas. I’m in Sacramento, and the cost of living prices here are Very Cheap compared to that of those near and in Boston. Ogre, Boston is just like the Bay Area’s prices for as cost of living goes. Waaay tooooo high for me. Unless you got the right finances to fit the bill it’s not happening. I couldn’t even afford a studio there. I’d take a studio if I had to but that’s not happening! To give you an idea of where I am now, I currently live in a really nice 1 bd room apartment in a quiet middle class neighborhood, with private gate key access, brand new appliances, granite counter-tops in every room, not too big but not small, and I’m not paying over $700.00 a month! How are ya’ll doing it? I can’t do roomates and I’m not married. And NO I’m not staying here. I’ll give this place up in heartbeat to get out of CA and be back there anywhere near you guy’s. CA is just like the entire eastcoast, it has it’s high and lower spots for living, you just have to find where you can fit in and I’m trying to find where I can fit in back there. From, MA to NY, to CT, (not Jersey, I didn’t like Jersey) I’m looking for something that’s w/in a few hours drive to NYC. I LOVE NYC and Boston’s Great Too, even though I haven’t been there I just know I’ll love it. But I can’t live there at least not now, and I’m Okay w/ that, to be able to take a trip to either one of these cities whenever I wanted on the weekends that would make it all soo worth it.

I’m in the middle of my carrer and I have some of years experience in the administrative field dealing w/ finance mostly auto financing and banking, w/ lien holder’s and titles and so forth. I want to finish school back east, I just rcvd my AA here and I want to go for my BA then eventually law school. Long way but it’s coming soon.

Funny thing is MagicTouch mentioned moving to Bedford. I mention there was a job offer I was concidering in Quincy, the job will pay a max of 33,000 a year. Not near enough for this area, I’m surprised they don’t offer a cost of living adjustment to go with that and this is a state job! However, there was two locations for this position the other one is located in New Bedford, now looking at the map, New Bedford is no where near Bedford and it’s seems pretty far from Boston. The good side to this is the the BIG diffrence in the cost of living compared to that of Quincy. I could at least survive there. Now how much I will like it there I don’t know. I love diversity in a city and that’s what Boston has. Living in CA I’ve gotten used to that.

I’m not going to be too picky for I’m not so much looking for my dream home or my dream job just yet. I’m just looking to move out of CA, and get my foot in the door somewhere, live where I can feel comfortable, and finish my studies. As long as it’s a Safe and Clean place, I’ll take it. Nothing fancy I can get all that later.

[ogre]

I'm not especially familiar with towns south of Boston, so let's hope we'll get some input here from people who are. Since Quincy is south of Boston, if you accept that job offer your best chance of finding a workable situation in MA would be somewhere down the south shore, or inland to the south or southwest of Boston. 700/mo. rent would be tight, but you have a better chance of finding rents that are low for this area the farther out from Boston you get. With a job in Quincy you'd have the advantage of being able to live farther south, where the rents get lower than they are in the close-in suburbs, and avoiding some of the worst commuter traffic, since you'd be ending your commute as you got closer to the city, where the traffic would be getting heavier. So, in the scenario involving Quincy, south of Boston might work out for you pretty well. Now let's hope some people familiar with that area can provide some details. Best of luck.

[RedSoxGurl80]

Originally Posted by ravin029

Thanks a bunch for all your info! This helps sooo much on where I want to stay tramendously. First of all, I wanted to tell MagicTouch I’m not sure what part of CA your from but I’m pretty sure were from totally different areas. I’m in Sacramento, and the cost of living prices here are Very Cheap compared to that of those near and in Boston. Ogre, Boston is just like the Bay Area’s prices for as cost of living goes. Waaay tooooo high for me. Unless you got the right finances to fit the bill it’s not happening. I couldn’t even afford a studio there. I’d take a studio if I had to but that’s not happening! To give you an idea of where I am now, I currently live in a really nice 1 bd room apartment in a quiet middle class neighborhood, with private gate key access, brand new appliances, granite counter-tops in every room, not too big but not small, and I’m not paying over $700.00 a month! How are ya’ll doing it? I can’t do roomates and I’m not married. And NO I’m not staying here. I’ll give this place up in heartbeat to get out of CA and be back there anywhere near you guy’s. CA is just like the entire eastcoast, it has it’s high and lower spots for living, you just have to find where you can fit in and I’m trying to find where I can fit in back there. From, MA to NY, to CT, (not Jersey, I didn’t like Jersey) I’m looking for something that’s w/in a few hours drive to NYC. I LOVE NYC and Boston’s Great Too, even though I haven’t been there I just know I’ll love it. But I can’t live there at least not now, and I’m Okay w/ that, to be able to take a trip to either one of these cities whenever I wanted on the weekends that would make it all soo worth it.

I’m in the middle of my carrer and I have some of years experience in the administrative field dealing w/ finance mostly auto financing and banking, w/ lien holder’s and titles and so forth. I want to finish school back east, I just rcvd my AA here and I want to go for my BA then eventually law school. Long way but it’s coming soon.

Funny thing is MagicTouch mentioned moving to Bedford. I mention there was a job offer I was concidering in Quincy, the job will pay a max of 33,000 a year. Not near enough for this area, I’m surprised they don’t offer a cost of living adjustment to go with that and this is a state job! However, there was two locations for this position the other one is located in New Bedford, now looking at the map, New Bedford is no where near Bedford and it’s seems pretty far from Boston. The good side to this is the the BIG diffrence in the cost of living compared to that of Quincy. I could at least survive there. Now how much I will like it there I don’t know. I love diversity in a city and that’s what Boston has. Living in CA I’ve gotten used to that.

I’m not going to be too picky for I’m not so much looking for my dream home or my dream job just yet. I’m just looking to move out of CA, and get my foot in the door somewhere, live where I can feel comfortable, and finish my studies. As long as it’s a Safe and Clean place, I’ll take it. Nothing fancy I can get all that later.

Hey there...

I grew up in Boston, lived in Boston area (Quincy and Weymouth), Framingham area and Western Mass (Shrewsbury). The problem is MA is VERY expensive to live. Worcester and west is the cheapest but then the pay goes way down too. My parents moved to CT 10 years ago and I decided to make the move there as well 2 1/2 years ago. I love it!! Northern CT is very reasonably priced for houses and renting...and honestly I think the pay here is better than most of MA (excluding executive positions in boston). Also, WAY less traffic, better schools, and the area I am in is very community oriented. They do concerts and fairs on the town green every weekend through spring and summer. The other thing that is great is I am 1 1/2 hours from Boston and about 2 hours from NYC - so it is ideal to go in for a day or a weekend. The downfall - too many Yankees fans!! haha

I have been trying to convince my sister for 2 years to move out of Quincy and she is FINALLY moving to CT this weekend!!

Good luck with your move to the east coast - if you do decide to move to the Quincy area, I know it very well I can help point you in the right direction for schools and areas to live/not to live in.

Take care!

[skytrekker]

Boston is known for its high cost of housing, but in actuality it is the lowest for median single family home price compared to the greater New York and the Washington DC area.

According to the NAR second quarter of 2007 median home prices are as follows;

Boston 413,000
San Francisco Oakland Fremont 846,000
San Jose 865,000
Los Angeles 593,000
Anaheim Santa Ana 727,000
San Diego 614,000
Sacramento 356,000
Washington DC NoVa 445,000
New York Northern NJ LI 483,000
Seattle 395,000

Metro Boston is considerably cheaper then coastal California. Remember these are median prices, meaning that half the homes are higher, and half lower. Some towns in all areas will have price premiums- however Boston metro is much less then most of California's major markets overall. Boston area prices are in fact close to Seattle WA


And yes central CT is a real bargain- east of Hartford is as well with median home prices around 250,000.

[smarty]

Originally Posted by ravin029

Funny thing is MagicTouch mentioned moving to Bedford. I mention there was a job offer I was concidering in Quincy, the job will pay a max of 33,000 a year. Not near enough for this area, I’m surprised they don’t offer a cost of living adjustment to go with that and this is a state job!

Regarding Pay. Supply and Demand. There are many well educated people who want to live in MA. There is no lack of supply. If you don't want the job, there are many who do. Even Physicians are paid less in Boston area than somewhere in Maine.

As you know the cost of living is high around here. May be you should think about areas the same distance from Boston as you (Sac town) are from San Francisco. 1.5 hour away!!

[tizzy]

The person who recommended Bedford, Lexington, and Concord - those are north of Boston and Quincy is south of Boston. One thing you should learn about Boston - it's very hard to get from north to south or vice versa, unless you're on the subway line. Most people live and work on the same side of Boston, unless they work in the city. If your job is in Quincy you're better off staying south.

That said - 33K per year is not going to get you far although there are some lower-priced towns south of Boston.

My question is this: you say you've never been here but you know you'll love it and you want to be a few hours drive from NY. NY is a four hour drive and most people take the bus (like Greyhound) which is 4 hours with a pitstop in CT. So it's not that close but the busses leave every hour.

I would suggest visiting. I think Boston is a wonderful place to live but prices are very high. Quincy is on the subway line (the T) on the red line so if you find a cheap place in Quincy to live you can save a lot of money taking the subway into Boston. You can also take the red line straight to South Station from where you catch the bus to NY.

But remember that living somewhere is very different from visiting or what you imagine a place to me. Boston is very cold and the people are a little cold too but actually quite genuine- easterners are much more straightforward than westerners in my experience - a little too straightforward sometimes :-) It's an absolutely gorgeous city with a lot to offer for anybody of any age.