Deciding on where to possibly live in Boston area. Advice/tips welcomed. (Cambridge: apartment)

[Zanfire]

So after this month il be leaving the western side of MA to 'attempt' to live near Boston. I have found there are far more tech jobs out there (so far i spent the last year doing IT/Helpdesk, don't love it, but its a start). To start il be living right next to my older sister in Weymouth until i can secure a job and find an apartment to share.

So some stuff about me: I'm 27yr old male who lived in western MA my whole life. I tend to be more of a geek and not overly social, but im slowly trying to get over that and enjoy my younger social years while i got them lol. I just ended a job doing IT/Helpdesk for almost a year now (it was meh, looking to move into other tech jobs). i went to college for about a year, but stopped due to not having any money so no degree. As much as i kind of hate winter here, im used to the weather: aka a few weeks of spring or fall, then LONG strings of summer and winter. I don't spend much outside of my tech and gaming habbits, but i keep my cost of living pretty cheap and id 99% likely end up living with a roomate because it saves so much money and since id be new there, i think it would help knowing someone in the area.

Of the few places i have visited the big one i like so far, though i havent gotten to exactly see the day to day of is Salem. The main draw for me for there was it seemed like it was a nice inbetween of being a city/urban area with the outskirts being more suburban. I also grew up really liking Halloween because of my mother (though i don't get dressed up much or anything for a long while now). I also used to really dig the paranormal type stuff, though also i havent really paid attention to it since i can be a whimp when it comes to scary stuff. My sister lived there a few years back and my aunt for quite a few years until she moved to Florida when she got married.

The next 2 places were suggested to me because it seems to be where the younger crowd is going and its much closer to the city and they have their own urban/city styles to them. Those are the Somerville/Cambridge area and South Boston area which look very interesting to me. I have not been to either of them but a lot of the jobs im looking at (trying to work for a game development studio) seem to mostly be in the Cambridge and Boston proper areas. The big downfall i see is that those areas are more expensive to rent in, or at least seem so when looking for rooms to share on CL. It would all depend on how much i end up making and where which will influence what place i look at.

Id like to hear what people think of those areas or possibly others. I hear decent things about places like Jamaican Plain in the south shore and possibly Brookline. I don't need to jump on anything right away and i may hold out to try to land even a QA test job at a game studio while i have a chance to look. SO thanks for reading the longish post and any help would be appreciated, even just info on the areas or ones i should look into or how you felt about living in the ones i listed (both pros and cons are good to see)

[kingeorge]

All places suggested are good fit. Salem will be the cheapest, but commute might cost more if you work in Boston. It will come to money and budget. Work on figuring out job and rest will fall in place. It is hard to advise you without knowing where you work. Your new job will determine which location is possible, and which is crazy to even consider.

You will have to budget for transportation so closer you are to your job, cheaper it will be to commute daily. Better spend money on rent than on an expensive commute.

For roommate situation closer to Boston/Cambridge you could also check Medford/Quincy/Malden.

Good luck.