Relocating - I need advice on where to rent 1-2 bdrm with good balance of cost and commute (Boston: car insurance, neighborhoods)

[Amontillado]

When the increased fares start in July, a Zone 6 season ticket (for Acton) will be $275 a month. Zone 7, for Littleton, will be $291. The journeys take 40 and 50 minutes respectively to Porter Sq, and you'd undoubtedly have to take the subway on from there, or from North Station. That's significant time and money.

[konfetka]

I would look at North Shore towns for more affordability and highway access to companies along route 128, like Beverly, Danvers, Peabody, and Woburn and Stoneham.

[Kicker Peabody]

@brightdoglover, thanks for your reply.

Originally Posted by brightdoglover

"Double $900/one-bed or $1200/2-bed" is quite posh!

Oh, ok, that's good! I'm just extrapolating from things I've heard about the housing costs there, housing costs here, and a few apartment listings in the Waltham area that I skimmed on craigslist.

Originally Posted by brightdoglover

Regarding small houses in places like Littleton, out Rt. 2, no way would a house cost $2400 for small, or $1800 for a one-bed.
Littleton is out Rt. 2, 25 miles nw of Harvard Square. There is the purple line commuter line in Acton and Littleton, which goes to Porter Sq./Red line in Cambridge. Driving in on rt. 2 towards Cambridge, if you get on the road after about 7am, it's quite crowded; earlier, you sail on in. (There is a lot of traffic coming from the I-495 onto Rt. west- the traffic also depends on what time in the "business hour" commute you are. A lot of congestion is actually getting into the city and through itself). When I've had to drive Rt.2 west to Cambridge/Belmont in the morning, I've left at 6:30a, sailed right in and gotten breakfast somewhere while waiting for 8a to come.

Originally Posted by brightdoglover

I've seen 1-2 bedroom house rentals in the Littleton area (and east Groton, a couple of miles west on a lake) for well under $1800.

Thanks for all of this info! I'm thinking that if I'll be working in the city, I'll need to live closer than that, in subway / bus range. That sounds like too gnarly of a commute for me. I don't want to have to be leaving at 6:30 am. I think I'd have to shell out a bit more to shorten the commute.

Originally Posted by brightdoglover

The commuter trains are all outside the subway areas

Yeah, that's what I figured. I don't get the impression at all that the commuter rail would work for me. I wonder what the shortest rides on the closest ones are? Even so, the limited schedules / high cost would probably be a problem.

Originally Posted by brightdoglover

Newburyport/Gloucester, while great places to live and on the train, are pretty far, yes.

Yeah...it's nice that they have the trains there, but not a commute I'd want to have to deal with on a daily basis.

Originally Posted by brightdoglover

Look up Community Newspaper Group, and it has local editions for different towns with real estate ads for the area. They tend to be private landlords, not complexes or something (except Avalon) because they don't want to cast such a wide net as a major broker or big paper.

Thanks for this suggestion. Is this the outfit you mean?:

http://www.gatehousemedia.com/public...rMassachusetts

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communi...spaper_Company

Originally Posted by brightdoglover

Please feel free to DM me if something like that might be of interest. I might be able to find something.

Thanks. Are you in the real estate business?

[Kicker Peabody]

@Amontillado, thanks for your reply.

Originally Posted by Amontillado

When the increased fares start in July, a Zone 6 season ticket (for Acton) will be $275 a month. Zone 7, for Littleton, will be $291. The journeys take 40 and 50 minutes respectively to Porter Sq, and you'd undoubtedly have to take the subway on from there, or from North Station. That's significant time and money.

Good GOD! That's a ton of money, but the length of the commute is the sure deal-breaker there. That's definitely more time than I want to spend commuting, if I can help it. After deducting the cost of subway / bus from that, there's probably still about an extra $200 a month there that I could instead spend on living closer to shorten the commute, I think.

Thanks for this info.

[Kicker Peabody]

@konfetka, thanks for your reply.

Originally Posted by konfetka

I would look at North Shore towns for more affordability and highway access to companies along route 128, like Beverly, Danvers, Peabody, and Woburn and Stoneham.

Thanks for this suggestion. If I can actually find suitable employment in that area, that might be a great idea (as long as the commute is short enough, factoring in traffic). I don't know of any reason that I couldn't find employment in that area, but my impression is that there's probably the greatest amount of activity in Cambridge (tech startups).

[konfetka]

Originally Posted by Kicker Peabody

@konfetka, thanks for your reply.



Thanks for this suggestion. If I can actually find suitable employment in that area, that might be a great idea (as long as the commute is short enough, factoring in traffic). I don't know of any reason that I couldn't find employment in that area, but my impression is that there's probably the greatest amount of activity in Cambridge (tech startups).

128 is the "technology highway" of the East Coast (with some recent competition from biotech), so you might actually have a chance!

[SoFresh99]

Tech work will be found in Cambridge, Boston, Waltham and to a lesser extent Burlington for the most part. That is tech work with a tech company, there is plenty of tech work with non-tech companies all over.

I would say that living in Waltham is a good bet. You can drive to Burlington in a decent amount of time and there is the (zone 2 $151) commuter rail to Boston that stops in Porter Square Cambridge connecting to the red line subway to Kendall Square, etc. If you get a job in Boston that is closer to the South Station commuter rail stop then you can either drive 10 minutes and park in a Newton commuter rail lot and take the other commuter rail line to South Station, or take the express bus (556/554) to South Station that stops in Waltham.

Rents are high everywhere, but Waltham will be cheaper than what surrounds it and certainly cheaper than Cambridge/Somerville. There are enough young professionals/grad students that you could also find a roommate if needed. If you rent where you can walk to the commuter rail then you save yourself the $350/year parking pass fee for the Waltham lots. Obviously it would be up to you to find a place to rent that has a driveway, overnight parking in Waltham is only allowed on one side of most streets and some streets not at all.

Additionally relatively inexpensive will be Watertown which has busses to Cambridge and from which you can drive to Waltham, but a bit of a hike to Burlington and to get into Boston you would take the subway from Cambridge I think. You could also check West Newton. It will be cheaper to find a 2 BR and a roomate.

[Kicker Peabody]

Originally Posted by konfetka

128 is the "technology highway" of the East Coast (with some recent competition from biotech), so you might actually have a chance!

Ok, cool, thanks for mentioning that.

[Kicker Peabody]

Thanks for your reply @SoFresh99.

Originally Posted by SoFresh99

That is tech work with a tech company, there is plenty of tech work with non-tech companies all over.

Good point. It's not necessarily so, but I think working for a tech company is probably my best bet for getting a job that really matches my skills and compensates accordingly.

Originally Posted by SoFresh99

I would say that living in Waltham is a good bet. You can drive to Burlington in a decent amount of time and there is the (zone 2 $151) commuter rail to Boston that stops in Porter Square Cambridge connecting to the red line subway to Kendall Square, etc.

From what I've heard I'm leery of any commute requiring the commuter rail. I'm wondering how long that commute from Waltham would be.

Originally Posted by SoFresh99

If you get a job in Boston that is closer to the South Station commuter rail stop then you can either drive 10 minutes and park in a Newton commuter rail lot and take the other commuter rail line to South Station, or take the express bus (556/554) to South Station that stops in Waltham.

Thanks for this info.

Originally Posted by SoFresh99

Rents are high everywhere, but Waltham will be cheaper than what surrounds it and certainly cheaper than Cambridge/Somerville.

Ok, that's good to know.

Originally Posted by SoFresh99

If you rent where you can walk to the commuter rail then you save yourself the $350/year parking pass fee for the Waltham lots. Obviously it would be up to you to find a place to rent that has a driveway, overnight parking in Waltham is only allowed on one side of most streets and some streets not at all.

If I'm going to be taking mass transit into the city, it would be nice if I could walk to the station, for the sake of simplicity and time. $350/year for a parking pass would be no big deal in and of itself, but of course it depends what I have to pay for other stuff like housing.

I'm very much in favor of living somewhere with off-street parking.

Originally Posted by SoFresh99

Additionally relatively inexpensive will be Watertown which has busses to Cambridge and from which you can drive to Waltham, but a bit of a hike to Burlington and to get into Boston you would take the subway from Cambridge I think.

That sounds promising. If the bus ride to Cambridge isn't too long, that might be a good option. Would there be a lot of traffic to drive from there to Waltham?

I wouldn't mind living somewhere that would be a decent commute to several different areas, like Cambridge and Waltham. It would be nice if there was somewhere that would allow commuting to even more places, like those plus Burlington, but at the moment Burlington doesn't have any particular significance to me.

If I found a good job in an area away from the city, I guess I'd probably just live close to the job and not worry about being able to commute into the city. Hopefully I'd have that job, or be able to replace it with one close enough if necessary, for the term of a lease and be able to move by the time I'd need to consider being able to commute to the city.

Originally Posted by SoFresh99

You could also check West Newton.

Ok, thanks.

Originally Posted by SoFresh99

There are enough young professionals/grad students that you could also find a roommate if needed....It will be cheaper to find a 2 BR and a roomate.

My girlfriend will be in tow, but if she wasn't I couldn't deal with living with a roommate. I'd have to find something that I could afford on my own, either shelling out the extra money or accepting more modest quarters.

[brightdoglover]

Where does the "in tow" (!) girlfriend need to be for school, work, whatever? Does she have or need a car?
Commuter from Waltham is absolutely not an issue. Waltham borders the city, and is not out in the burbs. It's more like a subway stop or two. The commuter train stops near my job in Belmont on the Waltham line, and it's a short hop to Porter Square from there (where there is the red line if needed). Waltham is perfect for a commute.
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