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My mother and I plan on moving to either state by around May-August or anytime during the summer given the occasion after my sister graduates from uni. I plan on going back to college for Computer Science and Business Analytics while also hopefully applying for a job as a butcher or anything outside of retail to help me add new skills to my resume.
With our income combined, my mother and I would make about $100K-$110K per year. Not a lot, but any advice is generally appreciated.
I've been looking into Stamford, CT, for one, but I'd also like to know where my mother and I can apply ourselves in the MA area so that we'd make sure to make our ends meet.
My mother and I plan on moving to either state by around May-August or anytime during the summer given the occasion after my sister graduates from uni. I plan on going back to college for Computer Science and Business Analytics while also hopefully applying for a job as a butcher or anything outside of retail to help me add new skills to my resume.
With our income combined, my mother and I would make about $100K-$110K per year. Not a lot, but any advice is generally appreciated.
I've been looking into Stamford, CT, for one, but I'd also like to know where my mother and I can apply ourselves in the MA area so that we'd make sure to make our ends meet.
More colleges / far more folks in a similar position as you in Massachusetts.
Also, incredibly strong tech sector in Greater Boston.. It’ll be a breeze to find a job.
Check out rentals near Cambridge/Somerville.. Waltham, Watertown, Arlington would be great for access to Cambridge and Boston and 95. Enough to do to keep you busy without having to go to Boston when you don’t want to.
The best housing bang for your buck where there are jobs is Hartford CT. The pay scale there is "almost Boston" level and "almost Lower Fairfield County" level but not with those housing prices. You also have UConn within commuting distance. Other than UMass-Amherst which isn't near any job market, the Massachusetts state university system is fairly mediocre. Boston certainly is loaded with top private universities but you have to consider affordability. UConn and UMass-Amherst are pretty much at academic parity.
Agree with GeoffD - costs in the Boston housing market are brutal, and UConn - about a half hour east of Hartford in Storrs, is one of the better state universities in the country, so nothing wrong with that. Hartford itself has some crime issues, but you don't need to live in the city, and it's considerably less expensive than Boston.
The best housing bang for your buck where there are jobs is Hartford CT. The pay scale there is "almost Boston" level and "almost Lower Fairfield County" level but not with those housing prices. You also have UConn within commuting distance. Other than UMass-Amherst which isn't near any job market, the Massachusetts state university system is fairly mediocre. Boston certainly is loaded with top private universities but you have to consider affordability. UConn and UMass-Amherst are pretty much at academic parity.
This is the truth. ^^^^
Boston area has become nearly impossibly expensive to live in. The Stamford area (Fairfield County) of Connecticut is very expensive too because it's next to New York City. Western Mass (where Univ of Mass Amherst is located is low on jobs. Hartford area has a few nice towns, pricey but not like Boston or Stamford areas and there are jobs. You could look at West Hartford, Simsbury, Canton, Avon, maybe Farmington but the farther you get out, the more boring it gets. There is nothing in Hartford for living but there are jobs there.
It depends on what you want though. If you want rich and monied areas with a lot of things to do it would be Boston area or Fairfield County (Stamford and other towns), but if you can take a somewhat boring area without big city amenities, then the suburbs of Hartford would be a good fit.
Location: Techified Blue (Collar)-Rooted Bastion-by-the-Sea
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For someone in your position (income-wise), I’d say Hartford > Stamford > Boston.
In the future, with a more robust income, Stamford > Hartford > Boston
The Boston area is laughably overpriced in terms of housing prices. Fairfield county is actually justified in terms of housing prices, being a higher end suburban region within commuting distance of NYC.
Spend time in Greenwich, Stamford and Westport and compare the feel you get vs. Lexington, Waltham and Weston. And then spend time as well in Avon, West Hartford and Glastonbury.
Aside from having a high end job in the Boston area, I fail to see why one would choose it over the others. But I suppose that’s the main reason for many ..
Aside from having a high end job in the Boston area, I fail to see why one would choose it over the others. But I suppose that’s the main reason for many ..
High end job - in a market with a TON of tech opportunity for those who graduate with a computer science degree - And in/near a Tier 1 American city.
People act confused why someone would choose the above.
What is the confusion?
I’d rather be a recent grad in Boston than in Stamford or Hartford. If anything, establish your career, and then move to the latter two later.
High end job - in a market with a TON of tech opportunity for those who graduate with a computer science degree - And in/near a Tier 1 American city.
People act confused why someone would choose the above.
What is the confusion?
I’d rather be a recent grad in Boston than in Stamford or Hartford. If anything, establish your career, and then move to the latter two later.
There’s no confusion. The OP doesn’t have a degree. They’re talking about getting a CS/Business analytics degree. Likely part time. They need to live somewhere affordable while that all happens. It’s not like they have an MIT Computer Science degree with all the Boston tech employers beating a path to their door waiving juicy job offers at them. They’re talking about a job as a butcher.
Nationally, the Hartford metro is in the top-20 for median household income. There is a lot of economic opportunity and it’s Northeast Corridor pay scale. UConn is commutable and they can take some of their classes at the downtown Hartford campus. The city of Hartford is a hell hole but there are plenty of nice places to live in the metro and it’s far more affordable than Boston or Lower Fairfield County. In that circumstance, I’d take a hard look at east of the river where Storrs is an easy ride for a part time student.
Well I can say a number of things given I grew up in mass move to western and live and work in ct now. The material I'm going to say usually gets removed from the Connecticut Board but I think I can say it here.
First I'd have to ask how long are you looking to own the house? Are you anticipating telecommuting or not?
Second what are you already used to at this point? Health care, shopping, walkability, bars/clubs
Third can you and your mom drive well?
I would generally recommend central and western mass, probably Springfield and Worcester.
Why
1)Floods-Flood factor shows Boston and much of the ct coast will be under water. Springfield has hardly anything and Worcester nothing.
2)Telecommuting. As much as I might like to say otherwise telecommuting is gradually become Norm. Pricewaterhousecoopers had 500 job openings in Hartford and then decided to make everything in the entire company telecommuting. In Massachusetts there's a state law that state employees must live in the state. In Connecticut that's not the case. As a ct state employee there are some people in my department in places like Ohio and New Jersey.
3) Finances. Mass has legit controls over taxes and spending. It can still go up but at least it isn't a flood. I pay relative to valuations 30% more in property taxes vs my folks in Mass. Sales taxes are the same but nothing is taxes in CT. Gas taxes are significantly higher.
4) Mass is growing ( Berkshires is dying) CT is flat (Eastern CT is dying). Mass has invested heavily in its urban areas. The relationship between the state and local governments is much better than Massachusetts and Connecticut. Hartford is lost 3,000 people over the past 10 years Springfield has gained 3,000. There was a time when Hartford was a bigger city but that is not been the case for quite some time.
5) Standards in ct are lower. For example in Massachusetts that an educational reform in the early 1990s with sleds to estate development of the mcast test which has been standardized for probably the past twenty or so years Connecticut got rid of their standardized test years ago. Massachusetts is very strict rules and terms of purchasing Connecticut does not a fair amount of Connecticut actually purchases Goods from Massachusetts via the Mhec. Massachusetts (and technically New York) have housing mandates where they have to make attempts to house people as they don't want homeless people on the streets. As a result there was a housing reform in 2014 where people can be assigned public housing when there's openings Statewide. Connecticut doesn't have this. Generally speaking Massachusetts has a pretty strong state government. Now I'm not saying that everybody loves the laws and regulations but they're written in such a way that you know what they mean and you know how they can be enforced. Connecticut isn't like that at all.
6) historical preservation is much better than Massachusetts. There's this then call the community preservation act which provided for an incentive to enable local governments to preserve local history. Connecticut doesn't have this. I'm not saying everything was saved in Massachusetts but the historical districts have much more funding and much more ability.
7) electrical costs are some of the highest in the nation in Connecticut. These are where the terminal ends are from many pipelines so if we can't get the natural gas to power the electrical plants it's going to take a while before rates get lower. Eversource is hated here like you wouldn't believe.
Where I work has a vaccination rate of 95-99% we still don't go in full time. At this point it's no longer about covid but that other employers have hybrid and fully remote so it's normalized and expected. Yes there are many job openings in Connecticut I'm not doubting that. But unless you actually have population growth eventually what's going to happen is they'll continue to have these jobs go online with nullify the reasons to move there.
What gave me the incentive to move to Connecticut was that the house was very cheap in my price range and in livable condition and I am closer to my girlfriend. I would say I'm within about a half hour from Hartford and Springfield in about 45 minutes from Worcester. The house itself was flipped and I'm continuing to put in money for improvements and maintenance and it will continue to appreciate in value and I will build equity. Houses in Springfield went up exponentially over the past couple years
The argument that Connecticut is the backyard of Massachusetts and New York only goes so far. People can drive to a given point but if they don't have access to things it's going to hurt later on in life. What if people can't drive. In more suburban and rural areas public transit is much harder to find. I don't wish bad things on the city of Hartford I've dealt directly with the city and number of times and I could literally get the mayor's office to reply back to me in less than a day. The city of Hartford is in state receivership and will continue to do so for probably years if not a Whole Decade. It's not the mayor's fault but there's systemic issues embedded within the Departments and they're hiring system which make it much harder to get talent and to retain it. Sometimes it's like The Emperor's New Clothes. We think things are the way they are but we not seeing what they are now. I was in Hartford a few months back on a Friday at noon a beautiful day and hardly anybody was there. I saw him maybe Thirty or forty people at the most. The other day I went by Blue Block Square a few people here and there but the cars are really because there's apartments on top of those stores. I'll be going in again in another week or so but I'm not anticipating doing as much. They're trying to convert many of the hotels into Apartments to try to attract people but I don't think that's a good long-term solution. If you want people to spend more money you're going to have to build more actual houses in the city and get them to live there. Otherwise there's not much somebody can do to an apartment to make it better.
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