Hi, everyone--particularly Bostonians and Boston-transplants--
I need TONS of advice about living in Boston! My husband's being seriously considered for a position at Harvard (hooray!), and we know nothing about living in the area. I am most concerned about costs of living--particularly housing.

Here in Minnesota, we live in a house that would probably sell for about $190K--it's a 3 bedroom, two bath, tiny city house (and we don't have tons of equity). We would love something comparable--3 bedrooms, older home with lots of charm and a cute, trendy, fairly safe dense urban neighborhood. Would we have to live out in the sticks to find a house under $250K? Are there even ANY houses in that range? They are planning to fly us out sometime soon to start looking--I would love recommendations of places/areas to start.

I am excited about the possibility, but I know Boston is going to be MUCH more expensive and I am really worried about that!

Thanks, Boston people!

Tara

Taravb Congrats!
Hopefully Puna will see this, as she just moved FROM Boston! Good luck with the move and keep us posted!

Congratulations, taravb! As Espe3 mentions, Puna and many other MMASMB members live in Boston and the Boston area. Didn't they have a MadridMan Members Dinner there a year or so ago??

Good luck to you!!!! Saludos, MadridMan

Okay, I'll take a stab at this. I work in Boston and live in Framingham, which is about a half hour west of Boston. I hope I'm not going to be the bearer of bad news, but you're not going to find anything in your price range in Boston or Cambridge, unless its a real fixer upper.

My suggestion is that you do a search on the "MBTA" so that you can see the different subway transportation lines (we call it the T). Also, you might look at the commuter rail lines too.

The MBTA's red line runs through Cambridge. You might consider looking west of Boston in cities like Waltham and Watertown, as those towns are quite accessible to Route 2 and the Alewife Parkway stop on the T (where there is parking). Otherwise, the corridor that you want to look in is the Route 128 belt.

This is an enormous question to answer, but I'll rattle off a bunch of towns for you to look in that you should find homes in the $250K range. All would be accessible to public transportation, but primarily in Boston, and then your husband would need to switch lines. For example, if you chose to live on the south of Boston, your husband could take the commuter rail into South Station and then switch to the red line to get to Harvard. If you lived north of Boston, he would take the commuter rail to North Station and take a bus into Cambridge.

I'm going to list these towns/cities in no particular order ($250K price range): Quincy, Braintree, Norwood, Dedham, Medford, Somerville, Randolph, Framingham, Natick, Burlington, Reading, North Reading, Woburn. All of the commutes to Boston would be in the 20-30 minute range, and then you need to add on 15-20 minutes to Cambridge.

You might check out some websites for realtors. The largest ones are Hunneman, DeWolfe and Carlson.

If you do a search on each town you can familiarize yourself with the property taxes and school systems.

If you need other information, feel free to email me or post your questions here. But, the biggest bang for your buck is going to be a 45-60 minute commute outside of Boston. The town that I live in have homes in the range of $250-$750K, and I wouldn't recommend a house in the $250K range.

As an example, my secretary and her fiance signed a Purchase and Sale Agreement for a home in Blackstone, MA. It's a 2 family home, almost on the Rhode Island line. For $260K, the total square footage is 2400 on a 1/2 acre of property. It will take my secretary about 60-75 minutes to get to the office, and that's taking the commuter rail to South Station and then walking to the Financial District.

I agree with Lipstique; you won't find anything under $250K around this area. I live in Natick which is next to Framingham. It is a great location, close to everything. I think you'll love Boston!

I do hope that you decide to make the move to Boston! It is a great area.

My husband and I live on the North Shore. We bought a one bedroom condo (1200 sq. ft.) in Salem (Witch City) for $140K last year.
If I could plug my city for a minute--Salem is fairly trendy and right on the ocean plus it's a quick 20 min commuter rail ride into North Station and then a breeze to get to Harvard. Plus I've seen some listings for houses in this town that looked pretty reasonable.

Lipstique's post was quite accurate. Definitely start some internet searching and narrow your search down to a few city areas and a few suburbs. I am sure you will be able to find something fairly comparable (albeit a bit pricier) to what you have now in MN.

Best of luck and be sure to report back to us on your findings! And if you have any more questions, do let us Bostonians know!

Sarita

Thank you so much, everyone! I have been checking out some online house listings in Salem and in some of the other cities you have mentioned, and they look nice and fairly comparable to what we currently have.

Our current house is a 1.5-story Cape Cod, with a finished upstairs (low ceilings, kneewalls--more like a cave with skylights!). So we're okay with something small, as long as it's in decent shape (though the thought of moving to a smaller house is a bit depressing--we had always thought of this "starter home" as a stepping stone to something just a bit roomier!).

I guess my dream of a 1868 farmhouse will have to wait a while!

Thanks for the transit advice...I have been checking out the website and it looks like we will have a range of options for getting my husband to work (all of them are LOOOONG!!).

Our current situation involves a 6 mile/13-minute commute to downtown, so Boston will take some huge mental adjustments! It's not a definite deal yet, though--we'll see what happens! In some ways, I think it would be fabulous to live in Boston--I would ADORE sharing the history of the area with my daughter, and the proximity to the beach is VERY attractive after 8 years in the midwest!

You might get a feel for real estate prices by checking some of the newspapers. Many of them have websites, which you can search for:

The Boston Globe
The Boston Herald
Patriot Ledger
The Tab
Metrowest News
Worcester Telegram

There are many more, but this will get you started.

Also, since there are some new stops on the commuter rail (Framingham/Worcester line), you might also check out the towns of Ashland, Westborough and Northborough. I'll also mention Southborough, but Southborough can be quite pricy.

Oh, I thought of another question--of the towns you mentioned, Lipstique and Sarita, where are we likely to find the best schools? We're big fans of public schools out here in Minnesota, but I don't know whether the public schools in the Boston area compare. Do either of you have advice about schools?

My daughter is a kindergartener in an urban, public, magnet Montessori school. It's a GREAT school with incredibly high parent involvement and amazing diversity. Given the housing market in Boston, we may not be able to AFFORD any private schools, at least not for a while!

If you do a search on MCAS, you'll be able to see the ranking of the school systems. Well, that's not totally accurate. Students in particular grades have to take an exam called MCAS. Ultimately, if you don't pass the exam, you won't graduate from high school. The examination is relatively knew (a few years old), and it is highly controversial. However, I guess that you could assume that the towns with the higher ratings on the exams have better school systems.

I graduated from Wayland High School in 1976. At the time the Wayland school system was ranked as the 4th best in the state. Wayland, however, is very pricy.

Another town that you might look at is Marlborough. I know nothing about the school system, however there are probably homes in your price range. Framingham and Natick have good school systems. I would not recommend the public schools in Boston, and I'm sure that I will get reprimanded for that here. One of my co-workers lives in Boston, and she sends her son to a Montessori school.

One of my bosses has 3 daughters in the Braintree school system, and his impression of the school system is positive. Randolph, Norwood and Dedham also have good school systems. If you can find an affordable home in Sharon or Needham, I know that the school system there are very good also.

Maybe I can help you by providing a list of towns that are expensive to live in, and albeit have excellent school systems: Wayland, Weston, Dover, Sherborn, Lincoln, Acton, Sudbury, Concord, Lexington, Wellesley, Newton, Brookline, and Belmont. But in some of these towns you might find a modest home that will fit into your budget. I'm sure that there are plenty more to add to the list.