RoB1833

Can anyone give me any guidelines with level of taxation, rents for a 3 bedroom apartment (other than the usual internet sites) and other costs associated with living around there? (heat????)

I have a chance of a job up there, just been told the salary and I'm not sure if it will cut it for a family of four..... What would I need to be earning???

Any information would be appreciated!

sibsie

I'm North Shore on Cape Ann and it's certainly not one of the cheaper areas of the US to live in. Rent in my area for a 2 bed place would be upwards of $1300 a month not including any utilities.

Last winter was harsh but our heating bills were around $400 every two months. Admittedly that's for a largish house and we have propane gas in a tank as no mains gas here, but that doesn't seem to be too out of the ordinary from what I can gather.

Boston really varies widely in what you can get for your money. Like most metro areas, there are some super nice places that cost $$$ and some scuzzy places that you wouldn't want to linger in.

Any idea if you'd be locating right in Boston or on the outskirts?

RoB1833

Thanks for the info!

The job is at the airport, so we've been looking at the north and west suburbs, don't really want to live right in the city if we can help it. Three bed rentals look like they're upwards of $1400, more expensive in the apartment complexes. Trouble is it's hard to tell what the areas are like and they give virtually no detail with the apartments themselves......

We're trying to do our sums at the moment and from what we can work out the taxation level is about the same as North Carolina, it's just things like utilities, food prices, petrol, etc that we're trying to guage. The job is more than twice what I'm earning here, but I have no commute and the rents look like double what we're paying at the moment. If everything else costs twice as much too we may as well be skint here where it's relatively warm than skint up there where it's cold!

Bob

A/C A must for the summer
The T isn't bad, and wasn't too pricey, well last year when I was bout, it was alright, so no real need to be in Boston. Petrol ain't the cheapest for new england though, and the roads are shocking, as is the driving, well it scared me

sibsie

Apart from this summer which was total pants. I do live on an island though so the temp is always 10 degrees below in summer. We spend every weekend in downtown Boston May to October and there were very few days that were really hot.

The really dodgy area is Roxbury. If you have a list of places you like the look of, you can always PM me and if I don't know the areas, I'll run them past Mr Sibsie.

RoB1833

How about electric, is that expensive? Whats the petrol price up there at the moment? Still doing sums and at the moment it looks do-able......

cupranod

I know this isn't that relevant to the post topic but Boston is a wonderful city with many great suburbs.It's also within reach of beautiful Maine and the New Hampshire lakes region.Good luck to you,but like anywhere it's worth paying a bit more to get a good area and there are many good sources of information to be had by scouring the net.
Oh,and I didn't think the driving was any worse there than anywhere else in the USA!!
Mind you,"The Big Dig" is causing some congestion and the detour signs are abysmal!!

sibsie

Petrol on average is $1.80 here. It has dropped a little and was about $1.89 a couple of months ago.

Electricity is cheap, certainly compared to Spain where I was before. Our bill is an average of $50 a month for a big old gaff.

Traffic around Boston is ok-ish though last week the Big Dig sprung a leak which caused a bit of chaos. There are so many options for getting into Logan from the T to the water taxi that it's really not a prob. Drivers in Boston and MA on a whole are the worst I've come across and I lived in London, have driven in Rome and Paris as well as Spain. :scared:

As Cupranod said, Boston is a really nice little city. It's got a low crime rate, it's nice and compact and easy to find your way round. I always feel safe when I'm down town and it's easy to spot the areas that you shouldn't be hanging around in.

The outskirts are nice and there's a North Shore, South Shore divide much like in England with the norf and sarf. North Shorers think it's the best and South Shorers think their bit is the best. I live in North Shore and am a tad biased but I do think it's a great place.

Taxes on property and cars are high though and it's defo not one of the cheapest areas to live in.

Bob

You insane, the drive into maine is awful, and long, well maine has that effect
and it's not so much the drivers, but the roads, them highway pot holes are back breaker

cupranod

Maybe 'cos I lived out in the countryside of Britain I am used to pot holes and dodgy drivers!!!
Try driving in India :scared: ,makes the run out to Maine look like a piece of cake!!
Maybe these experiences made it a little easier on me.

Englishmum

My friend used to live in the Boston metro area (the town is called Needham) which was quite a nice area (green, leafy) and she lived a couple of blocks from Trader Joe's.

Her children went to the British school in another nearby town - so you might want to consider sending your children there:

http://www.britishschool.org

http://www.traderjoes.com

RoB1833

Okay so petrol is about the same and our electric is about $130 a month....

Still can't make up my mind though!!!!

Big Vern

Like most places its chaeper if you like in the sticks and commute into the city (if you have to)...I've got a mate who lives in Northborough,a small town about 20 miles out of Boston, he's lived there three years and loves it. If he wants to go into town, they drive to the nearest T station (the light rail system), leaves his car and goes in on foot.

Whever we've visited we've been impressed with Boston, the suburbs and the satellite towns, and if we didn't love the pacific NW so much (and we could afford it) we'd probably live there instead.

It isn't cheap by any standards, and apparently it gets a bit cold in winter - last winter it got down to -40c (which is also
-40F) and Boston harbour was frozen over :scared: but it's good stuff (IMHO) far outweighs the good stuff.

I'd have a look on some real estate sites for the area (or if you want to rent first www.rentclicks.com) and get a feel for the areas, house prices, have a look on www.greatschools.net to check out the stats for the local schools.

Bob

Yeah, I heard, mother in-law as a kid lived in africa, with the missions, anyway, lots of tales of the roads out there