LooPtruy

Hi All

Will be relocating with my wife, no kids, both of us 29 yrs old in the next couple of weeks from Basel - Switzerland - to Boston.

I am checking rental prices in nice areas of Boston (Back Bay, South End, etc) and for a 2 bedroom apartment we are looking easily at 3 to 4.5k USD per month.

With this, and considering the fact I have about 450k USD in savings at the moment, many people are recommending considering property, even if we are going to the States with the idea of staying there 3-4 years and then moving to Asia.

Any tips/thoughts¿?

nun

You can find less expensive apartments in Cambridge and even Brookline. You might find it difficult to get a mortgage with no US credit history even with a very large down payment and $450k won't buy you much around Boston.

Check out craigslist for apartments.

http://boston.craigslist.org/aap/

FYI make sure you don't have any non-US pooled investments and that you understand the US tax status of any retirement funds you have.

Pulaski

The transaction costs of buying property in the US are relatively high (6% is a typical realtor's fee to sell a property), so unless you buy wisely and/ or are little lucky, you can easily lose money if you only own for a few years. As in all other big cities around the world, you have a trade off between price and commute time, so it depends what your preference is for high cost urban living v suburban living and time spent commuting.

Ethelred_the_Unready

Look into renting in Beverly, Swampscott or Salem. You can get a decent apartment for as little as $1,000 per month and you're on the commuter rail line to Boston (Newburyport/Rockport line).

LooPtruy

thanks for the advice so far!

I def. look for no commuting for more than 30 mins, door to door, each way. I will work in Cambridge (Mass Avenue), very near the MIT.

Brookline is an area we looked into which surely would be more affordable than Back Bay. I have also been told to even check Jamaica Plains as an upcoming trendy place, but commuting could easily go to 40 mins each way.

Beverly, Swampscott or Salem, I was not aware of them but will check the commute to my place of work.

We would like, as long as it is really possible, to live without having a car, perhaps just renting it over the weekends if we plan a trip.

nun

So why not look in Cambridge, Somerville and Watertown. Lots of good rentals, and you have the Red line and good bus connections. Harvard Square is great and there's lots happening in Cambridge!

Here's a map of rentals....for many of them you could walk to work

http://boston.craigslist.org/search/...ooms=&hasPic=1

DavidLemon

Trulia is a good site to show both houses for rent and for sale. You enter the criteria and it shows up on the map. It also shows you details abou the areas such as crimes and schools and also amenities around the area.

I work in Boston, and have lived in Roslindale, Quincy and now Rowley. Rowley is an hour on the train but it is a lovely place to live. Quincy and Roslindale were nightmare locations.

Craigslist is full of scams so be very careful. However you can get good contacts from there for realtors.

Its all about lifestyle really. For me it was important to get my family in a nice area with low to no crime and plenty of fresh air and parks. Rowley is heaven compared to some of the locations i have been too.

Again i recommend Trulia as a good source of information for not only property, but the areas in which they are located.

Ethelred_the_Unready

As I recall, Watertown isn't the easiest of places to get to (a recruiter warned me about it when I applied for a job there).

I liked Somerville a lot. It has easy access to the T, a great little shopping area and is hip without being pretentious. The main street reminded me a lot of a High Street you'd find somewhere in SW London. Rents there aren't as high as other parts of Boston. Very pedestrian / cycle friendly too. Lots of people cycle.

Brookline is another area to look at.

nun

I like Somerville too, but anywhere around Harvard Square is good as there are plenty of T and bus connections. So Somerville, Belmont, Cambridge, Watertown, Arlington all work. If you want really nice, but a longer commute and more suburban there's lexington and Winchester. Even Concord is commutable on the train that goes into Porter Square. Brighton and Brookline are a bit of a pain as you have to go into Boston and come out again to get to MIT and the buss connections are a bit lacking.

Watertown is a bit off the radar because people think of it beyond Watertown Square where the bus terminates, but if you look between Harvard Square and Watertown Square and Harvard Square and Waverley Square on the 71 or 79 bus routes it's 5 mins into Harvard Square Red Line T.

I've never had an issue with Craigslist. If you are sensible it's a great resource.

Bob

Checkout Padmapper.

JP in the good end is great, the dodgy end is less so.

Check out Davis Square and Porter Square, nice area and minutes from MIT.

Watertown is a bit meh, but it's good value for money and not that bad of a location for getting about a bit.

Copley, Chestnut Hill, Allston, they're all fun areas too and to head to the inner burbs, Needham and Newton have nice downtown feels are nice areas, not cheap, but you can probably get more for your money.

Thing to consider if you move downtown and the place doesn't include parking and you get a car, you could easily be spending $600-900 a month on parking if you want a decent parking garage.

Other shit to consider if you're moving out a bit, who pays or is responsible for rubbish collection, snow ploughing and if you need to do the pavements or not, cost of parking and weather it is zoned parking particularly in the winter. Also, closer to downtown you move, the more of a landlord market it is, so you might find having to pay anything from 1-3 months worth of rent as a realtors fee even if you aren't using one. Expect to put down anything from 1-3 months worth of rent as a deposit and pay first and last months worth of rent when you sign the lease.

Anywhere on the redline and orange line will be pretty decent. Greenline, well it does the job, but if you've ever read the news about a crash or massive delays, it'll be that line.

Definitely don't buy. It's just a waste of money and there are so many threads that go over it.

LooPtruy

thanks all for the advice. I think we have plenty of leads to look into once we are finally there onsite!