Help from Bostonians (and former Bostonians) needed!

[lily_shrike]

I know that many of you live in the Boston area. I have a friend who is being interviewed for a job at Harvard and needs information about where he would be able to afford to live. The work will be at Harvard Medical School and at the Applied Math department (which I understand are in different parts of town), and he'll need to use public

Comments

[conspiratrix]

It's going to be tough to have a 30 minute commute I think -- unless you want that to be a 30 minute walk. There are a number of places 30 minutes away by bus/subway, but unless you live right at the stop, you're probably going to need to add in your 10-15 minutes of walking too. Harvard is on the red line by T.

So, some ideas of places you can find 3BR/$1500 apartments:
Belmont/Watertown, on the 71 or 73 bus line which runs to Harvard Square. I think you said before he had a family? These are pretty nice towns to live with kids, you can get some backyard space.
Quincy: On the red line, probably closer to a 40 minute commute
Inman Square: In Cambridge, more of a walk to whatever public transit you are taking probably, but a nice place to live.
East Boston/Revere: On the blue line. This would be 30 mins by car, but I think is more like 40 by T

I think there are other places in Somerville/Cambridge, if you live a further walk from the T (like, 20 mins), that you can find a place for that price.

Here are two good websites to combine:
http://boston.craigslist.org/aap/ (apartments)
http://www.mbta.com (boston public transit)