How much does it cost to live around Boston?

[bulby01]

Specifically, what would you estimate is the lowest yearly income with which one could live (safely and with a reasonable minimum standard of living

Comments

[allyscully]

Housing and rentals around Cambridge and Boston have not declined at all due to the recession, because those areas experience high enough residential turnover due to academics moving and students leaving/entering the surrounding universities that they have a constant stream of people who want to live there. If you want to live by yourself in a studio around Boston/Cambridge, you'd be very lucky to find something lower than $800/month. If you're sharing with friends, you can drive this down to $600/month per person or a little lower, depending on how much you want to share; if you want to share a room with another person, you can probably go down to around $500/month; if you want to share a 2-bedroom, it'll be more around the $600/$700 range. This doesn't include utilities, which can be $100/month in the winter, depending on how old your room is and how warm you want to keep it. Add at least $10/day for food, and ~$60/month for transportation costs if you'll be taking the T and/or bus daily. Taking the train (commuter rail, that is)

[coendou]

I'm actually pretty impressed that these numbers haven't gone up much (if any) since I left the area six years ago. In fact, if $800 for a studio is right then I'd say it's gone down - I'm not sure many studios/one-bedrooms were going for less than $1000 then, often $1200 depending on the neighborhood.

Back from 2001-2003, I paid $667/month for one room in a 3-bedroom apt in Central Square (easy walk to campus), and had almost shared a 5-bedroom house for $500 each in Somerville (about the same walk, but to the Davis T stop).

[probabilistic]

This. I paid ~700/month for a room in a shared apartment in Central back in 2003, and people I know who live there currently pay about the same.

I'd actually be very surprised if you found a studio for $800/month.

[dolphin949]

agreed. was recently looking at studios in the davis/porter area, and there arent really any for less than $1000/month. but there are a number in that ballpark.