Moving On Up (or maybe, down.)

[tenth]

While I have enjoyed a very fancy apartment for almost two years now, circumstances have encouraged me to look for newer, cheaper places to live.

On the one hand, I was pleased to see that there are quite a few apartments in and around the Boston area that are more affordable than my current one. On the other hand, quite a few of them are ass

Comments

[ship2shore]

Yipes. What area are you looking in?

[tenth]

Originally I was looking for anything reasonably near a T (and I used to walk three miles to work every day, so "reasonable" is a fairly large radius for me, personally), but with my prospective roommates, it's become more of a North Of Boston dealie.

Our third round of apartment viewings went a lot better, though, and we're starting to see some places that I wouldn't be afraid to live in.

[geekpixie]

It also gets frustrating as you view the proximity to T/rise in rent/lowering of quality ratio.

But if you look at the right time, when the students aren't looking, you can find some gems.

Good luck :)

[tenth]

Thanks! We'll need it. ;-) But things have started to look less depressing. The places that are closer to a mile from a T (but on/near a bus line) are much nicer and more spacious in the dollar range we're looking at, and hopefully one of them will pan out (and not reek overpoweringly of off color shrimp-poop).

[hippygoth]

Good luck! It's always "exciting." Reminds me of when we were looking at houses (god, that seems so long ago, we wouldn't even dream of moving to a house now!) and being filled with the realization that if we bought the house, the Con list would be our responsibility. Yeah.

[tenth]

Yeah, I did look at buying something... There was a time when you could buy a house for $50k, but those days have long since passed the torch to an age where a decent condo is in the $500k+ range.

Every once in a while, my parents bug me about why I haven't settled down yet (in privately owned property, they mean), and I read them some of the prices they've been quoted, and we all miss the early 70s.

I was hoping that maybe I'd just been getting bad quotes, but there was recently a Globe article (and I think also an NPR thing?) about how you basically can't buy anything for less than 300k around here, and that's pushing it.

At least I'll be saving up a lot more money at a cheaper place, and in a couple years (or perhaps I should say, "by the time it's possible to get a mortgage again"), I may be able to afford something.

[thedoubleduches]

Good luck! There are great places out there, you just have to look a bit. On the pro side it won't cut into your quality of life hugely if you go a little farther from the T. Regardless, your commute will still remain what, 5 feet?

[tenth]

Heh, yeah, my commute will be awesome regardless, but I really like being less than half a mile from six different restaurants, two convenience stores, a grocery store, etc... And being able to hop right on the T is a plus when I do need to get somewhere in a hurry.

But after squinting at Google Earth for a while, it looks like the next best thing to living on the Red Line in Quincy is living on multiple bus lines (connecting to the red line) in Somerville or Medford, which is the direction my roommates and I are leaning now.

We just looked at a nice place last night; It's in Medford, quite a ways over from where your old Somerville place, but it has a very similar floor plan, back porch, and the obligatory North Boston Apartment Wall Cabinet for booze and glasses and stuff, and the owner has taken good care of it and painted everything recently.

Do they accept lolcats? I guess we'll find out soon...

[asmenoth]

Medford, why does that sound so familiar? Not the house that's in the link. Just the town.

Still going to be living with your current roommate(s)?

Just give me a call when you're moving. Happy to help as usual.