Cost of Living in Boston...

[mattman49]

Hey Folks:

As we all know - there are a million things that go into the rank list - one of which is quality of life and it's corrolary - cost of living. How doable is Boston on say $47,000 a year with the following caveats - looking for a solo 1 bedroom, some commute is tolerated, but nothing >30 minutes, will have a car but fine with public transit. I feel like I got a sense of this on the interview trail, but I'm looking for more input. I know that the generic recommendations are that your cost of housing should not be >30% of your pretax income (which in this case would be $1200). Can this be done?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[pintsized]

Hey Folks:

As we all know - there are a million things that go into the rank list - one of which is quality of life and it's corrolary - cost of living. How doable is Boston on say $47,000 a year with the following caveats - looking for a solo 1 bedroom, some commute is tolerated, but nothing >30 minutes, will have a car but fine with public transit. I feel like I got a sense of this on the interview trail, but I'm looking for more input. I know that the generic recommendations are that your cost of housing should not be >30% of your pretax income (which in this case would be $1200). Can this be done?

I live in boston, so I can help. You can get a pretty nice appt for 1200, but it wont be huge or overly fancy. Would help if we knew where u were coming from. If you want to commute, the number of options increase greatly, but I would recommend living relatively close to the hospital for convenience. Feel free to PM me if u have any specific questions.

 

[skypilot]

You can definitely find a one bedroom for $1200 no problem. Big expenses in Boston are parking, insurance, traffic tickets. If you can figure out a way to ditch the car or get an old beater car which doesn't require collision insurance and can be parked on the street, you will be living very well on 47k. Live close to work or at least on the T, you won't regret it.

 

[mattman49]

A good point was made - in this cotext I'm thinking of Brigham and Women's as the relevant hospital.

 

[skypilot]

So you will be in the Longwood area near the Museum and Northeastern University. The traffic and parking is very bad in this area. You can live in the Fenway, Brookline, Mission Hill or Jamaica Plain areas. The cheapest and closest would probably be Fenway or Mission Hill. The nicest would be Brookline or JP. Or you could live in Back Bay and make a reverse commute on the Green line. In any case you can find an apartment for $1200 but there may be a few compromises.

 

[Bobblehead]

Hey Folks:

As we all know - there are a million things that go into the rank list - one of which is quality of life and it's corrolary - cost of living. How doable is Boston on say $47,000 a year with the following caveats - looking for a solo 1 bedroom, some commute is tolerated, but nothing >30 minutes, will have a car but fine with public transit. I feel like I got a sense of this on the interview trail, but I'm looking for more input. I know that the generic recommendations are that your cost of housing should not be >30% of your pretax income (which in this case would be $1200). Can this be done?

At $47,000 you will have to sacrifice some quality of life. A 1 bedroom apartment is possible but you may not find off-street parking with it. I personally chose to exclude anything without associated parking or laundry machines which bumped up the price range quite a bit. In Boston it will be very, very difficult to observe the 30% of gross limit to housing costs. For what you are describing you should plan on a figure of 50% including utilities and some basic living costs. Again, this is without any compromises in terms of what you're demanding out of a living situation.

In exchange you will slightly compromise your lifestyle by having to moonlight to support your lifestyle.

 

[mattman49]

Thanks for taking the time to reply - much appreciated and useful