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Any suggestions on where to look for housing if we're matched to a Boston residency? We're exploring options such as Tufts or Children's...
Thanks!
Thanks!
Resident living in Boston
- Thread starter squacken22
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What does we mean, married/kids or bunch of medical school friends or a couple? Boston has all kind of neighborhoods.
I guess it will help if you can tell, how many people in same apartment/house, how many bedroom apartment, how would you like to commute, what kind of price range, nightlife or quite, and schools if you have school age children?
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I am west of Boston but I know the area. You have a choice between buying a condo or renting an apartment. Due to the high number of students in the city, there is an abundance of apartments. Public transit is excellent so you do not need to live in the immediate area if you two match at different programs in the city.
Look for recently renovated apartments being sold as condos for a great deal and growth potential while you complete your residency.
Look for recently renovated apartments being sold as condos for a great deal and growth potential while you complete your residency.
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The bubble argument doesn't hold true for several special locations such as NYC, SanFran, Boston and Vancouver. They each have unique reasons why prices are kept artificially high, and stay high.
Real estate is local. I think story in above mentioned link is quite old when prices were going up. In general it is a good time to buy but I think any one who is going for residency and is not familiar with the area should be careful about making such big decision in a haste. In general one loses about 10% in both real estate purchase and then sale process. If you are going for 3 years residency then you should be sure that you will reap that kind of gains during that time period.
Interest rate deduction is usually over blown by finance industry as mostly you need to look savings beyond standard deduction. Boston area has about 1% property tax as well. In many cases your rent will be marginally high if you combine condo fee + property tax + small repairs fees. State of Massachusetts has generous deduction for MA state tax return for renters which I think is like $500/month.
On the positive side: Most rental apartments/condos in Boston are in bad shape and good ones are known in the industry as Luxury condos. Most rental condos don't have dish washer or laundry in the building.
Same can be true for purchase side but then you can choose what features do you like.
