Moving to Boston

[amandawk]

Hi everybody! My husband and I are moving to Boston from Seattle in the next couple of months and I have a few questions. What are some good towns/neighborhoods to live in? My husband will be working in the financial district, so we need to be near a bus/train station. We are planning to have kids soon, so I would like good schools. We are looking to rent a house, condo, or duplex, and don't want to spend a ton of money on rent. Any suggestions of where to start looking would be great! Thanks!

[lizlemon19]

you can consider northern towns of south shore- braintree, quincy, hingham, weymouth. All near public transit that goes right to south station.
hingham would be nicest but $$$&.

Quincy is probably most affordable.

[amandawk]

I was a member of The Nest and through the Seattle board there found this forum, and have been lurking for a while. For rent, we probably wouldn't want to pay more than $2500-3000 a month. My husband would be willing to commute about an hour. We are not sure yet if we are going to stay long-term, so you're right about not having to worry about schools yet. Thanks for your reply!

[LoveTrains]

Do you want to live in the suburbs or do you want a more urban feeling?

If you don't have kids (yet) and are open to renting for a year or two to get a feel for the area, if you are looking for urban and a short commute I would suggest Cambridge or Somerville. Both have great access to the financial district via the red line T. You can get a 2 br apartment that is in a 2 family house with that budget I believe. Somerville is full of three story 2-3 family homes, with little yards in the back and parking.

Personally I don't really like the south shore. I don't know why. I was always a north shore kind of girl. I used to live in downtown Salem which I loved, which is a 30 minutes ride to North Station on the commuter rail.

Where do you live in Seattle and what neighborhood is your favorite there? My sister lives in Seattle. If you tell us what you like in Seattle, we might be able to determine what is the best match with that in the Boston area. My sister lives in the Tangletown/Wallingford/Greenlake area.

[lizlemon19]

Wow No love for the south shore

South Shore 4 lyfe.

You could also rent in South Boston with that budget and take a year or two to scope out the areas.

[liveintheville]

Feb 20, 2015 9:10:25 GMT -5 scm1011 said:

OP, I agree with LoveTrains. You can get a decent 2 bedroom in Cambridge or Somerville for that price and its an easy commute to the FiDi (I live in Somerville and my commute is <30 minutes). They are urban neighborhoods, though, I'm not sure if thats what you're looking for.

I'll second the Somerville Cambridge recs.

[drloretta]

I am no help as we are south of Boston (not even south shore). But welcome!

[soxin2]

I live near Lowell.

I was aiming for N Reading or Wakefield. (My mortgage did not approve)

[amandawk]

Thank you everybody for the welcome and the suggestions! I think we have decided to do what LoveTrains suggested and get an apartment somewhere closer for a year or so, in order to see what areas we like. We've been to Boston a couple of times (most recently during the 2nd of this year's snow storms) and really like it. In the future, I'd really like more of a suburban type area, but still close enough that I could take a train or drive into the city when I want to.