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I live in a small suburb about 45 minutes north of Boston. For the general area the cost of housing is lower. To be in one of the towns close to where we work our house would probably cost 2-3x as much, and we'd never get the lot size that we have here. But in general, MA is super expensive. We have long commutes, daycare is astronomical, and even for the price we pay our schools are kinda meh. Living in a great school district generally means million dollar houses.
We're getting pretty tired of this area due to the crappy weather and the costs, and our plan right now is to move to FL in about 3 years. The COL is much lower in the city we're looking to move to, and we'll be close to my parents. Hopefully we can both find jobs in that area. We work in tech and I'm fairly specialized in what I do. I know I'll never make the same money I make here, but I'm hoping the trade-offs are worth it.
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What exactly is affordable? It seem so subjective. We live within 15 miles of Boston and for the area I think our town is affordable. Median home price in 2013 (when we bought) was around $450K which was about half of the median price of the city where our old condo was located. So for our area, yes it is pretty affordable but I don't know if half a million for a house is really affordable in general!
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Extremely unaffordable. But having grown up in this city, and considering all it has to offer, its nearly impossible to consider living somewhere else at this point. (Vancouver, BC)
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I'm another Bostonian and I would say no, it is not affordable. Salaries are higher but they are not "that" much higher to make up for the housing and rent costs in the city. I want to sell it all and move south. (especially with today's snowy weather)
@Foodnerd81: our neighborhood is blowing up! I was shocked to see how many $700K+ 2 bedrooms there are on the market. Good for resale, but yes, tough for relocating anywhere around the city!
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Not really. We definitely had to sacrifice space and lot size to get into the town we wanted in CT. It has great schools and a great downtown/town center area though so it was worth it to us.
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Another Bostonian here (Cambridge). No, I'd say it is not affordable. We had to go up to the very top of our budget to afford a 2 bedroom a few years ago. The prices have gone up almost 50% since then, which will be great when we sell, but all the bigger houses have gone up even more so it's going to be hard to find something in our budget when we move. If we move to the suburbs, one or both of us will have a crappy commute. Childcare is also extremely expensive here.
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yes very afforadble!!
Our 3400 sq foot house cost the same as our 2 bedroom condo in Alexandria VA did!
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I"m going with no. I live outside DC and it amazes me how much housing costs here.
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What are we basing this on?
We live in Pittsburgh and just bought a new home.
My brother lives in Raleigh, and his house is the same price as ours. Ours needs upgrades & our taxes are 4x his.
I guess that's expensive?
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Not really. Which is why I moved across the river - super super affordable with better family friendly policies.
The rent I pay now for a 3 bed condo style apartment with my own laundry etc, is what I'd pay in Ottawa for a bachelor (in a good area of town) or a 1 bedroom (not so good) in a highrise with shared laundry.
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@lamariniere: I'm interested to hear how much you pay! I think you and I are the lowest I've ever heard of.
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No. We live in SoCal, and I'd say the only two places less affordable than here are NYC and SF. While home prices are high, I think salaries and job opportunities are pretty great too. I also think our labor and food is more affordable compared to what you can get elsewhere. When hiring people for cleaning, gardening, painting, etc. it seems cheaper here than it would be in other states (just based on conversations with out of state friends). Or even doing something like getting a manicure/pedicure! I think in general, the food is cheaper here too because there is high competition and lots of good food.
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