Was there ever a time Boston was AFFORDABLE to live in?

Submitted by Jpf123 t3_yiq7gc in boston

So I have less than 3 decades behind me and have the impression that affordable cities = trash/crime/poor-food/poor mass-transit, etc.. In other words, you can't have your Boston and eat it too.

But was there ever a time (Maybe pre-2000's?) wherein Boston was both affordable but also offered a decent QoL?

It seems like most of the suburbs that used to be "dangerous" are now relatively safe and gentrified. ^((Relative to cities like Oakland))

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SpecialPosition t1_iuk0b3v wrote

2012 would have been a great time to buy in terms of being quite a bit more affordable (still expensive) and good QoL. Otherwise, yeah maybe 20+ years ago, but QoL would vary more by neighborhood

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roadtrip-ne t1_iuk0ye4 wrote

I paid $125 a month (with 4 roommates) for my first place in Allston in the mid-90’s. That went up to like $475 (with two roommates) for a place in JP around 1999.

Things went to hell when they got rid of rent control right about 2001/2. That $475 place in JP jumped to $1250 a piece when our lease came up.

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lotusblossom60 t1_iuk1113 wrote

In 1978 three of us rented the top two floors of a two family house for $375 a month. It had 5 bedrooms so then we got another roommate. I made $90.00 a week while going to Salem State for $150 a semester. I’m so sorry that things are so fucked for young kids these days.

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jjgould165 t1_iuk34wj wrote

We had an entire floor of a triple in Eastie for $1200 which included heat (cause we didn't have access to a dial) and then moved down the street into a single family for just over 200k between 2008 and 2011. I think it was soon after that when prices started to just soar.

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lotusblossom60 t1_iuk368d wrote

Replying to [deleted] (#409,684)

I lived just outside the city but right next to the train. That was back when you could go to a concert without paying ticket master exorbitant fees! I feel like I really lucked out living in those times. Saw the Stones, Steely Dan, Jethro Tull, jGeils (of course) and it was affordable to go. The downside is that I’m old now!

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SteamingHotChocolate t1_iuk753o wrote

Replying to SpecialPosition (#408,984)

~10 years ago my wife and I lived in a 1BR in Fenway that was $1,950, which was considered pretty pricey. Most of our friends were spending $700-800 for bedrooms in fairly solid places in neighborhoods such as Mission Hill/Davis/Porter/East Cambridge etc.

Those rooms are probably 1.5-2x the rate now, and the salaries certainly didn't scale commensurately. The early '10s were definitely an easier time when everything was just a little bit but not utterly prohibitively expensive.

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vanillanuttapped t1_iuk8wr8 wrote

This is my second stint living here. In 2008 I shared a 2br on Revere Beach for 1500/mo, total. Granted it was Revere but we had a newly renovated, waterfront house for $750 each. For a single 20 something, it felt like a pretty good deal.

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ScarletOK t1_iuka61m wrote

In 1984-87 I had a small but ideally located apartment on Beacon Hill that was $450 a month. I wanted to live alone and knew I had to spend more for that reason. All my friends were living in co-op houses in Cambridge for practically nothing.

It was a dream location, so glad I got to live there. $450= about $1250 today. I don't think you can get an apartment like that on Beacon Hill for that now. I was making about $18,000 a year at a nonprofit, equiv now to about $50,000. I wasn't living extravagantly, but I had a perfectly nice life. (and yes, I'm old).

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lifeisakoan t1_iukaxqr wrote

My condo was worth about 25% of what it is worth now in the mid 90s. The early 90s a lot of banks collapsed, and this created a pretty depressed Real Estate market. In some Boston Suburbs some condos went down in value by 50% 88-95. Boston was arguably less safe in the early 90s. 98 is more or less the start of thr current run up.

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