How do you plan on getting to work? Drive, willing to take the commuter rail? Etc…

You can try either Chelsea or Malden. Rents are something like $1,600 there for some rentals

Oh that’s a good question! I am a fully remote worker for a company based on the west coast so commuting isn’t an issue.

Buddy. Roslindale is IN BOSTON.

aybe Watertown or Dedham could be worth considering.

What’s the most important part? Wanting to live alone, or proximity to downtown? Also, what’s your max budget?

Proximity to downtown and my ideal max budget is $2500 a month.

I know but it feels like it’s not in Boston. For example, it has been difficult to keep up with my friends in the city because it takes about 45 min to drive in when traffic is heavy.

Rozzy isn't Boston, neither is WR. Let's be honest.

You can live basically anywhere you want on $150k a year as a single person, anything that isn't a brand new building will have rent at $2.5-2.6k a month for a 1 bed. Maybe that rules out the Seaport, but there are places a block from Copley on that budget.

edit: to be constructive, grad students/young single yuppies without kids are all over Cambridge and Somerville (Davis, Inman, Union), if they want to be spendy and trendy they're downtown in the South End, Beacon Hill or Back Bay (in small apartments that are quite expensive but hey its nice), or coming in from your direction via Jamaica Plain.

Quincy or Braintree. One bonus to this location is that if your remote biotech job ever goes away you're a one-seat ride on the Red Line from Kendall Square.

That’s great advice!! I was actually considering working for one of the biotechs in that location before I accepted the remote job. Thank you.

Where do your friends live?

Brighton or Watertown are your best bets. Brighton is super convenient if you live near oak square, you can hop on the pike or get to storrow drive real quick.

Quincy. Live near a Red Line station and you’re golden.

I used to rent in Everett in that range, here http://www.thecharlestonchewlofts.com/rentals . Super close to Boston, i used to bike everywhere.

Honestly that’s the question that matters

I’m at One north of Boston right now , 2nd lease , $2300 big studio . I’ll be moving to the Vero a few blocks away in June. I’m getting a one bedroom with den for $2800 w/ parking there . They have a one bedroom for $2400 everything included. Nice amenities and I love this location . Train and silver line 5 minute walk. Mystic mall right there .

JP, Brookline, Allston, Cambridge, Somerville.

[deleted]

>Brookline

Brookline is known for its excellent public school system. For people with kids, that justifies the insane price to live there. For a single person living in Brookline makes as much sense as burning $100 bills for heating.

Hahaha 2500 is a studio in the city. Might be able to find something in Somerville for that. Might

If you really want to save money, Revere.

Especially because it is extremely easy to take the WR Parkway to Jway right into Boston after 5PM from Rozzi, W Rox and certain areas of HP.

I will say though, Dorchester is much more urban than WR,Rozzi and HP IMO.

melrose. rent in melrose. nice town. easy orange line access

Normally I'd say this us good idea and I'm doing it myself. But the red line is getting down right unusable past South station ... Everything is a slow zone and there's no communication on when/if this will be addressed

Just go into the unsafe areas. Roxbury, Dorchester, and Mattapan.... Rent is cheaper.

If it moves the needle, think about dropping the ESPP contribution. You’re already investing a lot in your company from a risk diversification perspective (company does poorly, stock goes down, you may lose job and investment). Up to you, but I’d rather have the funds for preferred housing or put in my own diversified retirement plan or emergency savings. Biotech is a rocky road.

Check out Watertown, most of the area has super easy bus access to Harvard Sq/red line.

Use the map view to see what's close to Boston

https://boston.craigslist.org/search/apa?hasPic=1&max_price=2500#search=1~gallery~0~0

ESPP is a volatile way to invest. If you want to stay rich you should consider diversifying.

I can think of 2 ways to go:

1. live physically closer but out of ways of commuters, south Medford, Watertown, parts of JP or Dorchester;

2. get rid of 🚗 live right on T: Malden center, assembly, east Boston, some parts of Dorchester, Quincy

Rent is higher for 2) but you save money by getting rid of car. Really depended on where do you want to be close to. For instance if all your friends are in Cambridge, try to stay north of the Charles….

I don’t know why people are getting on you for wanting to live closer to town. This gatekeeping obsession is weird.

Green line is slow though. Commuter rail from Boston Landing is nice, but only once an hour.

I'd say proximity to any of the other lines would be preferable to Brighton.

OPs budget should let them get a nice 1 bed near Malden Center, and then they can easily take the Orange Line to their downtown friends in like 20-30 minutes total.

Are you sure you want to spend so much to live in the city if you work from home? One of the benefits of WFH is that you can literally live anywhere. People pay an arm and a leg because commuting sucks. Why not live out a bit further, get a lot more for your money, and shoot in to the city to see your friends and hang out when you want? Just something to consider. I know living in the city is desirable, but so is saving money.

OP can afford Brookline and some people think it's worth the cost. I used to live by Audubon Circle and I liked being near Coolidge Corner and Fenway, but ended up moving to Somerville cause it was much better value than Brookline at the time.

chelsea

> $150k per year

> work fully remote

Figure this out yourself

New Hampshire.

Rodlindale rocks - I’d stay

Malden or Watertown if you still want to see friends that are in the Cambridge/somerville area. Medford used to be kind of viable but the western and southern part with more transit access have gotten overpriced. I’ve also known people who have gotten stupid lucky with arlington rentals off season but that’s harder the the other two rent wise

Yes if you’re taking the green line. The 501bus runs from oak sq to downtown crossing via the mass pike in 15 min. Also OP mentioned he has a car and drives into town so that’s why I suggested it. But yes if you’re going rail it’s not good.

Best bet is going to be Allston/Brighton/Brookline.

I live near Cleveland circle and can easily walk to three stops on B, C, or D branch. On the D branch from Reservoir Station, I can get to downtown in about 30 minutes. The B and C branches are slower but it’s nice to have the option.

Downvote me all you want, but culturally, they are much different than other parts of Boston. Be honest with yourselves.

natick. i just moved into a 2 bed 1 bath loft in natick center. 1950 total. completely renovated, hardwood, everything i wanted lol. i ended up finding it on craigslist after not finding anything on zillow bc i have a cat. you probably could find something for under 2.5k in newton, waltham, or watertown though, but it most definitely will not be in a complex. those start at like 3.2.

Just because people move to Queens to afford a single-family home in NYC doesn't make Queens less NYC. Same goes for West Roxbury and Hyde Park.

While OP can afford to live in Brookline, they can get an urban walkable environment with good public transit for much less in Jamaica Plain, Alston, Cambridge or Somerville.

If you sell your ESPP right away it is basically a 17% ROI with no risk. Obviously, you pay more tax that way, but it is still easy money and you avoid overleveraging yourself.

New Hampsha

I said this elsewhere, but if you sell your ESPP right away it is basically a 17% ROI with no risk. Obviously, you pay more tax that way, but it is still easy money and you avoid overleveraging yourself.

You can live pretty much anywhere on that income. Look, I make high double digits and I can live in most parts of town and put away cash.

Legit, every post that's like "I'm not sure if I can make it here on $120k a year" just seems like a humble brag at this point and is kinda irritating. I mean if you think $2500 a month is "affordable," you really can live anywhere

Mattapan

I have my reasons…I feel very isolated working from home and living in Roslindale. I thought I would keep up with my friends from my post doc program but I realize that was an ambitious idea because no one really keeps up the same way when they no longer work together and traffic gets so congested here it becomes a 45 min drive one way to go into parts of Boston for after work activities. Without traffic I live like 20 min from Boston, but that would only be at undesirable times like at 1 am lol. But if I lived closer to Boston I could join some social clubs or use Bumble BFF with ease, and it would be cool to meet new people and potentially make some new friends. So going back to my story, I lost my Cambridge apartment after 1 year because my roommate couldn’t justify the cost anymore since we were both post docs. I loved living there but I didn’t actually even get to enjoy the apartment much because I had a major knee injury during the time of the lease and was in/out of recovering from surgeries. From there (I left this part out from the original post because of how traumatic it is) I actually moved to a gorgeous new condo as a third roommate in Mission Hill for a summer (was supposed to be for a year or more) but got essentially evicted from that apartment in only 3 months because my landlord/roommate was upset that I wouldn’t listen to her every neurotic demand (I was asked not to brush my hair in my own bathroom because the guests also used it and she didn’t want long hairs on the ground) and I didn’t want to be best friends with her outside of being roommates (I made a big mistake moving into that place, I should have known that woman was stunted when I walked in on her watching Camp Cretaceous the cartoon when I was interviewing). I learned to be careful of who you find on FB roommates groups after that experience! I know there are laws to protect the tenant but the situation was so uncomfortable and she started threatening to change the locks and harassing me through text message on a daily basis (about how this is her condo and she can’t live unless she felt like she had full control of the situation in it), so I moved out but not without forcing her to agree to pay for my moving fees with the help of my lawyer friend reminding her that tenant laws are a thing and she was in violation of them. Then I begrudgingly moved into the current place at Roslindale with a guy friend because I was essentially homeless. Things have been fine in Rozzy but it never felt like my space, it’s more so his. It’s truly not at all what I envisioned for my Boston life when I moved here from suburban NJ 3 years ago. Boston has simultaneously been the worst and best times of my adult life. I tried to move out of my current space in July when I first started my new job but my younger brother committed suicide 2 days into my job, so I just didn’t have the energy to do it immediately after. I was just so run down by what life had been throwing at me for the past 3 years. Now that I finally had time to process things and have this higher income job after a decade of schooling and training, I can finally afford stuff and I really want to regain control of my life and write a better middle and ending to my Boston narrative. I’m really not “humble bragging” about anything, I just want genuine advice because I’m not from around here and I don’t come from a lot of money so I have to consider saving for a house and retirement like any normal person. Thank you to everyone who provided helpful advice and didn’t troll me ❤️