Thank you both so much, this is great insight!

Oh this is great advice, thank you!! I'll stay bookmarking some realty sites now

Absolutely!

-there's an interactive map on this Reddit that's a good place to start

-filtering your price limit on Zillow (or whatever apartment site you use) will quickly tell you what is/isn't within your price range, I just follow that as a guideline because I'd something is "too good to be true" I usually fear it's a scam/something is fundamentally wrong with the apartment (maybe I'm missing out on deals, who knows)

-on Google maps I just search "bars," because I know I want to be within walking distance but don't want to hear drunk people all night, so I avoid things within the few immediate blocks of those bars

-also on Google maps, I look at the $$$ and general vibe of the bars/restaurants to get a sense of the neighborhood. Is there a cheap place where I can get a sausage egg and cheese, or is it only hip brunch places?

-think about what you access weekly where you currently live and find those things on maps as well- grocery stores, bike trails, dog parks

-explore in instagram to get a sense of where the touristy & college student places are

Hope this helps!!

Oh yeah don't you worry, I've read through very many reddit posts about neighborhoods, mapped how far different areas are from my various hobbies/priorities, gotten an idea of how expensive different areas are (a bit of an over planner when it comes to big life changes). I've been to Providence before but I'll probably go down soon for a day just to walkabout and whatnot.

And yeah of the different areas I'm considering locating to, everything is better compared to Boston. Good point about looking into tenant rights, though, after 7 years of renting in Boston I've developed a bit of learned helplessness, maybe I'll take this as an opportunity to vaguely pretend I'm a human person with rights!!!!!