I'm really pleased with all of the responses! All but one or two were very helpful, and I attribute those to being, well... reddit. lol

>Does it even matter?

Yes!

I didn't realize I had posted in r/gatekeeping! Thanks for the info.

Thank you. I'll take a look!

> Also a sad lack of authentic Mexican food

This is the worst news of the entire thread. This is a staple of my current diet.

Thanks for that income breakdown, I'd kind of like to go car-free but I'm not sold on that idea either. I'm gathering we're probably going to want to have about 250k or so of combined income.

>The Boston College Eagles are the biggest D1 football program and let’s just say that…they’re different than you’re used to

I thought you were implying that Boston College was a competitive team for a second and I couldn't process it. haha I'm, surprisingly, not a big college football fan. I won't name names but I am pretty big fans of certain sports teams near Boston so that's cool.

>And did you say $900 mortgage?? That’s you and each of your 3 roommates’ portions, right?

Ha! It's really $860, but I didn't want to come across SUPER poor. ;)

>Since you asked about lunch, I’ll throw in that I get takeout from a small vegetarian fast-casual chain called Clover, and their sandwiches and platters start around $11-13.

Thank you. The concept of a vegetarian chain is absolutely unheard of where e I'm from. We've got enough fried chicken to kill...well kill a human pretty quickly from heart disease.

Nor do I, but it helps get a feel for the day-to-day cost of living.

Yes. We make almost exactly $200k combined in Alabama.

Thank you so much for all of that wonderful info, I appreciate it. That 200k number keeps popping up so that may be my new target.

> Just so you know, Lexington, Bedford, Concord, and Carlisle are all fine suburbs, but they’re at the expensive end.

Thank you.

> Do you know whether the job is inside or outside 128/95? Hanscom is outside but most of the town is inside.

No, I don't know for sure. I do know it's likely near Hanscom AFB based on the kind of job.

I won't do a 5 commuting day a week job again, but once or twice a week I don't mind some of a commute.

>OP should be looking at $200+ for equal (but better schools)

Thanks. That's kinda what I was suspecting. ~ 60-70% 'raise' to be equal.

>As for quality of life, the BBQ up here is terrible, but just about everything else is better.

Why did this kill me lmao

Thanks for the info!

>Do you want to live IN boston or suburbs or rural town?

I'm fine with either, to be honest. I wouldn't mind renting 'rural' at first and then moving towards the city after the first lease runs out. My only requirement is close enough to Lexington to commute a couple times a week. I don't know the geography/traffic well enough to know how far that would allow me to move away.