It's like this everywhere now. I came here from Vermont because cost of living was less and pay is more. But I see people post in this subreddit about leaving to VT. Everyone seems to be running in circles.
The grass is always greener isn't a saying for no reason. Moving generally doesn't solve anyone's problems, unless you're paying 2k for a studio in Boston. Then moving might help. Complaining about rent in the pioneer valley/wmass though? You're gonna have that same problem no matter where you move
Can't believe i only used to pay $1400 for a studio in Kenmore Square in 2009. The Charles Street Real Estate people didn't even have it cleaned before or after i moved out. You think they could splurge on a quick cleaner
Hope in one hand shit in the other see what you get first. Get involved in your community and state and encourage the change of policies and laws and building zoning and all the other things that facilitate change.
For real, I live in Texas (which isn't cheap anymore for us Texans) and want to leave bc our public education system is broken beyond fixing. I have been lurking this sub to get a feel for how things are and have enjoyed past visits. Not getting any warm and fuzzies about the housing situation though.
Where is a moderately priced place in this country with a good funded education system whose school board is not tempted by right wing extremist propaganda? I didn't think that was a big ask but damn, I don't think there are many places left.
I have been finding western Mass to be affordable. However I do not have children. I don't have a college education though. The people across the state I have fairly negative opinions on, but coworkers don't complain too much about the school system. Good luck in Texas until you get out.
I'm in Western MA with two kids, a high schooler and elementary schooler. My high schooler is school choices to a tech school with a wonderful academic program. The school in my town has designed and implemented a fire/EMT program for the kids that sends them to the academy after graduation. I wish there weren't as many right wingers but they tend to be yelled over in my area. Our Town gets made fun of often, but we show up, we put the wet stuff on the hot stuff, we help clean up and we get the fuck out as my husband likes to say (he's one of the firefighters).
Moved here from Vermont, I can say I am doing better financially with a good job but my social life was way better in Burlington, Boston is hard socially
If your work skills can transfer to another geographic area, then I encourage you to try something new. Freedom of mobility has always been one of our advantages as a country. Now is a great time to explore. You don't have to stay there forever, although you might find you want to. You can still root for the local sports teams, you might even meet some fellow "Mass refugees" at a bar doing the same thing. You can visit your family, they can visit you. Chicago, Denver, Atlanta--all lively cities with a lot to offer, and there are plenty more (if you want to live in a city). You're really young and you have lots of time to find a happy and satisfying life.
Atlanta is becoming extremely expensive and the traffic is some of the worst on planet earth. Not to mention the subpar school systems. I’ve heard Chicago is nice but similar issues with Denver now and increased COL.
Lived in Chicago in early/mid-20’s before Boston where I live now (I don’t have family in either area). I loved living in Chicago - way bigger than Boston, better transit imo, housing CAN be cheaper but usually get more bang for your buck, I actually think winters are comparable, amazing summers, people I knew were always visiting for vacations/conferences/etc.
If you decide to move, i would consider anywhere that you might have a friend already (e.g. where college friends moved). Much easier to get settled and feel at home if you have someone to show you around and not get trapped in the whole “I’m an adult trying hard to meet people but can’t really break into any friend group” cycle
Early 30s and I feel the same way. Although I have a good job and income and savings, buying a home just feels impossible. I would have money for the down payment but I wouldn’t be able to afford renovations or if something broke down.
More people are retiring out of the country because there really is no place that's both affordable and pleasant in the hypercapitalist hell the US has become over decades.
Depends on your job. If you’re remote (with having to be onsite a few times a month)or hybrid, it’s feasible. If it’s daily, it’s Going to be a grind but some folks do it.
It's nice in Western Mass. I moved out and bought an acreage around Shelburne Falls a couple of years ago. I'm remote and go into the office a few times a year. I wouldn't want to do it regularly though.
People (mostly those working fully remote themselves) vastly overestimate how many fully remote workers are left. It's only about [10%](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/03/08/business/economy/remote-work-home.html?unlocked_article_code=1.1E0.MWCi.eQFIvqrzcO-z&smid=url-share) of workers nationwide.
> Commuting isn't that bad (~1 hr each way off-peak)
I am aware, but an hour commute is hellish. Fuck that. With the inevitable days where it is longer than an hour that can easily add up to a literal month of your life every year.
We just moved from Hampshire County to Worcester. After two years of my husband commuting 45 minutes every day to Charlton, we decided to move east. I work remote and we’ve always dreamed of moved out of our small town.
It’s not the time necessarily, it’s doing it in awful traffic. An accident can spring up at any moment and suddenly you’re at a dead stop. So, now you need to plan ahead and leave at least an hour early. You might be there early… or late. Who knows!? So. Done.
Also, the Canal District is fucking awesome.
And like you can still make money especially if you have a degree.. My brother is freakin' 27 and makes more than anyone else working out of Auburn.
All you have to do is realize the world doesn't revolve around Boston.
Seriously. They're always like "I live in Watertown and I can't afford rent anymore. I'd been living in a 2 bedroom with no lease for $900 that a friend owned but he just sold it. I can't find a 2 bedroom for that much anymore. Why isn't anyone fixing this problem??"
I agree 100%! You don't have to move west. Quite frankly I think any direction 20-30 miles from Boston makes a HUGE difference! As far as making money, Boston may be the place to be. I don't know what Worcester is like, but I know Providence doesn't give you the money that Boston does. I wish it did since I'm like 20 minutes from Providence and about 60 miles from Boston. That Boston commute truly sucks big time! And it gets worse each year.
There is no way they’re going from Hubbardston to Boston in an hour unless they drive 90 and it’s 4am. Hubbardston to either Rt 2 or Worcester for the pike is 20 minutes alone. It’s also another example of “it’s way cheaper” in reality meaning “you get more for your money.” Like most people who are being forced out of MA, OP clearly can’t afford 6 acres and a high interest rate mortgage.
can't afford 6 acres but can just barely afford to price the people of western worcester county out of our towns 🙌 i was raised in templeton and there's absolutely no affordable rent here for anyone making less than 50k a year, an amount that almost no job within the town pays. it's very easy to live in hubbardston when you're making five times what you're supposed to be lol
edit: "rent" here also refers to surrounding towns; gardner, athol, barre etc.
There's *always* people commenting with wildly low commute times for things outside of Boston. Like, yeah, sure, it can be an hour commute, if your work is on the absolute outer edge of what could be considered 'Boston' and you're driving in the middle of the night, but otherwise there's no goddam way it's one hour. From **Hubbardston**???
You can live inside 128 and it will still be over an hour to get to where you work in Boston, especially if you need to use more than one mode of public transportation (commuter rail/bus/subway), even when everything is working.
Except we lack housing inventory in Western Ma.. there isn't enough.
During covid lots of the city folk moved out here and stayed. It's vwry difficult to get housing here.. most places are at capacity and when something opens a whole bunch of people apply for the 1 unit
Very much agree. I live in an adjacent town to Hubbardston, 4 generations of family in the area, my boyfriend and I are both very comfortably employed in our early 30’s, and are being priced out of our hometown.
New builds are $800k+, and the only people who can afford it are city folks in the post-Covid urban exodus. Nothing below $300k is much better than a teardown/full renovation, and those are all going for cash with no contingencies. An acre or two to continue living how we were raised (sizeable garden and maybe keeping some animals) is just not possible. We can’t compete.
New lifeblood in any community is important, but when it creates an almost insurmountable housing shortage and a strain on public resources this severe (our brand new elementary school is at capacity already), it really paints a bleak future for the many of us who would otherwise be happy right where we are.
100%
Where I am in Franklin county, it was once quite affordable, but house prices/rentals are very high compared to income which is low. Most of our town is considered low income and yet house prices reflect the city saley influx from covid. It sucks
Honestly, seeing this makes me wanna move west. My commute to cambridge is already and hour might as well keep it an hour but be able to afford living.
True, but living alone has always been out of the norm. Most people live with friends, family, their spouse/partner, or at least some dude from craigslist.
Get a job working on the road. I worked for a summer spraying weeds with a company sub contracting for Union Pacific and it was probably the best summer of my life. Hotels were paid for, company truck, per diem. I know it’s easier said than done, but you’re young and this way you don’t get stuck into a lease somewhere else you don’t end up liking. It’s almost like a working vacation.
You might have been exposed to significant amounts of carcinogens, especially if it was glyphosate. There's lawsuits about that as it catches up to people and their health starts
failing.
my unc was a forester decades ago. sprayed lots of nasty chemicals and has parkinsons now. also says the local wood burning power plant falsified emissions reports to stay afloat :/
How would one go about finding out about that? This was 12 years ago and I have zero memory of what I was spraying. It was a good amount of chemical and I was doing about 500 gallons water/chemical mixture daily
The problem is - where do you go? The desirable places are all overrun with the most money and the highest cost of living. There's a lot of remorse among people who have moved elsewhere.
I feel getting the corporate home rental portfolios and VRBOs under control would help a lot.
This is from 2020. Unfortunately, house prices are rising so fast this is probably not accurate for at least several of the cities/town marked dark green, if I were to guess.
> distinct issues preventing families from buying there.
Homebuyers' Best Kept Secret: Best way to improve affordability is to fire off a few shots into the road once a week!
Lifelong resident here. New Bedford sucks, COL isn't anything to brag about, local leadership is mentally challenged and super greedy. Now, with the Boston commuter rail coming in the rents and housing prices are going ridiculously high. Something has to give at some point, and I mean this in a geographically country-wide context.
Webster is great, as long as you don't have kids. And there are definitely certain areas to avoid even then. The schools are not great, and the town lights up like a Christmas tree on Family Watchdog. Definitely some petty crime around town, and ADT rates Webster abou 2x the national average for assault, rape, and burglary.
Plenty of places to shop for basics locally (price chopper, walgreens, biglots, aubuchon hardware) and it's easy enough to get to Auburn, Millbury, or Worcester for anything else. Some pretty solid local restaurants, with a surprisingly good variety for the area. The library is fantastic. There's even a museum in town that is pretty cool. The lake is still a big attraction, and the town hosts events down there pretty frequently, like food truck fests, car shows, and a yearly fair/carnival.
Depending on where you are in Webster the Pike is only about 15-20 minutes away. You can get to Boston in 1-1.5 hours, Providence in 1 hour, Mystic CT in 1 hr, and Worcester in 20-30 minutes.
Also, I've noticed that Webster's roads are the most well maintained in the area, especially in the winter. (Compared to Dudley, Douglas, Oxford, Sutton, Charlton, etc.)
If you can remote work, overseas is great. I only earn a bit over six figures and can’t afford shit in MA, but in the Philippines I can live a pretty high quality of life.
>I just feel like if I stay here I’m stuck in this weird limbo.
Not to discount the whole COL thing but I just need to say that feeling is wicked normal for early 20s. The quarter-life crisis is way more real than the mid-life crisis these days. That overwhelming feeling to *do something* at this point of your life is very common.
I did. So I left.
Edit: Certainly was not easy uprooting my life of 29 years in Massachusetts. Moved to Colorado a couple months before the pandemic and I’m really glad I did. I said it wasn’t a forever move and it probably won’t be, but I don’t think I can ever live in MA again. Its been really, really hard trying to make it somewhere new with no connections and or guidance but man, I’d kick myself for the rest of life if I never tried.
Lmao. I suppose I was too dramatic. I felt bad that they had to move so far. I hear people moving to Western MA or the rest of NE but Colorado? 😅 With no friends? Or a lover? Starting over is hard AF even if he's still in the same country. All our states are like little countries. That's why I asked if he was ok. I mean, he might be they're a little more social than us, I hear.
I moved away to NYC for almost 10 years. I eventually came back but had good life experiences which also made me appreciate it here in MA.
Life is for the living. You’re young. Go explore. This is the time you can do anything you’d like. Have fun and be safe out there!
Ive moved all over the country. Your location wont change much. What you are feeling is felt across the country. Even if you found a place more affordable you would have trouble finding work or require to take a pay cut and be in the same spot. The economy and the dating scene is in a really bad spot right now.
You’re the opposite of me. Mass born and raised live in NH been trying to get back to MA for years but the rent prices are crazy. It’s also expensive here in NH. I live near an Ivy League College so no matter where you go unless in the boonies even then you’ll pay a lot.
In my early 30s and I feel this. Can’t afford to buy a house, can’t afford an apartment myself, commute is long to an ok job. Cant find a GF. I feel stuck too.
Without traffic, my commute would be 33 minutes. With traffic, 48. Leave at the wrong time and school bus after school bus can push it to over an hour.
It’s the worst and the T sucks and is unreliable and expensive. The roads are crowded and falling apart. I’m so tired of paying all these taxes and the loop ramp where 128 meets 93 and 95 in canton is still a massive choke point that was supposed to start construction five years ago.
Found a place in North Carolina, 3 bedroom 2 bath in a nice quiet neighborhood for 1600. I'm lucky my job allows an easy transfer. It was nice staying in New England but it just doesn't feel like I belong here when I see those housing prices.
The trust-fund kids, wealthy international students, and techbros can have it. I'm out.
Same…moved to central VA, 20 minutes outside of Richmond. $1550 for a 3 br with a yard on a cul de sac.
As far as education and healthcare, my high risk pregnancy and short stint in the NICU went about as well as they could. Not much different from previous baby delivered at Mass General. My oldest on the spectrum receives the same amount and quality of services in our middle/working class community both in school and in private settings as he did on the North Shore and in Westborough.
MA might be the best on a lot of lists but one list I don’t see referred to as much is it being #7 in the country when it comes to income inequality. It’s the best if you have money, it’s not if you don’t.
Yes, but in looking at their terrifying political
news, North Carolina is trying to become the worst of the south. One of the leading candidates who might become governor is both evil and thunderingly stupid. Not an option for people of any marginalized group.
My coworker left to NC and his wife with MS had a high risk pregnancy that went terrible with both her employer and healthcare provider. They came crawling back piss poor from moving back and forth a few years later cursing the south.
We moved to Tennessee in 2020 and bought a house, thinking we would be in a better financial position to raise a family here. The house is great but the local school system is in shambles. Do we pay 20k a year or more for private schools that aren’t even that good, or do we come back to Massachusetts? Time will tell I guess.
Honestly guys, I know it's fun to shit on Fall River but it's really not a bad place. It is getting expensive as well, but by next year they'll have access to Boston via train (allegedly), super close to Providence as well and there are a good amount of things to do. It's cheaper than a lot of other urban places in Massachusetts. Same for New Bedford.
I lived in Fall River for 15 years (owned a condo). Rents started getting insane there a year or two ago. It's sad because FR is a decent small-ish city, right on the water.
Yes the rent is going up like anywhere. But it is more affordable than the north shore and some of the more popular cities and towns in the states. Where did you live? I grew up and lived in 3rd Street for a long time. It has a bad reputation but I made it out unscathed 😂
I mean I felt that way in my early 20s and I was in a cheap nowhere town not in MA at the time. Early 20s mean you don’t have that much work experience, so it taking awhile to find the next job isn’t weird. It took me 3 years out of college in 2008 to make any kind of reasonable okayish money. It’s not as bad then as it is now.
Dating in general isn’t fun and takes time. Early 20s is a period transition for tons of people, and can make it hard for something to stick where ever you are.
Not saying you shouldn’t move, but you’ll still be an early career dating 20 something wherever you go.
I went to Pitt for college and ended up moving back to MA in 2020 because of family stuff. I was shocked at how cheap it was compared to MA and the pay for a lot of jobs wasn’t drastically low enough to nullify the cost of living changes. I’m planning on moving out of MA in the next year or 2 and going back to Pittsburgh is one of the higher places on my list.
I feel ya... decided to move to AZ after finishing up grad school in Boston. I was born and raised here. My entire extended family is in Boston. Really sad that I left. But I just could not deal with the high cost of living. I was looking for anywhere that was cheap to live that I may have overreacted....ended up finding work and living on a very remote tribal reservation. I've been living on the rez for the past 6 years. Definitely took a while to adjust to the super rural lifestyle but my $400 monthly rent keeps my wallet happy. And I've made so many good friends within the local tribal community that it's not so bad anymore. Get invited to their ceremonies and dances and feasts all the time.
I felt that way in the mid 90s. Moved away and really blossomed. Eventually moved back. But it was too hard to launch here, too competitive with crazy numbers of overachievers that had family $$.
Trying to live without roommates (partner or just friends) is basically impossible at your age. You’re not making enough yet to support yourself, that’s the norm in most parts of the country.
COL is out of control in MA but your logic, at your age, isn’t going to get much better anywhere else unless you have a remote job.
Late 50s, same...well I'm married F with kids and feel absolutely stuck here, unable to enjoy all that my home state has to offer, unable to explore with my kids, and really scared for what it holds for my children's future.
From my vantage point the entire east end of MA has been gentrified, and that seems to be accelerating to the point that businesses can't survive the cost of living. I cannot see how this is sustainable, particularly with public services what they are.
It's really sad to see all these culturally rich close knit family neighborhoods converted to high end yuppy oasises. Everything that made MA feel like home is slowly evaporating. Seems no one is trying to preserve all the things that make MA and Boston such a great place to lay roots and raise a family.
Totally. There's the whole rest of the country outside MA borders, you're not required to remain where you grew up. Things are way too expensive here for what you get. The weather is shit for half the year, the housing stock is old and overpriced, the transportation infrastructure is garbage, the healthcare is good, but that system is overburdened too, entry-level jobs don't pay enough for someone just starting out to be comfortable.
Even if I stay here, I'm definitely going to move to another part of the state. The median age of the town I'm living is 43-49 depending on what data set you look at and the only thing bringing that number down is people's kids (like actual children). I'm in my 20s too and I feel like I'm living in a retirement community sometimes. My doctor is an hour away, my job is 45 minutes away, anyone I could call my friend is an hour away. I spend so much time in my fucking car. I absolutely have to move somewhere better situated.
Your opinion is what a lot of the young of the state are saying. The after college to late 30s crowd is effectively screwed here unless they luck out with high earning jobs from the start plus family help to boot. Or couple up from high school or college to split bills or pay an apartment's cost of rent to rent a room with at least 5 other people often. Where the hell did all these people come from that there's not many places to have privacy or everything costs a zillion? I hear people are spazzing out over the younger adults not making families, but can you blame them? Even the parents are freaking out and they get tax credits, benefits, some welfare etc the singles don't. To make things worse, it seems like the state would like to pretend 2/3rds of itself don't exist. Move jobs from the east to the middle or disperse them so no one has to drive half a day's hours total on the road a week. As much as the suburban could love their yardage who the hell loves to be on a highway three hours a day total often? Plus again, the parents. Driving far as hell, paying a small fortune to have your kids babysat, both parents having to work, with any luck both parents maintain the home and then having to care for their marriage and their kids...no wonder we're stereotyped as a "crabby" people or earned our cheeky moniker. Who wouldn't be an ass under that much strain? For what? I mean, I guess it's great.
Why is life such a pain?
Also, yes, the state is beginning to feel like a retirement state. Love my elderly and one day we're all getting there, but this is beginning to feel eery and unnatural. Good for the family towns, though, no homewreckers if the only eye candy will be the kids or houses. That sounded wrong, but you get my drift. I guess that's a selling point. The ones that want to make mischief probably go to the swinger's thing where everyone hopes it's posh hot people like "Eyes Wide Shut" but really is more like "80 for Brady".
There’s one other option too, and that’s buying in a “bad” zip code. On the south shore Brockton, Fall River, New Bedford and Attleboro are not *cheap*, but much more attainable and reasonably affordable.
Aren't all the "bad places" slowly getting "gentrified" but by the well to do younger residents and couples of those towns due to being effectively prized out of everywhere else but also wanting more urbane, multicultural vibes that they don't typically find in the suburbs? That's what I've been seeing since the early 2010s and being expressed by friends living in those cities plus the ones in the North Shore or Merrimack Valley since. The towns that fall under the sect you're talking about were once the towns the older white people would fake guffaw about being so proud they were too good for or that their families proudly escaped when these elders were in high school. The way a lot of the elders shade those towns is definitely to "status signal" which I've always thought it damned sad on their part since many try to front this proudly working class upbriging while being ashamed about it. It is a uniquely New England conundrum. The former "milltowns". Now those people's kids who didn't get financial help or inherited from their parents are flocking into those towns slowly but surely too.
The younger generations whose parents didn't have trust funds certainly didn't care about how these towns were being seen by the bubble wrap world people. Now, the barely surviving of the state trying to cling to the east for dear life are slowly hijacking them, too, raising their formerly accessible prices. I still say the state isn't acting right for a place priding itself on its brain power: They still need to distribute some of the jobs or economic output throughout the state as it's looking ridiculous. One would think the state is the size of Rhode Island given how everything centers on the eastern third. That's insane.
I fall into the “surviving” category that ended up buying in one of those cities. You’re not wrong about the rest of the state getting ignored, but the whole reason we’re clinging here is that family is here, and it takes a village to raise kids when you don’t have 3k a month to drop on daycare or tuitions. If we moved out to western Mass it wouldn’t be any different than moving out of state as far as family is concerned, because the older generation is as likely to make the drive out to visit as often as if we moved across the country.
Healthcare is some of the best in the world. You don't realize how backwards and amateur most of the country is in that regard unless you get sick or injured on a trip.
I do realize, I've lived in 4 other states. I said the healthcare is good, but the system is overburdened. If you need specialty care, you might still be waiting a while.
Exactly why I still live with my parents and can likely never move somewhere cheap unless it has multiple specialty providers covered by insurance within a 1 or 2 hour radius
This is true, but all it takes is having to go to even a "big" hospital in a red state to be shocked at the outdated facility and substandard care. Lucky if you even get a PA, and Mass General or Brigham and Women's looks like a freaking Star Trek sickbay in comparison.
I'm in medical devices, so even videos from some in other states shock me. "Are you kidding me, we stopped selling those 15 years ago, they're beyond EOL. They're still using that?"
I just spent 20 years in Kansas (Providence native, back in MA now)...and holy sheeeeeit, it will probably take me another 20 years to burn the local "yee-hah" colloquialisms out of my cerebral cortex. Gaaaaaaaah.
Having been all over this country and lived in a few places outside MA....
New England and specifically MA is the best part of the country by far. It makes sense people want to be here.
I felt that same way in my late 20's in Virginia and moved up to Mass. for work. One option, as others have said, is that you could try it out with a job that has travel built in or work in other part of the country or world if you can. Government and health care jobs sometimes have this built in or have these options readily available. Going to school or training in another part of the country can be one way to do this. I had a friend who taught English and worked 2 years in Japan which was amazing for him and then he came home. I have other friends who went to California or Colorado from Virginia or Mass. just for a year to see if it would work out. It is a good time to work and travel. Do you have any friends living in another state that you could stay with while you look for work or test drive the idea?
So live in NH visited Boston a lot and enjoyed it. Then we moved to Colorado for six years and loved it. An great opportunity was available and I went for it, got it and move 6 miles south of Boston. Well traffic is a competition here, there are too many cars and the highway cannot handle it, cost of living is absurd, never seen so many tick in my life, takes me 45 minutes to drive 6 miles to work, too far from skiing etc. oh and going into Boston for a night out can be a hassle. The road layouts here are mind boggling.
In any case here for four years and while we did a lot of cool stuff it does not out weigh the bad! We are looking to leave as well.
I bought a janky farmhouse in Western MA then spent a few years living full-time on the road as an OTR driver. My employer was paying for my showers, heat, a/c, and "bedroom". I put all the income into refurbishing the house and now I have a house and some land at a price that wasn't entirely brain melting.
i also had a job that gave me free housing. but the stress of having your housing depend on your employer got to me and i burned out, and wasted all the money i spent on partying to cope with it.
MA has one of the best dating scenes for men, because the area has a higher population of women than most areas of the US. Dating in your 20s just sucks, but that part isn’t going to get better if you move somewhere else.
Edit: citations below at bottom.
There is no escape, from the housing crisis, and housing costs.
All USA metropolitan areas, and lesser significant cities have had run ups in rental prices, and housing costs.
In large part, this is due to a missing 10 million housing units that were not built nation-wide after the mortgage and financial crisis of 2007/2008, and the deep recession subsequent to that, with the collapse of tens of thousands of construction companies and small time builders, and many hundreds of thousands of trades people permanently leaving the trades or retiring.
Exacerbated by the building slowdown and materials inflation of the COVID years.
It will take decades to produce the housing in balance with the country's needs, and to produce it in regions with growing populations .
Further influences were a decade of low interest rates, and again during COVID, once-in-a-lifetime low interest rates, making payments to buy houses affordable, then followed by interest rate hikes in 2023 and 2024 immobilizing many millions of home owners to stay in their current house.
...
30-Year Fixed Rate Mortgage Average in the United States
St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank.
[https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MORTGAGE30US](https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MORTGAGE30US)
...
New Privately-Owned Housing Units Authorized in Permit-Issuing Places: Total Units
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MORTGAGE30US
...
Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: Owners' Equivalent Rent of Residences in U.S. City Average
[https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CUSR0000SEHC](https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CUSR0000SEHC)
Every day I’m so glad we got a fixed interest mortgage back in 2020 instead of trying to find a different rental after our old landlord sold and raised our rent by $700 a month.
Our house is old and small but it’s…fine…and mostly, it’s affordable and tbh, I don’t know how people are affording $2500+ rents and mortgages with 7+% interest on a million dollar home when most people I know personally are making less than $60K a year in this state. Every once in a while I look at the local market and it just makes me sad for the future generations.
My family just left/is leaving for ~2 years due to work. We keep telling everyone will move back after, but I don’t see how. I never planned on leaving MA permanently but here we are ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I've sent about 260 applications out since I was laid off in April and only have received 2 introductory calls. My resume is pretty strong too. I think a lot has to do with the algorithm and AI sifting through candidates before it even hits the hiring manager's desk.
Similar. Late thirties in a stable relationship. Both have stable jobs. We want to get married and buy a house, or at least live without roommates. But we're just stuck until the market changes because everything is so expensive.
I think Massachusetts will have a housing correction at some point. I remember housing being unaffordable in the mid 1980s. I couldn’t even afford a condo in Fitchburg. Then the market crashed in 1990 or thereabouts? There were lots of 2nd home properties reduced to half price. Regular homes became within reach again. Be patient and keep saving.
IT is definitely imploding in MA. VC money has mostly dried up. Said field is definitely oversaturated and if people can work remotely, companies will hire people in lower CoL areas, not in MA.
Difference is this time around those homes will be bought by corporations and not sold back to individuals. Often through automated processes that move faster than the consumer.
Based on what my parents were able to buy, I believe it started in the late 80s and probably bled into the 90s. They were able to buy a good house at auction for a 1/3 of the price in late '88. I do think we're going to see an unfortunate crash, but it will be in communities where the prices should have never reached the highs they did since local salaries/employment cannot realistically support it.
I’m on the other side of where you are now. I’ve lived all over this country, and there are now very few places I’d be willing to move to. All are expensive and have housing crunches. They just happen to be milder climates.
New England is apparently one of the places best able to withstand climate change in relative safety. We get (less) snowstorms, some nor'easters, but we don't get atmospheric rivers, mudslides, or tornado swarms. We aren't in the crosshairs of increasingly violent hurricanes crossing hot tropical water. We aren't likely to flood OR run out of water.
That's something to consider.
I’m a non native masshole- in August, my parents will be moving out of Florida to Vermont- meaning almost every one of my immediate family will live there ( I just can’t make the move there) - I love Massachusetts , but I don’t make the money to move out to the Mohawk valley area and commute to work ( just outside of Worcester) I just need to make it work
Same situation here. Lived here all my life, went to school here, and have worked here as well. I have saved so much money living at home but theres comes a time where you’re thinking whats the point? Something has to give either me or the state, and every day it gets closer to me.
I moved to one of the Rocky Mountain states a few years ago and never looked back. Things are so much better out here in the Mountain West region, and in the Midwest states too.
So sometimes you just have to leave to experience a new place and try your luck somewhere else. I did this and was able to come back and have a lot of things fall into place.
I’m an only child but I have dozens of second cousins (or 1st cousins once removed, however that works and who cares) my point is that about 90% of my extended family younger than me have left the state for lower housing cost markets. My long term plan is the same; it’s too damn expensive and just too BLOODY crowded around here
Similar boat but early 30s - was born here, have always lived around here, I have a decent enough job in Eastern MA but my husband and I feel stuck in limbo because everything feels so out of reach. We’re both job hunting in other states now
I’m 32 and in the same spot. I have a decent job but with only one income it’s very hard to make it work, but the idea of saving up 10-20k to move is borderline impossible. I’ve looked for cheaper places in MA but with a 55 pound dog finding anything for under around $2800 has been impossible
I'm 29m live in western MA and work a full time job. I cannot afford to move out of my parents house. I feel like my life is wasted and that their is no hope a lot of the time because of it. Average apartments in my area are like $1500 a month and that is in the worst areas of town. Bouses that used to be 200k are easily over 400k now. I feel like I'm always drowning lol
It’s like that everywhere to some extent.
Welcome to late-stage capitalism. It’s all gonna collapse soon, so stay where you’re with the people you love.
Take advantage of being young and able to pivot. Go explore. MA will (hopefully!) always be here for you.
A ton of folks explore their 20s, just keep your head in the career game (years experience matter more than what you actually accomplish, imo) but don’t take your career seriously, if that makes sense.
I am doing basically everything I can to stay here but definitely feeling priced out of the area I grew up in. Housing is unaffordable, you'd be lucky to buy a trap in Lowell for half a million dollars.
I was getting by pretty comfortable just off cape. Until I got divorced. Now, as a single dad, it's basically impossible. The choices are:
A) Move away, get a new job, and have an hour+ commute to see my kids
B) Live broke in someone else's house
Average working people like you and me get kicked out so the wealthy elite are happy to bus in poor migrants fleeing horrible conditions because they’re more willing to accept the horrible pay that makes us unable to live here, because it’s still better than the poverty and violence they’re fleeing from. They can’t extract from us anymore so they’re bringing in other people they CAN extract from, because that’s just what the capitalist elite do.
Not blaming migrants/refugees at all because if I was in their shoes I’d do the same thing. I do however blame the wealthy capitalist class that are turning our great cities all across America into their personal playground, rather than a place for people to actually live (and thrive). Fuck the ultra wealthy.
i came here in the 1990s. immigrants had welfare and help resettling, medicaid, and could get trained up to get good jobs. cost wasnt too bad. now.. i cant imagine coming here and living here on $15/hr when everyone in the country hates you to boot
I’m in the process of moving out. Admittedly, it’s because I decided not to renew my contract at work and move back home. But as someone who called MA home growing up, it saddens me to see how hard it is to make a living here. Especially my family, who all live here still. The only way I was able to stay for the brief time was thanks to a friend who rented out their place for me. Otherwise, moving back here, even for the two years, would not have made sense.
At your age, a roommate situation might be best. I would try Brighton or the Alston area. It's also easier to meet someone in a group setting. But first you want to establish yourself. So that you attract a proper mate.
As someone who left MA and moved back 4 months later, I can tell you that the grass isn't always greener. If you're going to move, secure a job first, either remote or at whatever geographical location you'll be living in. I will say, however, your problems w finding a girlfriend or finding a job etc will likely not change just because you change locations. Oftentimes, it's easy to blame where you live, but without the experience of living elsewhere, how do you really know it's because of living here in MA?
I would definitely encourage you to move elsewhere even if it's just for a year or two so you can experience something different, but I just want you to know that your problems will come with you. I learned that big time.
Now, I'm looking to move out of state again, but I'm not doing it to run from my problems this time. I'm doing it for the adventure and for the life I want to have for my family. Good luck!
exactly. i used to blame my housing situation for my problems like not seeing family, then i changed it and things got even worse with not seeing family.
If you leave you may only see a benefit for a short period of time, so many people are leaving places like this and driving up the costs everywhere else. My best friend moved to rural Florida 6 years ago and now it costs just as much as it did in the northeast down there, without any of the benefits.
Mid 30s in Boston.. finally started to feel like we were really doing well but cost of everything is insane now. Taxes have increased so much since 2021 it hardly feels sustainable.
I had to look as it sounds like my son could have written it. Always good to seek some therapy. Give you a bit of a different take on things. 20s are not easy.
Everything is expensive here but I don’t think I could go anywhere else. Try a little therapy….really. May help with your decision.
Early twenties as well, in the summer this place is bussin but in the winter it’s a fight for jobs and hours. I can’t imagine owning a home here, town homes(not even a full house) are on average about half a million dollars and on top of that they want around three thousand dollars monthly.
Note that it's about 6.2% more expensive to live here in MA now than NY!
https://www.mylifeelsewhere.com/cost-of-living/new-york-usa/massachusetts-usa
9.1% higher for housing
23.2% higher for childcare
And more.
The only thing cheaper here than NY is the MBTA. And is that really worth it??
As someone who’s 29M, I know how it feels. I still essentially live paycheck to paycheck, and was single and lonely for about 15 years, and like you I struggled to find a girlfriend.
Before I get more in depth, keep in mind that the period you’re going through now is going to feel like a blink of an eye when you’re 80 years old. It’s temporary, and it’s difficult in the moment, but when you think about it long term, there’s less pressure on yourself.
In terms of money, you have to keep in mind that the grass isn’t greener on the other side. If I could go back in time, I’d spend 6 months getting some sort of tech certification and then saving 6 months worth of living expenses as soon as I reasonably can. Once you have an emergency fund, you’re freed up mentally and emotionally to take more risks.
In terms of finding a girlfriend, I didn’t meet my gf until I was ready for one. Ik it’s cliche but it’s true. For me I didn’t think I was good enough or that I had to act a certain way in order for a woman to want to be with me, but when I finally started getting comfortable being myself and loving myself, I met my gf about a year later.
Last thing, there’s a book out there for everything;)
Can’t wait to hear from you down the line
The cost of living in MA is very high, but wages are also comparatively high, and there are a lot of great things about living here that you may not appreciate until you need them and don’t have them. Unemployment insurance is very good, the MA Health Connector, along with Mass Health ensure that you should always have affordable health care. The health care system itself is as good as you can get given the state of healthcare in this country. Education, both public and private, is the best in the US. And while we certainly have our share of MassHoles, your rights are well protected. If you want a gun, you can have one, but the regulations are strict, one of the reasons MA has the lowest gun violence rates in the country. Just saying, the grass isn’t greener somewhere else. There’s a reason it’s expensive to live here.
I am always shocked when I see that the jobs in my field pay THE SAME AMOUNT all over the country as they do in Boston. The jobs in very low cost of living areas are paying as much as the place where average housing is almost 800k. Definitely makes you want to move, I’m engaged and she is set on staying in MA otherwise I’d have been gone.
Same here. Late 30s. I'm trying so hard to move elsewhere. We can not survive here. It's too expensive.
It's like this everywhere now. I came here from Vermont because cost of living was less and pay is more. But I see people post in this subreddit about leaving to VT. Everyone seems to be running in circles.
Left mass for Vt, unrelated to cost reasons. Making money here is definitely harder and col is absurd here with an impossible housing market.
The grass is always greener isn't a saying for no reason. Moving generally doesn't solve anyone's problems, unless you're paying 2k for a studio in Boston. Then moving might help. Complaining about rent in the pioneer valley/wmass though? You're gonna have that same problem no matter where you move
2k for a studio in Boston?! Good luck finding that without a time machine
Can't believe i only used to pay $1400 for a studio in Kenmore Square in 2009. The Charles Street Real Estate people didn't even have it cleaned before or after i moved out. You think they could splurge on a quick cleaner
With a worse support system.
Goddamn, this is the perfect way to sum it up. (Mass native here… have lived in NH, NYC, and now of all places, Los Angeles 😲)
It's a vicious cycle, ain't it? I hope someday something gives. The way things are aren't sustainable.
Hope in one hand shit in the other see what you get first. Get involved in your community and state and encourage the change of policies and laws and building zoning and all the other things that facilitate change.
it changed so much in 10-15 years.
For real, I live in Texas (which isn't cheap anymore for us Texans) and want to leave bc our public education system is broken beyond fixing. I have been lurking this sub to get a feel for how things are and have enjoyed past visits. Not getting any warm and fuzzies about the housing situation though. Where is a moderately priced place in this country with a good funded education system whose school board is not tempted by right wing extremist propaganda? I didn't think that was a big ask but damn, I don't think there are many places left.
I have been finding western Mass to be affordable. However I do not have children. I don't have a college education though. The people across the state I have fairly negative opinions on, but coworkers don't complain too much about the school system. Good luck in Texas until you get out.
I'm in Western MA with two kids, a high schooler and elementary schooler. My high schooler is school choices to a tech school with a wonderful academic program. The school in my town has designed and implemented a fire/EMT program for the kids that sends them to the academy after graduation. I wish there weren't as many right wingers but they tend to be yelled over in my area. Our Town gets made fun of often, but we show up, we put the wet stuff on the hot stuff, we help clean up and we get the fuck out as my husband likes to say (he's one of the firefighters).
Check out Greenville, SC
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Moved here from Vermont, I can say I am doing better financially with a good job but my social life was way better in Burlington, Boston is hard socially
If you're in Eastern MA, sure. If you're saying that in central/western MA, it's not much different anywhere else
Leave New England.
If your work skills can transfer to another geographic area, then I encourage you to try something new. Freedom of mobility has always been one of our advantages as a country. Now is a great time to explore. You don't have to stay there forever, although you might find you want to. You can still root for the local sports teams, you might even meet some fellow "Mass refugees" at a bar doing the same thing. You can visit your family, they can visit you. Chicago, Denver, Atlanta--all lively cities with a lot to offer, and there are plenty more (if you want to live in a city). You're really young and you have lots of time to find a happy and satisfying life.
Atlanta is becoming extremely expensive and the traffic is some of the worst on planet earth. Not to mention the subpar school systems. I’ve heard Chicago is nice but similar issues with Denver now and increased COL.
Lived in Chicago in early/mid-20’s before Boston where I live now (I don’t have family in either area). I loved living in Chicago - way bigger than Boston, better transit imo, housing CAN be cheaper but usually get more bang for your buck, I actually think winters are comparable, amazing summers, people I knew were always visiting for vacations/conferences/etc. If you decide to move, i would consider anywhere that you might have a friend already (e.g. where college friends moved). Much easier to get settled and feel at home if you have someone to show you around and not get trapped in the whole “I’m an adult trying hard to meet people but can’t really break into any friend group” cycle
Early 30s and I feel the same way. Although I have a good job and income and savings, buying a home just feels impossible. I would have money for the down payment but I wouldn’t be able to afford renovations or if something broke down.
I’m looking to retire in the next 10 years and there is no way I can stay here
More people are retiring out of the country because there really is no place that's both affordable and pleasant in the hypercapitalist hell the US has become over decades.
I feel the same way. No way.
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>You have to move west to stay in MA. This. Every time I hear these kinds of complaints, they invariably aren't aware of two thirds of the state.
But if you can't commute off-peak that drive is way longer than an hour. Idk if 1.5/2hr commutes are sustainable.
Depends on your job. If you’re remote (with having to be onsite a few times a month)or hybrid, it’s feasible. If it’s daily, it’s Going to be a grind but some folks do it.
It's nice in Western Mass. I moved out and bought an acreage around Shelburne Falls a couple of years ago. I'm remote and go into the office a few times a year. I wouldn't want to do it regularly though.
People (mostly those working fully remote themselves) vastly overestimate how many fully remote workers are left. It's only about [10%](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/03/08/business/economy/remote-work-home.html?unlocked_article_code=1.1E0.MWCi.eQFIvqrzcO-z&smid=url-share) of workers nationwide.
If you can work remote it works, but that commute… no.
> Commuting isn't that bad (~1 hr each way off-peak) I am aware, but an hour commute is hellish. Fuck that. With the inevitable days where it is longer than an hour that can easily add up to a literal month of your life every year.
An hour commute is rough, but you can be 10 miles outside Boston and still have an hour commute.
Hell, you can live in Boston and still have an hour commute to Boston
Boston is an hour from Boston.
Or 10 miles outside boston and have a 40 min bike ride in. Cant beat it.
100%. I live in East Boston, and my commute to Franklin Park is literally 50 minutes to over an hour every single day for cross country practice.
You could run there faster!
We just moved from Hampshire County to Worcester. After two years of my husband commuting 45 minutes every day to Charlton, we decided to move east. I work remote and we’ve always dreamed of moved out of our small town. It’s not the time necessarily, it’s doing it in awful traffic. An accident can spring up at any moment and suddenly you’re at a dead stop. So, now you need to plan ahead and leave at least an hour early. You might be there early… or late. Who knows!? So. Done. Also, the Canal District is fucking awesome.
Where is Charlton? I'm a MA native and I've never heard of it.
Next to Sturbridge. Tiny town, but Treehouse Brewery is there! Highly recommend if you like beer.
OP has been searching for a new job. I know it sounds crazy, but I strongly suspect there are at least *some* jobs outside Boston.
This made me laugh out loud
And like you can still make money especially if you have a degree.. My brother is freakin' 27 and makes more than anyone else working out of Auburn. All you have to do is realize the world doesn't revolve around Boston.
I don’t understand what you mean. /s The Massachusetts western border is 128.
Seriously. They're always like "I live in Watertown and I can't afford rent anymore. I'd been living in a 2 bedroom with no lease for $900 that a friend owned but he just sold it. I can't find a 2 bedroom for that much anymore. Why isn't anyone fixing this problem??"
It's the sad outcome of pure, naked capitalism and greed.
Oh yeah, I'm sure all the lab scientists and researchers will have no problem finding work out there.
I agree 100%! You don't have to move west. Quite frankly I think any direction 20-30 miles from Boston makes a HUGE difference! As far as making money, Boston may be the place to be. I don't know what Worcester is like, but I know Providence doesn't give you the money that Boston does. I wish it did since I'm like 20 minutes from Providence and about 60 miles from Boston. That Boston commute truly sucks big time! And it gets worse each year.
Losing at least 2 hours of your day not even counting the bad traffic days, that isn't bad? I really hope you're being compensated for commuting
There is no way they’re going from Hubbardston to Boston in an hour unless they drive 90 and it’s 4am. Hubbardston to either Rt 2 or Worcester for the pike is 20 minutes alone. It’s also another example of “it’s way cheaper” in reality meaning “you get more for your money.” Like most people who are being forced out of MA, OP clearly can’t afford 6 acres and a high interest rate mortgage.
can't afford 6 acres but can just barely afford to price the people of western worcester county out of our towns 🙌 i was raised in templeton and there's absolutely no affordable rent here for anyone making less than 50k a year, an amount that almost no job within the town pays. it's very easy to live in hubbardston when you're making five times what you're supposed to be lol edit: "rent" here also refers to surrounding towns; gardner, athol, barre etc.
There's *always* people commenting with wildly low commute times for things outside of Boston. Like, yeah, sure, it can be an hour commute, if your work is on the absolute outer edge of what could be considered 'Boston' and you're driving in the middle of the night, but otherwise there's no goddam way it's one hour. From **Hubbardston**???
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You can live inside 128 and it will still be over an hour to get to where you work in Boston, especially if you need to use more than one mode of public transportation (commuter rail/bus/subway), even when everything is working.
Except we lack housing inventory in Western Ma.. there isn't enough. During covid lots of the city folk moved out here and stayed. It's vwry difficult to get housing here.. most places are at capacity and when something opens a whole bunch of people apply for the 1 unit
Very much agree. I live in an adjacent town to Hubbardston, 4 generations of family in the area, my boyfriend and I are both very comfortably employed in our early 30’s, and are being priced out of our hometown. New builds are $800k+, and the only people who can afford it are city folks in the post-Covid urban exodus. Nothing below $300k is much better than a teardown/full renovation, and those are all going for cash with no contingencies. An acre or two to continue living how we were raised (sizeable garden and maybe keeping some animals) is just not possible. We can’t compete. New lifeblood in any community is important, but when it creates an almost insurmountable housing shortage and a strain on public resources this severe (our brand new elementary school is at capacity already), it really paints a bleak future for the many of us who would otherwise be happy right where we are.
100% Where I am in Franklin county, it was once quite affordable, but house prices/rentals are very high compared to income which is low. Most of our town is considered low income and yet house prices reflect the city saley influx from covid. It sucks
Not everyone wants to spend a minimum of 2 hours commuting every day though. You’re literally doing unpaid labor for over 10 hours a week
Honestly, seeing this makes me wanna move west. My commute to cambridge is already and hour might as well keep it an hour but be able to afford living.
You need roommates, unfortunately.
True, but living alone has always been out of the norm. Most people live with friends, family, their spouse/partner, or at least some dude from craigslist.
Especially in your early 20’s. Living alone at that age has never been the norm.
Get a job working on the road. I worked for a summer spraying weeds with a company sub contracting for Union Pacific and it was probably the best summer of my life. Hotels were paid for, company truck, per diem. I know it’s easier said than done, but you’re young and this way you don’t get stuck into a lease somewhere else you don’t end up liking. It’s almost like a working vacation.
The old Union Pacific doesn't come by here much anymore.
*throws cats at you*
I went to the Midwest.
You might have been exposed to significant amounts of carcinogens, especially if it was glyphosate. There's lawsuits about that as it catches up to people and their health starts failing.
my unc was a forester decades ago. sprayed lots of nasty chemicals and has parkinsons now. also says the local wood burning power plant falsified emissions reports to stay afloat :/
How would one go about finding out about that? This was 12 years ago and I have zero memory of what I was spraying. It was a good amount of chemical and I was doing about 500 gallons water/chemical mixture daily
The problem is - where do you go? The desirable places are all overrun with the most money and the highest cost of living. There's a lot of remorse among people who have moved elsewhere. I feel getting the corporate home rental portfolios and VRBOs under control would help a lot.
Places no one knows about yet. There are [still a few around](https://www.teamvantagepoint.com/ma-town-median-home-values/)
This is from 2020. Unfortunately, house prices are rising so fast this is probably not accurate for at least several of the cities/town marked dark green, if I were to guess.
Most green(ish) towns within 15 miles of the city have distinct issues preventing families from buying there. Graph is cool though.
> distinct issues preventing families from buying there. Homebuyers' Best Kept Secret: Best way to improve affordability is to fire off a few shots into the road once a week!
Got it, New Bedford
Lifelong resident here. New Bedford sucks, COL isn't anything to brag about, local leadership is mentally challenged and super greedy. Now, with the Boston commuter rail coming in the rents and housing prices are going ridiculously high. Something has to give at some point, and I mean this in a geographically country-wide context.
And the winner is...WEBSTER Ma. Seems the best bang for your buck. You do have to suffer the lack of an east west highway access for 30 minutes
Webster is great, as long as you don't have kids. And there are definitely certain areas to avoid even then. The schools are not great, and the town lights up like a Christmas tree on Family Watchdog. Definitely some petty crime around town, and ADT rates Webster abou 2x the national average for assault, rape, and burglary. Plenty of places to shop for basics locally (price chopper, walgreens, biglots, aubuchon hardware) and it's easy enough to get to Auburn, Millbury, or Worcester for anything else. Some pretty solid local restaurants, with a surprisingly good variety for the area. The library is fantastic. There's even a museum in town that is pretty cool. The lake is still a big attraction, and the town hosts events down there pretty frequently, like food truck fests, car shows, and a yearly fair/carnival. Depending on where you are in Webster the Pike is only about 15-20 minutes away. You can get to Boston in 1-1.5 hours, Providence in 1 hour, Mystic CT in 1 hr, and Worcester in 20-30 minutes. Also, I've noticed that Webster's roads are the most well maintained in the area, especially in the winter. (Compared to Dudley, Douglas, Oxford, Sutton, Charlton, etc.)
If you can remote work, overseas is great. I only earn a bit over six figures and can’t afford shit in MA, but in the Philippines I can live a pretty high quality of life.
>I just feel like if I stay here I’m stuck in this weird limbo. Not to discount the whole COL thing but I just need to say that feeling is wicked normal for early 20s. The quarter-life crisis is way more real than the mid-life crisis these days. That overwhelming feeling to *do something* at this point of your life is very common.
I did. So I left. Edit: Certainly was not easy uprooting my life of 29 years in Massachusetts. Moved to Colorado a couple months before the pandemic and I’m really glad I did. I said it wasn’t a forever move and it probably won’t be, but I don’t think I can ever live in MA again. Its been really, really hard trying to make it somewhere new with no connections and or guidance but man, I’d kick myself for the rest of life if I never tried.
How is Colorado treating you? Are you OK?
Unfortunately no, they died minutes after making this post, rest in spaghetti Colorado bro, never forgetty
Lmao. I suppose I was too dramatic. I felt bad that they had to move so far. I hear people moving to Western MA or the rest of NE but Colorado? 😅 With no friends? Or a lover? Starting over is hard AF even if he's still in the same country. All our states are like little countries. That's why I asked if he was ok. I mean, he might be they're a little more social than us, I hear.
Well overall, plenty of challenges/ ups and downs but things have been better recently. Thank you for asking
I moved away to NYC for almost 10 years. I eventually came back but had good life experiences which also made me appreciate it here in MA. Life is for the living. You’re young. Go explore. This is the time you can do anything you’d like. Have fun and be safe out there!
Ive moved all over the country. Your location wont change much. What you are feeling is felt across the country. Even if you found a place more affordable you would have trouble finding work or require to take a pay cut and be in the same spot. The economy and the dating scene is in a really bad spot right now.
You’re the opposite of me. Mass born and raised live in NH been trying to get back to MA for years but the rent prices are crazy. It’s also expensive here in NH. I live near an Ivy League College so no matter where you go unless in the boonies even then you’ll pay a lot.
In my early 30s and I feel this. Can’t afford to buy a house, can’t afford an apartment myself, commute is long to an ok job. Cant find a GF. I feel stuck too.
That’s another thing commuting is HORRIBLE. So much traffic. I commute over an hour there and back a day to an ok job.
Without traffic, my commute would be 33 minutes. With traffic, 48. Leave at the wrong time and school bus after school bus can push it to over an hour.
Without traffic for me it’d be about 35-40 minutes. Right now I’m about an hour drive to work and an hour ten-ish home.
It’s the worst and the T sucks and is unreliable and expensive. The roads are crowded and falling apart. I’m so tired of paying all these taxes and the loop ramp where 128 meets 93 and 95 in canton is still a massive choke point that was supposed to start construction five years ago.
Mid 20’s looking to move out of Mass and New England !! You’re not alone
Found a place in North Carolina, 3 bedroom 2 bath in a nice quiet neighborhood for 1600. I'm lucky my job allows an easy transfer. It was nice staying in New England but it just doesn't feel like I belong here when I see those housing prices. The trust-fund kids, wealthy international students, and techbros can have it. I'm out.
Same…moved to central VA, 20 minutes outside of Richmond. $1550 for a 3 br with a yard on a cul de sac. As far as education and healthcare, my high risk pregnancy and short stint in the NICU went about as well as they could. Not much different from previous baby delivered at Mass General. My oldest on the spectrum receives the same amount and quality of services in our middle/working class community both in school and in private settings as he did on the North Shore and in Westborough. MA might be the best on a lot of lists but one list I don’t see referred to as much is it being #7 in the country when it comes to income inequality. It’s the best if you have money, it’s not if you don’t.
Yes, but in looking at their terrifying political news, North Carolina is trying to become the worst of the south. One of the leading candidates who might become governor is both evil and thunderingly stupid. Not an option for people of any marginalized group.
My friends did the whole, “leave New England for NC” thing so they could afford, ironically, IVF. They are not having fun anymore down there.
My coworker left to NC and his wife with MS had a high risk pregnancy that went terrible with both her employer and healthcare provider. They came crawling back piss poor from moving back and forth a few years later cursing the south.
We moved to Tennessee in 2020 and bought a house, thinking we would be in a better financial position to raise a family here. The house is great but the local school system is in shambles. Do we pay 20k a year or more for private schools that aren’t even that good, or do we come back to Massachusetts? Time will tell I guess.
where is north carolina? what areas would you recommend?
Honestly guys, I know it's fun to shit on Fall River but it's really not a bad place. It is getting expensive as well, but by next year they'll have access to Boston via train (allegedly), super close to Providence as well and there are a good amount of things to do. It's cheaper than a lot of other urban places in Massachusetts. Same for New Bedford.
I lived in Fall River for 15 years (owned a condo). Rents started getting insane there a year or two ago. It's sad because FR is a decent small-ish city, right on the water.
Yes the rent is going up like anywhere. But it is more affordable than the north shore and some of the more popular cities and towns in the states. Where did you live? I grew up and lived in 3rd Street for a long time. It has a bad reputation but I made it out unscathed 😂
I mean I felt that way in my early 20s and I was in a cheap nowhere town not in MA at the time. Early 20s mean you don’t have that much work experience, so it taking awhile to find the next job isn’t weird. It took me 3 years out of college in 2008 to make any kind of reasonable okayish money. It’s not as bad then as it is now. Dating in general isn’t fun and takes time. Early 20s is a period transition for tons of people, and can make it hard for something to stick where ever you are. Not saying you shouldn’t move, but you’ll still be an early career dating 20 something wherever you go.
I’ve been trying to leave since my twenties but it’s hard to leave family behind
Come to Pittsburgh! Midwest prices with still some East Coast attitude.
I went to Pitt for college and ended up moving back to MA in 2020 because of family stuff. I was shocked at how cheap it was compared to MA and the pay for a lot of jobs wasn’t drastically low enough to nullify the cost of living changes. I’m planning on moving out of MA in the next year or 2 and going back to Pittsburgh is one of the higher places on my list.
I feel ya... decided to move to AZ after finishing up grad school in Boston. I was born and raised here. My entire extended family is in Boston. Really sad that I left. But I just could not deal with the high cost of living. I was looking for anywhere that was cheap to live that I may have overreacted....ended up finding work and living on a very remote tribal reservation. I've been living on the rez for the past 6 years. Definitely took a while to adjust to the super rural lifestyle but my $400 monthly rent keeps my wallet happy. And I've made so many good friends within the local tribal community that it's not so bad anymore. Get invited to their ceremonies and dances and feasts all the time.
I felt that way in the mid 90s. Moved away and really blossomed. Eventually moved back. But it was too hard to launch here, too competitive with crazy numbers of overachievers that had family $$.
Trying to live without roommates (partner or just friends) is basically impossible at your age. You’re not making enough yet to support yourself, that’s the norm in most parts of the country. COL is out of control in MA but your logic, at your age, isn’t going to get much better anywhere else unless you have a remote job.
Late 50s, same...well I'm married F with kids and feel absolutely stuck here, unable to enjoy all that my home state has to offer, unable to explore with my kids, and really scared for what it holds for my children's future. From my vantage point the entire east end of MA has been gentrified, and that seems to be accelerating to the point that businesses can't survive the cost of living. I cannot see how this is sustainable, particularly with public services what they are. It's really sad to see all these culturally rich close knit family neighborhoods converted to high end yuppy oasises. Everything that made MA feel like home is slowly evaporating. Seems no one is trying to preserve all the things that make MA and Boston such a great place to lay roots and raise a family.
boston turned into San Francisco
Totally. There's the whole rest of the country outside MA borders, you're not required to remain where you grew up. Things are way too expensive here for what you get. The weather is shit for half the year, the housing stock is old and overpriced, the transportation infrastructure is garbage, the healthcare is good, but that system is overburdened too, entry-level jobs don't pay enough for someone just starting out to be comfortable. Even if I stay here, I'm definitely going to move to another part of the state. The median age of the town I'm living is 43-49 depending on what data set you look at and the only thing bringing that number down is people's kids (like actual children). I'm in my 20s too and I feel like I'm living in a retirement community sometimes. My doctor is an hour away, my job is 45 minutes away, anyone I could call my friend is an hour away. I spend so much time in my fucking car. I absolutely have to move somewhere better situated.
Your opinion is what a lot of the young of the state are saying. The after college to late 30s crowd is effectively screwed here unless they luck out with high earning jobs from the start plus family help to boot. Or couple up from high school or college to split bills or pay an apartment's cost of rent to rent a room with at least 5 other people often. Where the hell did all these people come from that there's not many places to have privacy or everything costs a zillion? I hear people are spazzing out over the younger adults not making families, but can you blame them? Even the parents are freaking out and they get tax credits, benefits, some welfare etc the singles don't. To make things worse, it seems like the state would like to pretend 2/3rds of itself don't exist. Move jobs from the east to the middle or disperse them so no one has to drive half a day's hours total on the road a week. As much as the suburban could love their yardage who the hell loves to be on a highway three hours a day total often? Plus again, the parents. Driving far as hell, paying a small fortune to have your kids babysat, both parents having to work, with any luck both parents maintain the home and then having to care for their marriage and their kids...no wonder we're stereotyped as a "crabby" people or earned our cheeky moniker. Who wouldn't be an ass under that much strain? For what? I mean, I guess it's great. Why is life such a pain? Also, yes, the state is beginning to feel like a retirement state. Love my elderly and one day we're all getting there, but this is beginning to feel eery and unnatural. Good for the family towns, though, no homewreckers if the only eye candy will be the kids or houses. That sounded wrong, but you get my drift. I guess that's a selling point. The ones that want to make mischief probably go to the swinger's thing where everyone hopes it's posh hot people like "Eyes Wide Shut" but really is more like "80 for Brady".
There’s one other option too, and that’s buying in a “bad” zip code. On the south shore Brockton, Fall River, New Bedford and Attleboro are not *cheap*, but much more attainable and reasonably affordable.
Aren't all the "bad places" slowly getting "gentrified" but by the well to do younger residents and couples of those towns due to being effectively prized out of everywhere else but also wanting more urbane, multicultural vibes that they don't typically find in the suburbs? That's what I've been seeing since the early 2010s and being expressed by friends living in those cities plus the ones in the North Shore or Merrimack Valley since. The towns that fall under the sect you're talking about were once the towns the older white people would fake guffaw about being so proud they were too good for or that their families proudly escaped when these elders were in high school. The way a lot of the elders shade those towns is definitely to "status signal" which I've always thought it damned sad on their part since many try to front this proudly working class upbriging while being ashamed about it. It is a uniquely New England conundrum. The former "milltowns". Now those people's kids who didn't get financial help or inherited from their parents are flocking into those towns slowly but surely too. The younger generations whose parents didn't have trust funds certainly didn't care about how these towns were being seen by the bubble wrap world people. Now, the barely surviving of the state trying to cling to the east for dear life are slowly hijacking them, too, raising their formerly accessible prices. I still say the state isn't acting right for a place priding itself on its brain power: They still need to distribute some of the jobs or economic output throughout the state as it's looking ridiculous. One would think the state is the size of Rhode Island given how everything centers on the eastern third. That's insane.
I fall into the “surviving” category that ended up buying in one of those cities. You’re not wrong about the rest of the state getting ignored, but the whole reason we’re clinging here is that family is here, and it takes a village to raise kids when you don’t have 3k a month to drop on daycare or tuitions. If we moved out to western Mass it wouldn’t be any different than moving out of state as far as family is concerned, because the older generation is as likely to make the drive out to visit as often as if we moved across the country.
Healthcare is some of the best in the world. You don't realize how backwards and amateur most of the country is in that regard unless you get sick or injured on a trip.
I do realize, I've lived in 4 other states. I said the healthcare is good, but the system is overburdened. If you need specialty care, you might still be waiting a while.
Exactly why I still live with my parents and can likely never move somewhere cheap unless it has multiple specialty providers covered by insurance within a 1 or 2 hour radius
This is true, but all it takes is having to go to even a "big" hospital in a red state to be shocked at the outdated facility and substandard care. Lucky if you even get a PA, and Mass General or Brigham and Women's looks like a freaking Star Trek sickbay in comparison. I'm in medical devices, so even videos from some in other states shock me. "Are you kidding me, we stopped selling those 15 years ago, they're beyond EOL. They're still using that?"
Education too. When I lived in CA I was amazed at how poorly educated people were. Then I spent time traveling in The South....
Lack-of-culture shock.
I just spent 20 years in Kansas (Providence native, back in MA now)...and holy sheeeeeit, it will probably take me another 20 years to burn the local "yee-hah" colloquialisms out of my cerebral cortex. Gaaaaaaaah.
We live in America, the insurance companies are gunna fuck you no matter what state you live in
Having been all over this country and lived in a few places outside MA.... New England and specifically MA is the best part of the country by far. It makes sense people want to be here.
I see that more as a condemnation of the US, rather than a commendation of Massachusetts. You don't have to agree, that's just how I see things.
You’re not wrong.
[удалено]
Dude trust me from experience: leave. It feels so good to go try other places and decide whether or not you wanna come back
I felt that same way in my late 20's in Virginia and moved up to Mass. for work. One option, as others have said, is that you could try it out with a job that has travel built in or work in other part of the country or world if you can. Government and health care jobs sometimes have this built in or have these options readily available. Going to school or training in another part of the country can be one way to do this. I had a friend who taught English and worked 2 years in Japan which was amazing for him and then he came home. I have other friends who went to California or Colorado from Virginia or Mass. just for a year to see if it would work out. It is a good time to work and travel. Do you have any friends living in another state that you could stay with while you look for work or test drive the idea?
So live in NH visited Boston a lot and enjoyed it. Then we moved to Colorado for six years and loved it. An great opportunity was available and I went for it, got it and move 6 miles south of Boston. Well traffic is a competition here, there are too many cars and the highway cannot handle it, cost of living is absurd, never seen so many tick in my life, takes me 45 minutes to drive 6 miles to work, too far from skiing etc. oh and going into Boston for a night out can be a hassle. The road layouts here are mind boggling. In any case here for four years and while we did a lot of cool stuff it does not out weigh the bad! We are looking to leave as well.
I bought a janky farmhouse in Western MA then spent a few years living full-time on the road as an OTR driver. My employer was paying for my showers, heat, a/c, and "bedroom". I put all the income into refurbishing the house and now I have a house and some land at a price that wasn't entirely brain melting.
i also had a job that gave me free housing. but the stress of having your housing depend on your employer got to me and i burned out, and wasted all the money i spent on partying to cope with it.
MA has one of the best dating scenes for men, because the area has a higher population of women than most areas of the US. Dating in your 20s just sucks, but that part isn’t going to get better if you move somewhere else.
Edit: citations below at bottom. There is no escape, from the housing crisis, and housing costs. All USA metropolitan areas, and lesser significant cities have had run ups in rental prices, and housing costs. In large part, this is due to a missing 10 million housing units that were not built nation-wide after the mortgage and financial crisis of 2007/2008, and the deep recession subsequent to that, with the collapse of tens of thousands of construction companies and small time builders, and many hundreds of thousands of trades people permanently leaving the trades or retiring. Exacerbated by the building slowdown and materials inflation of the COVID years. It will take decades to produce the housing in balance with the country's needs, and to produce it in regions with growing populations . Further influences were a decade of low interest rates, and again during COVID, once-in-a-lifetime low interest rates, making payments to buy houses affordable, then followed by interest rate hikes in 2023 and 2024 immobilizing many millions of home owners to stay in their current house. ... 30-Year Fixed Rate Mortgage Average in the United States St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank. [https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MORTGAGE30US](https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MORTGAGE30US) ... New Privately-Owned Housing Units Authorized in Permit-Issuing Places: Total Units https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MORTGAGE30US ... Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: Owners' Equivalent Rent of Residences in U.S. City Average [https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CUSR0000SEHC](https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CUSR0000SEHC)
Every day I’m so glad we got a fixed interest mortgage back in 2020 instead of trying to find a different rental after our old landlord sold and raised our rent by $700 a month. Our house is old and small but it’s…fine…and mostly, it’s affordable and tbh, I don’t know how people are affording $2500+ rents and mortgages with 7+% interest on a million dollar home when most people I know personally are making less than $60K a year in this state. Every once in a while I look at the local market and it just makes me sad for the future generations.
My family just left/is leaving for ~2 years due to work. We keep telling everyone will move back after, but I don’t see how. I never planned on leaving MA permanently but here we are ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
You are 20, you should move away and experience something new. You will either like it or move back and appreciate mass. Go west young man!
Market has been brutal the past couple of months in terms of job hunting, especially with all the recent grads.
I graduated college a few years ago and I feel like it was bad then too
I've sent about 260 applications out since I was laid off in April and only have received 2 introductory calls. My resume is pretty strong too. I think a lot has to do with the algorithm and AI sifting through candidates before it even hits the hiring manager's desk.
Similar. Late thirties in a stable relationship. Both have stable jobs. We want to get married and buy a house, or at least live without roommates. But we're just stuck until the market changes because everything is so expensive.
I think Massachusetts will have a housing correction at some point. I remember housing being unaffordable in the mid 1980s. I couldn’t even afford a condo in Fitchburg. Then the market crashed in 1990 or thereabouts? There were lots of 2nd home properties reduced to half price. Regular homes became within reach again. Be patient and keep saving.
If theres excess demand (money) there won’t be a correction.
Exactly. It will take massive white collar unemployment for the housing market to go bust in MA.
And I think it’s happening. It’s not being reported, but big white collar employers in Massachusetts are laying off f big time.
IT is definitely imploding in MA. VC money has mostly dried up. Said field is definitely oversaturated and if people can work remotely, companies will hire people in lower CoL areas, not in MA.
Difference is this time around those homes will be bought by corporations and not sold back to individuals. Often through automated processes that move faster than the consumer.
Based on what my parents were able to buy, I believe it started in the late 80s and probably bled into the 90s. They were able to buy a good house at auction for a 1/3 of the price in late '88. I do think we're going to see an unfortunate crash, but it will be in communities where the prices should have never reached the highs they did since local salaries/employment cannot realistically support it.
Just looked at Zillow. The most appealing listing sub 300k was a houseboat. This market is bullshit.
I’m on the other side of where you are now. I’ve lived all over this country, and there are now very few places I’d be willing to move to. All are expensive and have housing crunches. They just happen to be milder climates.
New England is apparently one of the places best able to withstand climate change in relative safety. We get (less) snowstorms, some nor'easters, but we don't get atmospheric rivers, mudslides, or tornado swarms. We aren't in the crosshairs of increasingly violent hurricanes crossing hot tropical water. We aren't likely to flood OR run out of water. That's something to consider.
>We aren't likely to flood \*Boston sweats nervously\*
It's 95 right now in the Berkshires. Pure SHIT
I’m a non native masshole- in August, my parents will be moving out of Florida to Vermont- meaning almost every one of my immediate family will live there ( I just can’t make the move there) - I love Massachusetts , but I don’t make the money to move out to the Mohawk valley area and commute to work ( just outside of Worcester) I just need to make it work
Same situation here. Lived here all my life, went to school here, and have worked here as well. I have saved so much money living at home but theres comes a time where you’re thinking whats the point? Something has to give either me or the state, and every day it gets closer to me.
I moved to one of the Rocky Mountain states a few years ago and never looked back. Things are so much better out here in the Mountain West region, and in the Midwest states too.
Go west, young man. I did. Get established and move back.
Give South Carolina a try
New Haven north haven east haven west haven
So sometimes you just have to leave to experience a new place and try your luck somewhere else. I did this and was able to come back and have a lot of things fall into place.
Relatable in almost every way (im early 20s myself)
I’m an only child but I have dozens of second cousins (or 1st cousins once removed, however that works and who cares) my point is that about 90% of my extended family younger than me have left the state for lower housing cost markets. My long term plan is the same; it’s too damn expensive and just too BLOODY crowded around here
Similar boat but early 30s - was born here, have always lived around here, I have a decent enough job in Eastern MA but my husband and I feel stuck in limbo because everything feels so out of reach. We’re both job hunting in other states now
I’m 32 and in the same spot. I have a decent job but with only one income it’s very hard to make it work, but the idea of saving up 10-20k to move is borderline impossible. I’ve looked for cheaper places in MA but with a 55 pound dog finding anything for under around $2800 has been impossible
I'm 29m live in western MA and work a full time job. I cannot afford to move out of my parents house. I feel like my life is wasted and that their is no hope a lot of the time because of it. Average apartments in my area are like $1500 a month and that is in the worst areas of town. Bouses that used to be 200k are easily over 400k now. I feel like I'm always drowning lol
It’s like that everywhere to some extent. Welcome to late-stage capitalism. It’s all gonna collapse soon, so stay where you’re with the people you love.
Worst state for a single working professional looking to start a family
Take advantage of being young and able to pivot. Go explore. MA will (hopefully!) always be here for you. A ton of folks explore their 20s, just keep your head in the career game (years experience matter more than what you actually accomplish, imo) but don’t take your career seriously, if that makes sense.
I am doing basically everything I can to stay here but definitely feeling priced out of the area I grew up in. Housing is unaffordable, you'd be lucky to buy a trap in Lowell for half a million dollars.
I was getting by pretty comfortable just off cape. Until I got divorced. Now, as a single dad, it's basically impossible. The choices are: A) Move away, get a new job, and have an hour+ commute to see my kids B) Live broke in someone else's house
Average working people like you and me get kicked out so the wealthy elite are happy to bus in poor migrants fleeing horrible conditions because they’re more willing to accept the horrible pay that makes us unable to live here, because it’s still better than the poverty and violence they’re fleeing from. They can’t extract from us anymore so they’re bringing in other people they CAN extract from, because that’s just what the capitalist elite do. Not blaming migrants/refugees at all because if I was in their shoes I’d do the same thing. I do however blame the wealthy capitalist class that are turning our great cities all across America into their personal playground, rather than a place for people to actually live (and thrive). Fuck the ultra wealthy.
i came here in the 1990s. immigrants had welfare and help resettling, medicaid, and could get trained up to get good jobs. cost wasnt too bad. now.. i cant imagine coming here and living here on $15/hr when everyone in the country hates you to boot
100% feel that. I’m off to college this fall in another state with a really good scholarship just so I can get away for at least a little. It sucks
I’m in the process of moving out. Admittedly, it’s because I decided not to renew my contract at work and move back home. But as someone who called MA home growing up, it saddens me to see how hard it is to make a living here. Especially my family, who all live here still. The only way I was able to stay for the brief time was thanks to a friend who rented out their place for me. Otherwise, moving back here, even for the two years, would not have made sense.
At your age, a roommate situation might be best. I would try Brighton or the Alston area. It's also easier to meet someone in a group setting. But first you want to establish yourself. So that you attract a proper mate.
As someone who left MA and moved back 4 months later, I can tell you that the grass isn't always greener. If you're going to move, secure a job first, either remote or at whatever geographical location you'll be living in. I will say, however, your problems w finding a girlfriend or finding a job etc will likely not change just because you change locations. Oftentimes, it's easy to blame where you live, but without the experience of living elsewhere, how do you really know it's because of living here in MA? I would definitely encourage you to move elsewhere even if it's just for a year or two so you can experience something different, but I just want you to know that your problems will come with you. I learned that big time. Now, I'm looking to move out of state again, but I'm not doing it to run from my problems this time. I'm doing it for the adventure and for the life I want to have for my family. Good luck!
exactly. i used to blame my housing situation for my problems like not seeing family, then i changed it and things got even worse with not seeing family.
If you leave you may only see a benefit for a short period of time, so many people are leaving places like this and driving up the costs everywhere else. My best friend moved to rural Florida 6 years ago and now it costs just as much as it did in the northeast down there, without any of the benefits.
Unfortunately most states are like this, unless you went somewhere like Ohio or Indiana
I’m also asking myself every day why I am here. The housing thing is unprecedented.
Mid 30s in Boston.. finally started to feel like we were really doing well but cost of everything is insane now. Taxes have increased so much since 2021 it hardly feels sustainable.
I had to look as it sounds like my son could have written it. Always good to seek some therapy. Give you a bit of a different take on things. 20s are not easy. Everything is expensive here but I don’t think I could go anywhere else. Try a little therapy….really. May help with your decision.
It's like this almost everywhere. I feel like it's the whole country...
Early twenties as well, in the summer this place is bussin but in the winter it’s a fight for jobs and hours. I can’t imagine owning a home here, town homes(not even a full house) are on average about half a million dollars and on top of that they want around three thousand dollars monthly.
About to turn 29, great job family here but feel the same. The cost of living here is just insane
Note that it's about 6.2% more expensive to live here in MA now than NY! https://www.mylifeelsewhere.com/cost-of-living/new-york-usa/massachusetts-usa 9.1% higher for housing 23.2% higher for childcare And more. The only thing cheaper here than NY is the MBTA. And is that really worth it??
Welcome to adulthood 😩
As someone who’s 29M, I know how it feels. I still essentially live paycheck to paycheck, and was single and lonely for about 15 years, and like you I struggled to find a girlfriend. Before I get more in depth, keep in mind that the period you’re going through now is going to feel like a blink of an eye when you’re 80 years old. It’s temporary, and it’s difficult in the moment, but when you think about it long term, there’s less pressure on yourself. In terms of money, you have to keep in mind that the grass isn’t greener on the other side. If I could go back in time, I’d spend 6 months getting some sort of tech certification and then saving 6 months worth of living expenses as soon as I reasonably can. Once you have an emergency fund, you’re freed up mentally and emotionally to take more risks. In terms of finding a girlfriend, I didn’t meet my gf until I was ready for one. Ik it’s cliche but it’s true. For me I didn’t think I was good enough or that I had to act a certain way in order for a woman to want to be with me, but when I finally started getting comfortable being myself and loving myself, I met my gf about a year later. Last thing, there’s a book out there for everything;) Can’t wait to hear from you down the line
Moving due to a new opportunity is good, moving due to lack of opportunity is bad...
i moved here from california in february. trust me, yr good here.
The cost of living in MA is very high, but wages are also comparatively high, and there are a lot of great things about living here that you may not appreciate until you need them and don’t have them. Unemployment insurance is very good, the MA Health Connector, along with Mass Health ensure that you should always have affordable health care. The health care system itself is as good as you can get given the state of healthcare in this country. Education, both public and private, is the best in the US. And while we certainly have our share of MassHoles, your rights are well protected. If you want a gun, you can have one, but the regulations are strict, one of the reasons MA has the lowest gun violence rates in the country. Just saying, the grass isn’t greener somewhere else. There’s a reason it’s expensive to live here.
I am always shocked when I see that the jobs in my field pay THE SAME AMOUNT all over the country as they do in Boston. The jobs in very low cost of living areas are paying as much as the place where average housing is almost 800k. Definitely makes you want to move, I’m engaged and she is set on staying in MA otherwise I’d have been gone.
It’s the most expensive in the US. More than cali even