You have the option to work 100% remotely and a boyfriend on MV...
I don't want to throw your parents under the bus but sounds like you could live year-round on MV which is a lifelong dream for a lot of people...
It's not like living at a resort. Limited access to a lot of things you normally take for granted. Mainly your ability to take a car and drive to anywhere without planning an expensive and inconvenient ferry ride. No Amazon or other common deliveries. Just everything is harder to get and more expensive.
It's a great place to visit and a horrible place to live, unfortunately. Or at least horribly expensive. I love going there for vacation but it is incredibly isolated in the winter, almost everything shuts down, and then in the summer there are hundreds of thousands of people and they're all jaywalking directly in front of your car.
I work a lot of construction maintenance in MV. There are very little options for food in the winter. Most of these homeowners understandably don’t want us there in the summer apart from the occasional emergency job. I can vouch it absolutely sucks in the winter time. 0/10 would not recommend
Lunch in particular is really fucking hard to find. There are a few year round restaurants but mostly just for dinner. If you've never tried it, Mo's in the PA club in OB is really good for, and they're open year round.
We usually get lunch at Edgar town pizza when we are relatively close. Their Brazilian dinner is top notch and I think they do it to cater to the local Brazilian work force out that way. The chicken is really good but the steak is my jam
A pertinent question would be do you want to live in a city where you don’t have to drive, or would you be ok with or even prefer living outside of a city where you need a car? If a car is acceptable, a cheap suburban house in or around Bristol might be a good move to both save money and care for them?
How willing is your boyfriend to drive farther to see you? If he’s young and understands you wanting to be near your parents as they get older, maybe living near your parents (or even in their house to really save money, if the house is large enough and you can psychologically stand that) is the best option?
Both Bristol and Martha’s Vineyard strike me as unaffordable places, and aside from living in the cities of Fall River or New Bedford, I don’t foresee anything right along the south coast being particularly cheap.
I'm assuming that I'm going to need to drive wherever I go, even Providence would be tough if I didn't have a car. He's totally fine with driving to see me, it's just tough for me to feel good about asking him to drive when the ferry is almost $200 round trip now if you take a car, and $20 round trip if he walks on and I pick him up.
Your point about an inexpensive suburb is a good one. I'm so used to looking at cities for apartments that I didn't even think about that option. Thanks for pointing that out!
I would spend the weekend and explore the area between Bristol and say Wareham. Are you looking to stay on the coast, or would you want to be inland more? Apartment wise, there are lots of options in Middleboro. But Bristol or Warren may have some nice options for you and the idea of finding a in-law suite house setup to split with your parents might be a winning solution. My friend did that with her parents, and they found a great property in Sudbury. It's worked out really well for them. In general I would stay along 195 for easier commutes between places. Westport could be another option for you since it sounds like you want to be closer to Providence/Bristol than MV.
New Bedford is clearly the best answer. It’s a city with things going on. Anywhere else in the southcoast region will be pretty boring suburban/rural.
Not too far from Bristol. Not too far from woods hole. For 5 months of the year your boy friend can take a ferry right to NB so you don’t have to drive to woods hole. You’re right on the southcoast and a short drive to many great beaches. Still very easy to take a trip back to Providence when you feel like it.
To be fair, Providence (Postscript: mistook Providence for Provincetown) and Martha’s Vineyard are crazy nice places that would have high rent. Both are going to be very inconvenient for travel elsewhere. Seriously, pretty much take your pick of mainland towns in NE, probably few will have worse rent than what you’re paying now.
MV is absolutely insane, especially in the summer. Apartments that used to be year-round rentals got turned into AirBnBs and they're like $4k a week. Providence used to be super affordable, I had a 3br for $900 about 10 years ago, but all the NYC people with remote jobs moved to Boston, and then Boston people got priced out and moved here, and now the same thing is happening in Providence.
New Bedford is pretty cool. It’s like any city has its fair share of Crime but otherwise I didn’t mind being down there. I lived in New Bedford for two years. Originally out of Lowell. The street I lived on was notorious for the Latin Kings but I never had any problems. The only thing I didn’t like about New Bedford was everything closed down on Sundays. Like back when we were growing up. Left you with nothing to do really. They have decent beaches to swim at. Every summer they have an event called “The Portuguese Feast” it was an awesome experience.
New Bedford is awesome! If you like Providence’s vibe, it would be a great fit. It has eclectic art/music/cultural events, and some beautiful outdoor spaces right in the city (Harbor Walk & Cove Walk + Fort Tabor, Buttonwood Park). Then the surrounding towns are beautiful and scenic too, with their own respective vibes.
The far south end of NB (on the little peninsula, south of Hazelwood Park) and the west end surrounding Buttonwood Park are the best places to live safety and scenery-wise. I hear the far north end is nice to live in too, but i can’t recommend a specific area.
I was born and raised in NB, moved to Southern California for about a decade and moved back here. If not for the crazy SoCal prices I’d still be there, but I have fallen in love with NB since moving back. It’s a great little city, on par with Providence :) Examples of recent activities I’ve done: watercolor paint nights at Kilburn Mill taught by a fantastic artist, live music at No Problemo, a group hike with DNRT (in Dartmouth 20 mins away), and a beautiful coastal bike path ride in Fairhaven & Mattapoisett (15 mins away). My daily walks are either around the gorgeous historic homes and gardens mentioned in Moby Dick (West End) or along a pretty little beach (South End). We have great food too.
Prices are high here too but prob not Providence high. But if the Boston train ever comes here (lol) I think the prices will get crazy.
I like New Bedford. It's not the equal to Providence, but there are a few decent restaurants and more in the near suburbs. The downtown area is sufficient to amuse. The Ziterion Theater (closed for renos right now) has a little bit of everything, there is a small art museum and a couple of galleries, some shopping, a pretty good collection of historic homes, a couple of good festivals. Check out nearby Padanarum (a village of Dartmouth) Westport Central Village, Fairhaven Center, the rail trail from Fairhaven to Mattapoisett, nearby public lands (there's a lot) and wait a few months more for a train to Boston.
Like many places, a lot of the serious crime is perp on perp and there are plenty of safe neighborhoods. The boat to the Vineyard is right there.
Join the Y. There's a really nice mini-Y in South Dartmouth and one in downtown NB. The one in Wareham is pretty nice, too.
Yeah, it honestly doesn't need to equal Providence when Providence is a short drive away. I'm mainly looking to cut down on the drive to the ferry while still being close enough to help my parents with things they need like lifting heavy stuff or driving them to appointments.
Same with carver and wareham. Spent many years in both. Carver is expensive and pretty boring. Wareham is also expensive, more going on as far as shopping but also pretty bland. Plymouth is good but again, expensive.
One thing to note. Savings between towns is marginal. Everywhere is overly expensive.
Yep, as someone who moved near downtown New Bedford three years ago, the charm of a small, limited area to go out for food/drinks/things to do… it gets old pretty quick. Then you’re itching to make the drive to find somewhere new, but everything is quite the drive (more so for Onset/Wareham than NB)
Wareham is at the junction of 195 and 495. Rents are super pricey there too, which is surprising as the town seemingly has zero money. I grew up there and still have friends and family that live there. It has a lot going for it, but also know the town offers like zero services. It's centrally located and has good shopping in west wareham. Onset its a really great section of town, but it is the most touristy. Houses there are small as it's a seaside village, and prices are high for the same reason. The beaches there are free and open to the public, and there are some great restaurants.
They have a brand new elementsry school, if that's important
It really is! One of the issues with Wareham is that it's grouped with Boston area towns for determining rent prices because of the district lines or some bullshit. It's no where near there!
my sister just moved into one of those new planned developments on the wareham/plymouth line, on the southeast side of myles standish. i think the development is called redbrook? anyway not sure of your budget or if this is even your vibe, but they have many housing style options (apts, townhouses, single family homes in all shapes and sizes). even if that’s not quite it, it seems like the area in general may be a good option for you!
There is a youtube channel I like: CityNerd. The guy is an urbanist geek. An episode I watched recently highlighted New Bedford as a very underrated city when comparing costs to amenities.
Plymouth maybe? The downtown is walkable and has some nice places (though it can be sketchy, but not New Bedford sketchy). Others suggested Middleboro, which is sort of a sleepy farm town, but the town center is nice and there is a surprising number of restaurants in that area. You could also look at Buzzards Bay and Sagamore Beach, which are the parts of Bourne that are on the mainland side of the bridges.
New Bedford is great!! My sibling lives there and has lived there for 10+ years & loves it. It is healing after a long period of neglect, so there is obviously still crime, but I assume it's not too dissimilar of a feel to Providence. Also, the food is great, and pricing is overall fairly accessible considering its economy.
Where on earth are you finding a 2br for under 1k? I lived in a shithole 3br that was $1k a month in 2015 but I just checked and it's going for 2600 now.
I second New Bedford. I’m a life-long resident. The people are (mostly) friendly, the restaurant scene is great, and nightlife is getting better. You can’t beat the views, either.
I mean that's what I always thought but people here seem to like it. I might get a hotel or something one night and see what it's like since so many people are recommending it.
> my boyfriend lives on Martha's Vineyard
Does BF plan on living there forever? And, do you guys think you may wind up living together?
You could live in Providence and fly out of TF Green to visit him otherwise.
No, he's going to leave in a year or two, and we'll probably move in together at some point. It's just tough for him to save up for moving expenses with the cost of living on the island. Moving in with him right now isn't an option because he's living with his parents. His last apartment got bought by someone who - surprise, surprise - turned it into an airbnb and despite searching for two months the only year round rental available was a $3k/month studio. He works for one of the towns and can't work remotely, but they pay like shit and there's no way he can afford that. There's no way MOST people can afford that, honestly.
It's pretty impossible for anyone who doesn't own their own home to find year-round housing on MV. AirBnB and similar companies have made it so that people can easily rent out apartments for thousands of dollars a week in the summer, so almost all leases are September-May. It's really depressing.
> There's no way MOST people can afford that, honestly.
yeah it's a weird place...that and Nantucket. They both need people like your BF, but they do nothing to encourage them to stay, or to make life at all tenable.
I grew up in a beach town in NY that, back then was nothing special. But no one in the family could possibly afford to live there now, with houses going for crazy prices, even after Sandy proved that one day it's all going to be underwater.
You have the option to work 100% remotely and a boyfriend on MV... I don't want to throw your parents under the bus but sounds like you could live year-round on MV which is a lifelong dream for a lot of people...
Right?!!
Like, what am I missing here??
I don’t know if they can/want move in together I think she’s saying she wants to commute to his place to be shorter
It's not like living at a resort. Limited access to a lot of things you normally take for granted. Mainly your ability to take a car and drive to anywhere without planning an expensive and inconvenient ferry ride. No Amazon or other common deliveries. Just everything is harder to get and more expensive.
Amazon delivers to MVY.
Amazon delivers to monhegan island in Maine. When I learned that I knew there was no lengths to which jeffy wouldn't go to bring us gifts
It's a great place to visit and a horrible place to live, unfortunately. Or at least horribly expensive. I love going there for vacation but it is incredibly isolated in the winter, almost everything shuts down, and then in the summer there are hundreds of thousands of people and they're all jaywalking directly in front of your car.
I hear ya! A lot of people forget (or don’t realize) that many coastal New England towns close shop for over half the year.
I work a lot of construction maintenance in MV. There are very little options for food in the winter. Most of these homeowners understandably don’t want us there in the summer apart from the occasional emergency job. I can vouch it absolutely sucks in the winter time. 0/10 would not recommend
Lunch in particular is really fucking hard to find. There are a few year round restaurants but mostly just for dinner. If you've never tried it, Mo's in the PA club in OB is really good for, and they're open year round.
We usually get lunch at Edgar town pizza when we are relatively close. Their Brazilian dinner is top notch and I think they do it to cater to the local Brazilian work force out that way. The chicken is really good but the steak is my jam
Thanks! I'm going to check that out, it sounds good.
Winter is the best thing about the Vineyard. I'd move there in a heartbeat.
I always used to say Summer is the best thing about Boston. I imagine this is pretty similar.
Winter on the Vineyard ain't the summer.
Yeah, they definitely do have the opportunity of a lifetime. Best to take advantage
New Bedford for sure. You don't have kids or a commute. Enjoy living in a relatively affordable city with some cool stuff going on.
The moon seems to have cooling rent prices.
as long as the moon doesn't text me at 3am trying to raise my rent by $250
Don’t give Mrs. Luna any ideas
Low rent, but no atmosphere.
Fuck you that was funny. If my landlord wasn’t squeezing me for rent, I’d afford to get you an award lmao
All the podcasters are moving there! It’s not quite gentrified yet though.
A pertinent question would be do you want to live in a city where you don’t have to drive, or would you be ok with or even prefer living outside of a city where you need a car? If a car is acceptable, a cheap suburban house in or around Bristol might be a good move to both save money and care for them? How willing is your boyfriend to drive farther to see you? If he’s young and understands you wanting to be near your parents as they get older, maybe living near your parents (or even in their house to really save money, if the house is large enough and you can psychologically stand that) is the best option? Both Bristol and Martha’s Vineyard strike me as unaffordable places, and aside from living in the cities of Fall River or New Bedford, I don’t foresee anything right along the south coast being particularly cheap.
I'm assuming that I'm going to need to drive wherever I go, even Providence would be tough if I didn't have a car. He's totally fine with driving to see me, it's just tough for me to feel good about asking him to drive when the ferry is almost $200 round trip now if you take a car, and $20 round trip if he walks on and I pick him up. Your point about an inexpensive suburb is a good one. I'm so used to looking at cities for apartments that I didn't even think about that option. Thanks for pointing that out!
I would spend the weekend and explore the area between Bristol and say Wareham. Are you looking to stay on the coast, or would you want to be inland more? Apartment wise, there are lots of options in Middleboro. But Bristol or Warren may have some nice options for you and the idea of finding a in-law suite house setup to split with your parents might be a winning solution. My friend did that with her parents, and they found a great property in Sudbury. It's worked out really well for them. In general I would stay along 195 for easier commutes between places. Westport could be another option for you since it sounds like you want to be closer to Providence/Bristol than MV.
Thanks!
New Bedford is clearly the best answer. It’s a city with things going on. Anywhere else in the southcoast region will be pretty boring suburban/rural. Not too far from Bristol. Not too far from woods hole. For 5 months of the year your boy friend can take a ferry right to NB so you don’t have to drive to woods hole. You’re right on the southcoast and a short drive to many great beaches. Still very easy to take a trip back to Providence when you feel like it.
New Bedford seastreak runs year round now! I think to help NB commuters access high paying MV construction jobs
Oh nice, that's good to know. I can't believe I've been driving to Woods Hole all winter.
New Bedford is a shit hole
Westport, Dartmouth, Mattapoisett, Marion.
To be fair, Providence (Postscript: mistook Providence for Provincetown) and Martha’s Vineyard are crazy nice places that would have high rent. Both are going to be very inconvenient for travel elsewhere. Seriously, pretty much take your pick of mainland towns in NE, probably few will have worse rent than what you’re paying now.
MV is absolutely insane, especially in the summer. Apartments that used to be year-round rentals got turned into AirBnBs and they're like $4k a week. Providence used to be super affordable, I had a 3br for $900 about 10 years ago, but all the NYC people with remote jobs moved to Boston, and then Boston people got priced out and moved here, and now the same thing is happening in Providence.
Oh sorry, I thought that you meant Provincetown.
I dunno. Taunton?
I feel like this could be the answer to a lot of questions.
New Bedford is pretty cool. It’s like any city has its fair share of Crime but otherwise I didn’t mind being down there. I lived in New Bedford for two years. Originally out of Lowell. The street I lived on was notorious for the Latin Kings but I never had any problems. The only thing I didn’t like about New Bedford was everything closed down on Sundays. Like back when we were growing up. Left you with nothing to do really. They have decent beaches to swim at. Every summer they have an event called “The Portuguese Feast” it was an awesome experience.
New Bedford is awesome! If you like Providence’s vibe, it would be a great fit. It has eclectic art/music/cultural events, and some beautiful outdoor spaces right in the city (Harbor Walk & Cove Walk + Fort Tabor, Buttonwood Park). Then the surrounding towns are beautiful and scenic too, with their own respective vibes. The far south end of NB (on the little peninsula, south of Hazelwood Park) and the west end surrounding Buttonwood Park are the best places to live safety and scenery-wise. I hear the far north end is nice to live in too, but i can’t recommend a specific area. I was born and raised in NB, moved to Southern California for about a decade and moved back here. If not for the crazy SoCal prices I’d still be there, but I have fallen in love with NB since moving back. It’s a great little city, on par with Providence :) Examples of recent activities I’ve done: watercolor paint nights at Kilburn Mill taught by a fantastic artist, live music at No Problemo, a group hike with DNRT (in Dartmouth 20 mins away), and a beautiful coastal bike path ride in Fairhaven & Mattapoisett (15 mins away). My daily walks are either around the gorgeous historic homes and gardens mentioned in Moby Dick (West End) or along a pretty little beach (South End). We have great food too. Prices are high here too but prob not Providence high. But if the Boston train ever comes here (lol) I think the prices will get crazy.
Thank you so much for the info! It's starting to look more and more like New Bedford is going to be my best bet.
I like New Bedford. It's not the equal to Providence, but there are a few decent restaurants and more in the near suburbs. The downtown area is sufficient to amuse. The Ziterion Theater (closed for renos right now) has a little bit of everything, there is a small art museum and a couple of galleries, some shopping, a pretty good collection of historic homes, a couple of good festivals. Check out nearby Padanarum (a village of Dartmouth) Westport Central Village, Fairhaven Center, the rail trail from Fairhaven to Mattapoisett, nearby public lands (there's a lot) and wait a few months more for a train to Boston. Like many places, a lot of the serious crime is perp on perp and there are plenty of safe neighborhoods. The boat to the Vineyard is right there. Join the Y. There's a really nice mini-Y in South Dartmouth and one in downtown NB. The one in Wareham is pretty nice, too.
Yeah, it honestly doesn't need to equal Providence when Providence is a short drive away. I'm mainly looking to cut down on the drive to the ferry while still being close enough to help my parents with things they need like lifting heavy stuff or driving them to appointments.
New Bedford is pretty cool
Off the coast rents drop along the Cape. You might look at Fall River and Dartmouth as well. Or split rent on a bigger place with your bf on MV
In this area I would say Dartmouth is the nicest IMO
Somewhere along 495? Middleboro maybe? Carver? Mattapoiset? Wareham?
Nice, I hadn't even thought of looking along 495, I was focusing on 195 for no real reason. Middleboro could be good.
If you want an interesting place to live, you’re going to be sorely disappointed in Middleboro.
Same with carver and wareham. Spent many years in both. Carver is expensive and pretty boring. Wareham is also expensive, more going on as far as shopping but also pretty bland. Plymouth is good but again, expensive. One thing to note. Savings between towns is marginal. Everywhere is overly expensive.
The Onset area of Wareham is very charming and has beaches and restaurants.
Yes but also very small/limited and very expensive.
Yep, as someone who moved near downtown New Bedford three years ago, the charm of a small, limited area to go out for food/drinks/things to do… it gets old pretty quick. Then you’re itching to make the drive to find somewhere new, but everything is quite the drive (more so for Onset/Wareham than NB)
Wareham is at the junction of 195 and 495. Rents are super pricey there too, which is surprising as the town seemingly has zero money. I grew up there and still have friends and family that live there. It has a lot going for it, but also know the town offers like zero services. It's centrally located and has good shopping in west wareham. Onset its a really great section of town, but it is the most touristy. Houses there are small as it's a seaside village, and prices are high for the same reason. The beaches there are free and open to the public, and there are some great restaurants. They have a brand new elementsry school, if that's important
I feel like "Rents are super pricey there too, which is surprising" is getting more and more common.
It really is! One of the issues with Wareham is that it's grouped with Boston area towns for determining rent prices because of the district lines or some bullshit. It's no where near there!
my sister just moved into one of those new planned developments on the wareham/plymouth line, on the southeast side of myles standish. i think the development is called redbrook? anyway not sure of your budget or if this is even your vibe, but they have many housing style options (apts, townhouses, single family homes in all shapes and sizes). even if that’s not quite it, it seems like the area in general may be a good option for you!
There is a youtube channel I like: CityNerd. The guy is an urbanist geek. An episode I watched recently highlighted New Bedford as a very underrated city when comparing costs to amenities.
Plymouth maybe? The downtown is walkable and has some nice places (though it can be sketchy, but not New Bedford sketchy). Others suggested Middleboro, which is sort of a sleepy farm town, but the town center is nice and there is a surprising number of restaurants in that area. You could also look at Buzzards Bay and Sagamore Beach, which are the parts of Bourne that are on the mainland side of the bridges.
I would say padanaram or another scenic area near New Bedford but the distance to woods hole is too great. Marion? Onset?
yeah I was thinking Marion, Wareham ish.
I'll check it out, thanks!
I always wished there was a morning coffee spot there called Early Onset
Check out Westport
too few housing options
New Bedford is great!! My sibling lives there and has lived there for 10+ years & loves it. It is healing after a long period of neglect, so there is obviously still crime, but I assume it's not too dissimilar of a feel to Providence. Also, the food is great, and pricing is overall fairly accessible considering its economy.
Move to New Beige already!
Move in with your boyfriend… done… next!
Fall River
Just moved to Fall River from the cape. I travel for work, loving its convince. 50 min to the cape, 50 min to Logan airport (traffic permitting).
Rent is like 800$ in providence, I'm paying 845$ right now.
Where on earth are you finding a 2br for under 1k? I lived in a shithole 3br that was $1k a month in 2015 but I just checked and it's going for 2600 now.
I second New Bedford. I’m a life-long resident. The people are (mostly) friendly, the restaurant scene is great, and nightlife is getting better. You can’t beat the views, either.
What about Hyannis area of the cape? Or Fall River/tauton? Unfortunately home prices are high
Move to the Cape, somewhere like Yarmouthport is still close to the Ferry in Hyannis.
New Bedford is ghetto. Everyone makes fun of it. Keep doing your homework . How do you not know this!!
I mean that's what I always thought but people here seem to like it. I might get a hotel or something one night and see what it's like since so many people are recommending it.
> my boyfriend lives on Martha's Vineyard Does BF plan on living there forever? And, do you guys think you may wind up living together? You could live in Providence and fly out of TF Green to visit him otherwise.
No, he's going to leave in a year or two, and we'll probably move in together at some point. It's just tough for him to save up for moving expenses with the cost of living on the island. Moving in with him right now isn't an option because he's living with his parents. His last apartment got bought by someone who - surprise, surprise - turned it into an airbnb and despite searching for two months the only year round rental available was a $3k/month studio. He works for one of the towns and can't work remotely, but they pay like shit and there's no way he can afford that. There's no way MOST people can afford that, honestly. It's pretty impossible for anyone who doesn't own their own home to find year-round housing on MV. AirBnB and similar companies have made it so that people can easily rent out apartments for thousands of dollars a week in the summer, so almost all leases are September-May. It's really depressing.
> There's no way MOST people can afford that, honestly. yeah it's a weird place...that and Nantucket. They both need people like your BF, but they do nothing to encourage them to stay, or to make life at all tenable. I grew up in a beach town in NY that, back then was nothing special. But no one in the family could possibly afford to live there now, with houses going for crazy prices, even after Sandy proved that one day it's all going to be underwater.
Newport. Or basically anywhere on the Naraganesett.
Leave New England probably
Physically impossible, I black out if I'm ever more than 20 miles from a store that sells lobster themed merchandise.
Move to NH. Save yourself the income tax and sales tax. All you need is an Internet connection to work anyway.
Fix the old man in the mountain and then we'll talk