Boss, my $100K salary just isn't cutting it

i have heard that making $100k in boston is like making $50k austin...maybe a move is in store for slappy????

The only thing I can say Slappy is - I am in your boat. Seeing I own, I can't vouch for rent prices. But with two working adults we can only afford a condo (not a house) if we live within 50 miles of Boston. Not completely true - we could buy a house that is smaller than our condo and that is in need of dire repair. And actually we couldn't afford the condo we live in now, as the price has almost doubled since when we purchased it.

Since the increase in value, our taxes have increased significantly - about an additional $200 a month. Granted we live in a nice condo, but it is only 2 bedrooms! Yeah - that apprx $100k salary isn't so much around Boston.

Grrrrr..... try living in Boston on 27,000 a year.

I wouldn't know how! You must not have to commute into Boston. That alone could cost close to your salary.

You earn 100K?

With bonus I do. But I live very close to Boston. With two small children, I don't want to spend all my time commuting and therefore cannot see them to tuck them in.

I meant Slappy. I guess I had a picture of what he did for a living and it didn't come anywhere near 100K, unless he was a man-stripper on weekends!

That's the problem, in Boston you need, or could use, a boat. Most large cities have a hinterland (suburb) that extends 360 degrees around the core. Boston does not. It has only a 180 degree hinterland. The other 180 degrees is taken up by Buzzards Bay. Boston is attempting to crowed a metropolitan population into half the space. The result is high housing costs.

Hey, $100,000.00 may just be a living wage, but think of the taxes you pay on it.

Slappy
Slappy, that is why, when I retired, I moved away from my family and friends in the San Francisco Bay Area to Albuquerque, New Mexico. Now, nearly three years later, the housing price bubble has followed me to ABQ. Once again, I've hit the real estate jackpot because I bought my home before the bubble arrived.

BBB

No kids, but two costly animals. Actually, I'm not 'making it in massachusetts'. I'm about 2 months pay in debt. I have a great deal in rent, but I pay my own health insurance.

Report rates Boston most expensive city…
Propelled largely by high housing costs, Boston is now the most expensive metropolitan area in the country. The report found that last year, a family of four living in the Boston area needed $64,656 to cover its basic needs - Living expenses, which include healthcare, child care, and other basic needs.

The result: In 2004, there were only 27 Boston-area communities in which a household whose members made the median income could afford the median-priced home in that city or town.
By comparison, in 2003 there were 59, and in 1998 there were 148.

Jennifer Norris, a 34-year-old Medford resident, said the struggle to buy a house is a wrenching topic of conversation. Norris, who works for an environmental group, and her husband, employed at Harvard Law School, make a combined salary that exceeds $100,000. But that isn't enough to buy a house near their jobs, they say, and for five years they have rented a two-bedroom apartment.

http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2005/09/08/report_rates_boston_most_expensive_city/?page=1

I assume that these stats include Cambridge too, am I wrong?

I would guess - it did say the Boston area.

The title was supposed to just make a point, how damn expensive this city is.

I just don't know how some people swing what they have considering income vs. cost of living here. Sure there's a lot of people making a lot of money in Boston, but there's also a lot of people making entry-level pay buying homes, living in high rent areas, ect.

Well at least now it's cheaper for me as an owner than when I was renting. Hence the roomates.

You got that right.

Things are much much better a short distance off from you up in Vermont. Vermont the happy people and affordable state.


(Bostonians need not apply )

Heyyyy!

For you we will make an exception Heeven.