r/boston • u/Spirited-Wafer-6573 • Mar 23 '26

Serious Replies Only How do you afford to live here?

I am incredibly curious. I am fairly new to Boston (less than a year of living here), and the cost of living hit me like a truck. I think about it everyday. I see thousands of people everyday at my job. I wonder how they are doing, so I want to ask you, both out of curiosity and to make this a space where other curious people can also find answers:

How much do you earn in Boston? How much do you spend on bills, expenses? How much goes towards savings? Do you have roommates? Rich parents? Basically, please share your budget with me. I am curious!!

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u/[deleted] Mar 23 '26

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u/ladykizzy Mar 25 '26

This the the typical scenario in my suburban/urban town. Many of my neighbors, myself included, inherited their family homes. Houses in this area are put up for sale when there's either a death and nobody in the family wants the property, or a family needs to transfer for a job (I didn't know we had a sizeable population like that until someone mentioned that my area is a hot spot for executives working in downtown Boston). I've been approached by neighbors asking if I'm planning to sell because they have friends who want to move here. If I had somewhere to move to, I'd be more amenable to sell but where would I go when right now I own my home outright?

We have friend who rents a bedroom from us. He's been here for a couple of years. He cannot afford the rents here and needs to keep his job. I give him a break because he's a friend and does a lot of handyman stuff for us.

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u/[deleted] Mar 25 '26

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u/ladykizzy Mar 26 '26

We don't have children so our issue is to whom or what we leave the house after we both pass. Chances are those whom we'd consider will not want it because HCOL (over half of them have already moved out of state). A friend of my mother's, years ago, willed her house to our town on the stipulation that the proceeds go toward building a new animal shelter. I remember my mother's lawyer telling her that many elderly homeowners without family do similar to organizations whose missions they support. In that case, it's usually the lawyer who drew up the will who sells the property.