bitburgr

My son is moving to the Watertown area for work and will need an apartment. He's culinary so doesn't have much salary. Any recommendations where to look for a studio / single bedroom within a 30 minute drive (or walking distance) of Arsenal Yards?

At the risk of being embarrassed, is $1k / mo way too low for anything safe? He had a pretty crappy apartment in Philly so he can probably rough it for a year but Mom and I are hoping to find something where we don't worry about his health or safety. What should we be expecting?

Thanks!

octr202

Renter in Belmont (town immediately north of Watertown) here. I think you're going to be hard pressed to find anything in Watertown or surrounding towns for less than about $1700-1800/month for a studio or 1-bed. The rental market is very pricey here. Unlikely to find much price difference across the Charles in Brighton, since the student influence there keeps prices up.

Since it sounds like he's going to be a car-based commuter, he might have slightly better luck looking in Waltham (west of Watertown). The public transit access isn't as good there and rents can be a bit lower, but probably only talking $100-200 less per month. Parts of Waltham will look/feel a bit gritty but are generally safe.

If you can find something affordable in Watertown/Belmont/Brighton/Newton areas, certainly won't have any issues with neighborhood safety at all. Biggest challenge there will be the price.

Out of my Element

I agree with Waltham as a possible option. Waltham is next to Watertown (in the other direction) and has tons of new apartment and condo buildings. There are lots of bus and train connections (to Cambridge and Boston) from there although I don't know if the buses go to the Arsenal area, but likely pass thru Watertown Square which isn't far.

$1000 might be tough but I haven't looked at apartment prices there in a couple of years

Blumie

In the other direction from what? Waltham is west of Watertown, so I guess it’s in the other direction than north, south and east.

truncated

Work in Newton Corner and although I live in Back Bay know of a few coworkers who live in Watertown and it's highly unlikely you'll find anything for $1k in the immediate area, and going out to Waltham might not help much either.

If it's an option the best solution in my mind is probably for your son to find a roommate or two, and probably look at Allston/Brighton and even parts of Newton — I know people who pay $700 - 900 / month for a room in a 2-3BR in Brighton / Oak Square (and looking at Zillow there are plenty of 2BRs going for ~$2k / month at the moment). It's close enough to Watertown and I think the transport connections are better than going out west too.

octr202

If using transit to work at the Arsenal is a plus, the southern/downtown side of Waltham isn't a bad option. The route 70 bus runs the length of Watertown (east/west) on Arsenal and Main Streets, and then continues through Waltham on Main St. It's not the best MBTA bus route, but it runs with fairly decent frequency all day, seven days a week.

Going for a roommate situation is probably the only possibility to get under/around the $1000 price point.

Blumie

The Route 70 bus is the only bus that goes directly past Arsenal Yards, so if the OP's son intends to rely on public transportation, somewhere along that route would be best. (Not sure what you mean by it not being the best MBTA bus route -- perhaps you mean frequency of service -- but I do think it's sufficiently reliable.) From a social life perspective, being on the eastern end of the route, particularly in the Central Square, Cambridge area, would be best, but of course that will be reflected in the relative rental prices.

Edited to add: The Route 70 bus does connect with several other buses, and the Red Line subway in Central Square, but Boston ain't NYC or London where bus connections can be relatively painless. Having to transfer between the Route 70 bus and the Red Line could be tolerable, but I would not rely on conveniently connecting between bus routes.

bitburgr

Thanks everyone for the replies. I'm going to print this out for my son. Although not his first choice, he would consider a roommate. I'm sure he'll get advice from his new colleagues, too.

Is it worth hiring a realtor?

truncated

I personally don't think a realtor's necessary — I'm still renting and when I was looking for my current apartment last year I just contacted the agents on each listing on Zillow/whatever your preferred website is, set up times for viewings and went from there. Probably helped that I was in Boston already and had enough flexibility to view everything in person, but most agents will have videos available to send to you if you're remote as well.

octr202

Re: the 70 bus - Yes, it's reliable and has good span of service. Its worst issues are being slow (but the worst parts are east of the Arsenal complex), and just having a badly designed schedule (irregular headways with weird gaps).

No need to use a realtor. I moved this spring, and I'd say about 2/3 of what we saw was off Craigslist, the other 1/3 off Zillow.

bitburgr

Thanks everyone for the recommendations and insights. He found a place in his price range in Watertown (!) and with a roommate.

The key here was to check listings daily as there were new apartments listed every day. We checked Craigslist, Zillow, apartments.com and trulia all the time. I think he found his new place on Craigslist.

BamaVol

I’m glad to see it worked out well. I used to rent the bottom apartment in a 100 year old duplex in Waltham very close to where Waltham, Watertown and Newton meet. In 1978, we were paying $240 a month for 2 bedrooms and one bath with a big back yard on a quiet street. I’m just stunned to think that place would be renting for >$2K in 2022. We had just moved from Denver where we were paying $160 for something of similar size but in a brand new complex. We thought $240 was ridiculous.

DELee

Now, $240 is also ridiculous.

David

BamaVol

LOL. I can’t imagine. We had friends in Denver a couple blocks from our 2nd apartment on Capital Hill that were paying $75 a month. It had no bathtub or shower; the bathroom consisted of a toilet and sink. What was scariest about that was one of them ran a hospital cafeteria,

DELee

Shower at work or gym (hopefully)?

David