<p>The main difficulty with young couples living in Boston is what to do when they hit school age as the BPS aren’t the greatest. Boston is a great and fun place to live if you don’t have to deal with school issues. It sounds as if their place might make for a great investment. My neighbor bought a commercial condo in the South End with an existing tenant (restaurant) and the business is doing great and I think that he’s very happy with his investment (he went in with a partner). He might have gotten an off-street parking place to go with it which can be pretty valuable in Boston.</p>
<p>If you’re a young professional living in Boston, a car is more of a liability than an asset. My son has a ZipCar office at his apartment and I think that they have two cars in inventory (though a car isn’t always available on short notice). There’s a lot of stuff within walking distance and there are taxis, buses, commuter rail, the subway and Zipcar.</p>
<p>I do a lot of driving. 20K miles per year. But there’s no traffic.</p>
<p>I have thought about moving closer to work (11 miles now). It would help if there was new or recent construction that aren’t apartments. Houses are expensive in the neighborhoods that are nice because the best elementary school in the city is there. Lots of good places for running here too. But the traffic is terrible in November and December and the morning and the evening. There’s a massive mall nearby and all of the folks from MA that want to not pay sales taxes shop here.</p>
<p>20 Minute commute and it’s easy. I could work from home too. A lot of people do it today. But I like to come into the office.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t mind staying in Boston one or two nights a week. The appeal is walking around, enjoying the universities, the buzz, food that’s hard to find in NH and some shopping. I’m not moving to MA with the income and capital gains taxes though. 10 or 11 percent short-term capital gains taxes are not healthy for swing-traders.</p>
<p>My wife is having a great time in Singapore right now and she’s there for a few more weeks. I suppose that I could go there too every once in a while.</p>
<p>I understand what you like about a city like Boston…</p>
<p>Stay in a hotel once in awhile in Boston. I think there are still deals that can be had from vendors like priceline at certain times. Name your own price and if you dont get hit… You don’t get hit.</p>
<p>Because that cap gain tax rate is horrible compared to other income taxes in that state. I had no idea that Mass taxes short term cap gains at more than twice the rate of other income. I wonder if any other states do that. I have never been to Singapore.</p>
<p>You have a good gig. Just the fact you can work at home tells me your work has a relaxed atmosphere.</p>
<p>On another note, I disabled the spell check feature on the iphone. Typing is much better without it,</p>
<p>I was wrong on short-term capital gains in MA. It’s actually higher than what I posted. It’s 12%. I guess that it went up from when I was living there more than I thought it did. That includes long-term gains on collectables. Long-term capital gains are 5.25%. Dividends and interest taxes are 5.25%.</p>
<p>BTW, I just noticed that MA has an optional tax rate for generous folks. On income taxed at 5.25%, taxpayers have the option to pay a higher rate at 5.85%. I guess that this is for folks that feel that their tax rates are too low and want to do something concrete about it. In 2006, out of 1,540,000 returns, 424 elected the optional higher rate. The average income of those that elected the higher rate was $20,000.</p>
<p>I could just stay at my son’s place too. I’d need to buy another bed to put in his apartment though. That’s a lot cheaper than a hotel room if more than a few nights. My daughter is graduating this spring and looking for work in our area and in Boston. She could share his apartment if she gets a job there so we’d buy a bed for her there if that’s what happens. The hotels in the area run about $250 in the off season, probably $300 - $450 during the tourist season. Actually those were last year’s prices. They might have gone up since then.</p>
<p>There may be a few condos here for just under a million. Lot value is much higher than a million. My husband’s office is 4 blocks from our home. Therefore I am in awe of people who drive 5,000 miles a year. I drive under 1,000 miles a year. :)</p>
<p>We have decent public schools. The schools used to be outstanding but now…not so much. But as a family who went private and public schools, I would rather be aggravated for free. </p>
<p>Oh, and we do have nice weather because we are close-ish to the ocean.</p>
<p>I like to go when I feel like going. I was really busy at work this week and was working from early to late a lot of days (it’s quiet now).</p>
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<p>I have an IM Window with our son during the day. We chat during the day about work, tech, school and other things. Our daughter is not as chatty - we usually communicate via email.</p>
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<p>It could be that folks are just making errors in filling out their returns too.</p>
<p>California top-rate capital gains tax is 13.3% - it looks like the rate is progressive and I don’t know the laddering. MA rate is flat so it affects everyone. I guess that’s why Koslowski (former CEO of Tyco) lived in NH. Tyco had factories in MA so he could have lived in MA - I think that he had a place in NYC too but obviously wouldn’t want to list that as his residence.</p>
