Sharon

I currently reside in the Upstate New York area and work for a pharmaceutical company. I am considering a move to either SanDiego or Boston ... believe that I could get a job in either area in the the pharmaceutical industry (plenty of openings right now in my area of expertise). I have looked into both areas quite a bit and there are obviously pros and cons to each.

Is there anyone who has lived in both areas that can offer their opinions? Some info on me ... early 40s, married, no children, like to ski in winter and golf in summer. Also enjoy gardening, movies, eating out, outdoor activities, exploring, and of course traveling! Thanks!

John G

I don't know what the cost of living in San Diego is, but in Boston it is outrageous. My sister lives in Cambridge and her house cost 1.5 million. I have had friends who lived on Exeter Street in Back Bay and they were paying $2000 a month for a studio. It got so bad they moved to Portland, Maine. Another friend works for Bank of Boston and lives on Commonwealth Ave near Boston College. She pays $700 for a tiny studio that is in bad need of repairs. But, all these people absolutely love/loved living in Boston.

Parrot Mom

Oh come on John...somebody who owns a house in Cambridge and somebody who is living on Exeter Street.. Give me a break!!! We here in Boston aren't all stupid and gullible..Yes, is very, very expensive and Exeter Street is in the middle of downtown Boston..high rent area.. There are other places to live in the Boston area..I doubt if there is skiing in San Diego. Moving and living in the Boston area isn't cheap, but the qualitiy of life is so far better and I assume much more affordable than San Diego. If Sharon is associated with a drug firm I'm sure it's offices are in the suburbs, along Route 128 or Route 495 and that is much more affordable. Sharon, what areas are the openings?

Flip A. Coyne

Sharon-
Similarities:
Both very expensive.
Both historic (Boston = American colonial, San Diego - Spanish colonial)though Boston moreso and does a better job of preservation
Both on/near water - Boston cold Atlantic, SD warmer Pacific

Skiing: from SD fly to Rockies, from Boston drive or fly to Vermont, Maine, etc.
Golf - more months of the year in SD

Culture: Boston wins hands down.

Access to other cool places: Boston airport has better service, more direct flights, and you can also hoip on Amtrak to get to NYC, DC, etc.

Traffic: Both are bad, but Boston is probably worse, but does have a public transportation system

The bigest difference: climate. Boston gets bone chilling cold in the winter, and paralyxing blizzards are not rare. San Diego can get cool (as in beach breezes) but generally mild.

Olive Oyl

Sure, Sharon could move to Hopkinton or Ashland as we did to find something affordable the two times we were transferred to Boston, then drive an hour on the Pike coming and going. That was fun. Despite having grown up in the state, we could not have been transferred out again fast enough to suit us. Sky high real estate taxes, income taxes, personal property taxes and insurance rates were the icing on the cake. Sure was pretty though!

mar

You can drive a couple of hours and ski in Big Bear from San Diego. Both places can be expensive but the further out from the city, the better the prices. Both are great places for singles. I am a west coast person so I prefer the wonderful climate of San Diego.

Barbara

Sharon, I live in San Diego. I have never ben to Boston, it's high on my list of places to visit, though. Here in SD, housing-whether buying or renting-is very,very expensive. However, from your list of "things you like to do", it seems that most of them are "outside" things. You can do them twelve months a year here. San Diego is littered with golf courses (www.golfsd.com)and many of them are excellent. While there certainly is no snow skiing in the city (or county) of San Diego, there is plenty in California, the closest being a two and a half to three hour drive away at Big Bear. Better skiing is found at Mammoth Mountain, about a seven hour drive. If you want powder, that will involve going to the Rockies, but it probably would from Boston also. You will find plenty of places to water ski here, right in San Diego. The climate here is almost perfect. It's never bitterly cold - though once you've lived here for a few years, your idea of what "bitterly cold" actually means tends to change - and it's also rarely very hot. The closer to the coast you are, the cooler it is in summer. Inland, where house prices and rents are slightly less, it can be pretty toasty in summer, sometimes requiring air conditioning. It is rarely humid. In gardens here, you can grow all kinds of plants, pretty much all year. We have a Major League Baseball team, the San Diego Padres and for NFL, the Chargers. From San Diego, it is not hard to get to most interesting places and a lot easier to get to Hawaii and other destinations to the west! You can drive to Arizona in a few hours, to Los Angeles in a couple of hours and of course, there's Mexico. San Diego has an excellent symphony orchestra, also an very good opera company. We have outstanding live theater at the Old Globe, amongst many others in town. I hope this helps.

Tim

I got up and went rollerblading before grabbing breakfast with friends at an outdoor cafe overlooking the bay. I just got back from a few hours of water-skiing in Mission Bay. And then tomorrow morning, I'll be off to my standing Sunday morning golf game. Weather's around 80 today and bright blue skies - not bad for mid-October, huh? Down side - the cost of living. $950,000 for a 2 bedroom condo on the bay, or $1,300-$1,500 for a nice one bedroom inland apt (that is if you can find a complex that isn't running at 100% occupancy). The sad thing is that employers know that the weather is what keeps us here and that we won't give it up for better pay, so therefore we have some pretty low income levels in comparison to the cost of living. And our milk, gas, etc. also costs more than other areas. All that said, I'm willing to forego some luxuries like vacations to enjoy the lifestyle here in San Diego.

Danny

I went to college in SD and although I live in NYC now, I'm in Boston at least once a month for a couple days at a clip. I enjoy the city and scene of Boston, but San Diego would win hands down. There is an old saying in SD that the pay is lousy because they pay you in "Sun Dollars". If you are in upstate NY, your first winter in San Diego where the weather will be in the mid 70's to 80's and the weather channel is talking about artic cold fronts and windchills in the zero's, you can smile at your spouse and say "how did we ever do that".

Depending on where you are working in San Diego, I would recommend the north country from Del Mar to Vista. Prices although still high are a little better than La Jolla, Pacific Beach or the University area.

Take a trip to SD and see for yourself.

Barbara

Sharon, Danny is quite right about North County house/rental costs. Not inexpensive, but a bit less. In your line of work, you'd most likely be working somewhere in the northern part of the city and county.Our weather right now is perfect, as Tim said, about 80F. However, it will be chilly (S. Cal. chilly!) tonight, so we can have those romantic fires in the fireplace and pretend we have cold weather.The best fun you will have if you move here is to call back east when they are having one of those really bitter winter storms and ask casually what the weather's like there!

John G

Oh, you come on, Parrot Mom, stop trying to pretend that Boston isn't one of the most expensive places in the world to live. My nephew goes to Buckingham, Brown, and Nichol and I think the tuition there is $20,000 a year. He is only in 4th grade. It costs about $10 an hour to park your car--and that's if you can find a place. (You can take the T and be packed in like a can of sardines.) Yes, Parrot, you are right, you can live outside the city, but the commute is horrible. (Plus, you have to deal with the Big Dig.) Parrot, where do you live, by the way??

So There

You're sister must be rich to afford a house and that price, John, not counting taxes etal!

John G

Yes, so there, my sister is very rich....that's my point...you have to be rich to live well in Boston.

Mare

Oh, come now. She could live in Sharon or Canton (among many other towns). Both are quiet, attractive, safe towns with a 25-30 minute commuter rail trip into Boston. You can buy a three bedroom "starter house" for $220,000 or so, which is very expensive, but not quite to the degree you are claiming.

JohnG

Sharon?? Why bother to move to Boston if you are going to live all the way out there? That's like wanting to move to New York and living in Cranford, NJ.

Mare

Not sure why you have to be so negative, John. There are many people who want the benefits of a well paying job, and access to all the cultural activities Boston has to offer without wanting to actually live in a big city. Sharon and Canton are not "way out there"--people who live in Brookline, Chestnut Hill, etc live closer on the map but their commute isn't much shorter than Sharon's 25 minute commute on the rail. The op mentioned that she likes outdoor activities, and Sharon has a lake and Borderland state park, which has some very scenic trails. She also likes gardening, so if she is considering this area, she should probably consider the suburbs where she can actually have some land. There are many MA towns within easy commmute of Boston, and many people who are new to the area would do well to consider them.
You can even have both the commuter rail and the ocean if you move north of the city.

Sharon

Wow - thanks for all the replies and info. The company I am considering in SanDiego is located northwest of SanDiego proper off Rt 805 north of Highway 52 and before Rt 805 meets Rt 5 (in the general area of Scripps Memorial Hospital). The company in the Boston area is in Cambridge. The cost of living in both areas is concerning to me, especially coming from Upstate NY where it is pretty low. However, hubby is out of work and with the job situation very limited around here in his area (technical sales) we are looking at areas where we could both find work in a decent salary range (although I am concerned that whatever higher salary I negotiate will be eaten up by the higher cost of living).

However, people do seem to love both Boston and SanDiego and live there in spite of the high cost of living. We are looking for places that offer a variety of activites with some culture and also job opportunities (pharmaceutical industry for me; technical sales for him).

Keep the thoughts coming ... I appreciate it ... it helps by providing other perspectives to think about.

Joanne

Sharon, to compare the costs of living, and to get an idea of what would be a fair adjusted salary, go to one of the many on-line cost-of-living comparison calculators. Here's a handy one; others will no doubt give slightly different figures, but all will be in the same ballpark.

http://www.datamasters.com/cgi-bin/col.pl

Don't be frightened by JohnG's figures, they represent the top one percent of expensive lifestyles in Boston. Very few people live in million-dollar homes or send their kids to $20K private schools!

For instance, I live in Milton (which borders the southern edge of the city of Boston), where we have another one of those super-fancy super-expensive private schools and plenty of million-dollar homes. But there are also good free public schools, and plenty of places in the $300K range (sorry, that's moderate around here) and access to the Red Line of the MBTA, which goes straight into Cambridge. So you do have options in the Boston area.

Housing in either place is going to be the biggest shock to your budget. You can cruise around a site like www.realtor.com to get an idea of what places cost.

One place in Cambridge for you to look into for work is Abt Associates, which does pharm clinical trials, always needs people, and pays well.

By the way, I just looked up JohnG's profile on AOL and he says he lives on "Society Hill, PA". It would seem that his Boston expertise is limited.

Parrot Mom

Buckingham, Brown, and Nichol...oh for heavens sakes John..you are talking about the most expensive private school probably in the state, so your relatives have lots of $$.. For instance, I can be in downtown Boston at the theatre district in approximately 30--45 minutes on the Mass. Turnpike. I live directly next to Route 495.. There of course is Sudbury,Southboro, Wayland, Weston, Harvard, Bolton, Stow, etc. all upscale communities with a high quality of life. On the other hand in the Shrewsbury/Worcester area there are many biotech companies.. Within one hour I can be in Maine, less than that in Newport, Rhode Island.. An interesting comment is that many of the college students who come to Boston from out of state..never leave..so that Boston is always alive and active. Yes, taxes are high compared to other places, but the quality of life is so far superior. Yes, I would love the San Diego weather, but to be a New Englander you have to be adventerous...

Joanne

Massachusetts' taxes aren't as bad as they used to be, mostly thanks to "Proposition 2 1/2" and other states' increasing sales taxes. One think-tank has ranked Massachusetts 21 out of the 50 states in total tax burden per $1000 of per capita income.

http://www.taxfoundation.org/staterankings.html