Forum: Story Ideas

I am writing a new story and i need some info if anyone lived in Boston in the 1980's could you help me with apartment cost of that time. I am just in the starting phase of writing my story but i need someone who would know the info. I have been to Boston enough times on work but i need info on rentals at that time and don't want to ask the Boston globe or pay for the rentals section from that time.

Also if you are an editor and have info of Boston from the mid 80's to early 90's it would help my story i know i can just write what i want but i want it close to the real thing. This will be my first story under this pen name.

Thank you,

E

Don't know if this will help since it isn't specifically for Boston.

http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/housing/census/historic/grossrents.html

I did a search for historical rent data.

You could use the inflation calculator below to convert current rents to 1980 dollars. Unless it is critical to the plot, this should be close enough.

http://www.dollartimes.com/calculators/inflation.htm

Also, Boston is like most major cities in that is has "trendy" and "high-rent" areas, as well as low-rent areas. You can pretty much write whatever you want, if you're willing to be a little ambiguous about where the neighborhood is located.

"We were just on the edge of the Green Hills development, one of the cookie-cutter developments that got half-built before the developer went bankrupt. As a result, or rent was surprisingly (low/high) for the area..."