I Really Need To Move

I live in the hood. Southeast DC to be exact. I knew the area was the hood when I moved there but the rent was the most affordable I could find in the city without having a roommate. The apartment was a great size and I had the freedom to do anything to the apartment I wanted as far as decorating goes and I could have a dog. Those things were huge pluses. The area, from what I've been told, has made an incredible turn-around in the last 15 years or so. But since moving to the area, I've had my car broken into, I've seen a drug bust right in front of my house, the kids in the neighborhood have used my vehicle for their own personal lawn chair, I've got football dents in the hood of my car, I've had a car almost come through my front window (literally!), the electricity goes out for days at a time when a storm hits, my neighbor upstairs is very rude, etc., etc., etc. This list could go on forever. Bottomline: I need to move! My lease isn't up until February of 2009 but I think I'm out growing the place. I love the apartment and I wish I could just pick up the whole damn apartment and move it to a better area but I've come to the conclusion that what I'm saving in rent is being made up for in the expenses I have to shell out for misc stuff. Like dent repair.

My boyfriend works for a bed and breakfast in Adam's Morgan and gets an apartment for free. Not only is the apartment free but so is his internet and cable. That's virtually unheard of. Right now from the two jobs he works he is able to stack the majority of the money he makes. Add me to that equation and we could save thousands of dollars between us if I move in. He really wants me to move in with him and it seems very tempting but I come from a very traditional family that doesn't believe in couples co-existing until they jump the broom. And for a long time I believed that too, but the older I get the more since it makes, financially, to make the move. My boyfriend and I are talking about getting married within the next year and a half and our plan is to stack dough to move to N.C. Charlotte to be exact, an up and coming city for young professionals. All the dreams we set before us cannot be realized in DC. The cost of living is just too high and with a recession on the horizon, it doesn't appear to be looking any better.

I posed this question to my aunt yesterday and her reply wasn't quite what I wanted to hear. She suggested that I try to find something like what he has. IMPOSSIBLE. His job requires that he works 40 hours a week in order to retain the apartment. I have a full time career already and that would be a step backwards for me. So while I would be getting the free apartment I would be taking an huge pay cut and getting way from my career. Maybe she was the wrong person to ask.

So I pose the question to all of you . . . what would you do in this situation?