For potential recruits below the executive level, housing prices can often be an immediate deal-breaker. Even for executives, the sticker shock of Boston can be a lot to deal with. The problem is most acute for people coming out of the South and the Midwest. Midwesterners aren't the only ones complaining, though. Statistics may not back that up, but there is little doubt that Boston has moved into the upper ranks of cities in home prices.
Some old problems refuse to go away.
The busing crisis happened 25 years ago, but the image of Boston as a racially tense place hasn't completely faded. While virtually everyone agrees that the racial climate has improved in recent years, minority recruits are wary of Boston. The ''Taxachusetts'' label is also something of an anachronism. Taxes today in Massachusetts are no higher than they are in most major industrial states. The subject still comes up in conversations, however, and recruiters have to pull out the numbers to defuse the issue.