How Boston Undergraduate Student's Struggle to Find Off-Campus Housing
By: Caroline Dyson and Yao Xiao (Monika)
Nov. 4, 2024

Undergraduate students in Boston renting off-campus face unexpected amount of challenges with high rents, limited affordable options, and fierce competition. Many are left sharing cramped spaces or living in converted areas like living rooms to manage costs.

In many situations, undergraduates have to pay extra expenses like unwieldly security deposits and agent fees for housing source finding process.

Some real estate agents and house owners make the process harder with unclear or misleading terms for undergraduate students, caused many inconvenience and potential extra cost.

Although universities provide some resources, many students feel they lack real support, underscoring a need for clearer guidance to help them navigate Boston’s tough rental market.

Undergraduate students in Boston seeking off-campus housing face an unexpected amount of challenges amidst their apartment hunting process. As universities throughout the city continuously do not guarantee housing for seniors due to many factors, including over-admission, students are left to find arrangements on their own in one of the most expensive cities in the country.

The recent following data shows how rent prices in Boston have skyrocketed within the past three years. They are seemingly consistent from January 2018 to January 2020, but plummet at the hands of the pandemic in the spring of 2020. Rent prices begin to rise again at the start of 2022, and have been at an all time high ever since.

With these already high rent prices, it is extremely hard for undergraduate students to afford living off campus. In addition to the high prices as a struggle, undergraduates getting past the application process is an obstacle because many housing management companies will not lease to undergraduates. Some of these companies fear the property will not be maintained properly by a younger student because of their age, which isn't entirely true to each student. Some agents make the process harder with unclear or misleading terms for undergraduate students who in most cases, are first time renters. Although universities provide some resources, many students feel they lack real support, underscoring a need for clearer guidance to help them navigate Boston's cutthroat rental market.

Boston's undergraduate students face a tough battle in their search for off-campus housing. For many of them, finding a property close to their campus that fits within a limited budget is a tough process. Emerson College transfer student Sophia Qiu did not have extensive knowledge of the city in the same way her peers did, which was a detriment to her apartment hunting process. Because Boston's rent prices have skyrocketed over the past three years, Qiu decided it would be more cost efficient to find roommates and split rent costs.

“I didn't think about living alone because of the rent.” Sophia said, “ It is hard for me to afford the rent of a studio. Finding a roommate is mainly about finding a person to split rent. So in the first place, I already started to consider finding a roommate.”

Qiu faces a very common situation undergrads constantly run into when finding off-campus housing. We created a survey for undergraduate students asking them about their experiences with their apartment hunt. Our findings show 75.8% of them choose to live with roommates for a cheaper cost of living. According to RentCafe the average monthly rent for a 816 sq. ft apartment in Boston is $3,999. Compared to the correlation between average monthly rent and apartment size, it is not an easily accessible situation for sharing space with more than one roommate, let alone affordable for an undergraduate student.

“I'm currently live in a 2b2b with two other roommates at 345 Harrison, the total rent for us is $4986 every month, and I'm paying $1580.” Qiu says she currently lives in the living room, this portion of the rent is affordable for her now, but is not her ideal rental situation. She also states another current problem,“For undergrads, sometimes we need to provide an additional one-month security deposit when applying for the lease, which is a burden for many of my undergraduate friends' families, including mine.”

Boston is not just a college town, but also a major city in the US. According to CNBC's newsletter “Make It”, Boston is within the 10 most expensive cities in the country, with a composite index score of 144.3. To put this into perspective, any city scoring higher than a 100 is above average, meaning a higher cost of living. Local leasing agency representative, Jessica Cavanah, recognizes another problem in Boston's housing market. She talks about the intense competition in Boston's housing market, pointing out that high demand from students and limited affordable options only add to the problem. “I think there's a real lack of affordable housing for college students I know in other college towns that I've been to, that's a big issue as well, not only finding housing, but affordable housing.” Cavanah mentions this situation is not unique to Boston, but affects other college towns within cities.

Solutions to Highlight

While Boston's rent averages are at an all time high, this is not the case for fellow U.S. city, Chicago. Chicago is also a prevalent college town, with 10+ major universities situated throughout the city. Rent prices in Chicago are not nearly as high, and have not even surpassed the $2,000 mark.

It is worth exploring Chicago's strategy for managing rent prices and accessibility, especially for their undergraduate population. DePaul University in Chicago launched the “Dax Program”, which is an initiative to provide housing to students with housing insecurity or student homelessness. They operate across three residences in the city, and also come with support services. Students can easily join this program if they are experiencing struggles on their housing journey.

In addition to exploring a domestic city, Many cities worldwide have implemented regulations to control high rent, often through rent control or rent stabilization policies. One example is Berlin, Germany. The city has implemented strict rules to regulate rent increases and ensure affordability for its residents:

- Rent caps: In 2020, Berlin introduced a controversial law (the "rent cap" or Mietendeckel) that froze rent prices for five years, although it was later struck down by Germany's Constitutional Court in 2021. However, Berlin still has other rent regulations in place.

- Mietpreisbremse (rent brake): This law limits how much landlords can increase rent when signing a new lease, ensuring that rent prices cannot exceed a certain percentage above the local market average.

Steps to Accessible Housing

It is important to recognize other cities that have taken a step forward, but Boston hasn't completely been leaving its residents in the dark. Cavanah notes, “I would say that I hope that there's more options that are becoming available closer to campuses for students, and more buildings opening up. And I know that Boston recently has passed some affordable housing laws making maximums on how much people can have their rent increased by. And I hope to see more places doing stuff like that so that people don't have to pay such exorbitant prices for apartments.”

In March 2023, the Boston City Council approved a rent stabilization proposal introduced by Mayor Michelle Wu. This measure aims to cap annual rent increases at 6% plus the change in the Consumer Price Index (CPI), with a maximum limit of 10% in high-inflation years. The proposal also includes exemptions for owner-occupied properties with six or fewer units and new constructions for the first 15 years after obtaining a certificate of occupancy.

It is evident that Boston has a lot of work to do in terms of creating a set plan for ensuring its residents can afford to live. It is important to do what you can to be an active member of the community, including writing to city council members your concerns, in hopes they will be addressed. Doing what you can as a Boston resident will hopefully lead to positive change in housing accessibility for undergraduate students city-wide.