Posted on September 12th, 2015
One of the best assets of the Boston area in terms of Boston real estate is the network of world class colleges and universities that are in this area. The economic strength of the Boston area is driven by these institutions. The reputation of these Boston institutions are known worldwide as a place for learning and innovation. They are not just global pioneers and educators, they are important employers and contribute to the culture of the Boston area. The educational community brings a lot to the city of Boston, but in the Boston real estate market, these institutions exert a lot of pressure too.
When a student moves to Boston, they need a place to live. This can be on the campus or off campus in the rental housing market found in Boston. The colleges, universities, partners and the City of Boston share the responsibility so that all of the students in Boston can find housing which is safe and healthy for them. At the same time there’s a need to ensure that student renters don’t overtake the need for the workforce housing required for Boston workers. In the Boston real estate market, the college renter soften displace the workforce from rental housing. In 20123, over 152,000 students came to the Boston area to get their degrees. There were 16,000 of these students going to community colleges while the 136,000 remaining went to four-year programs at institutions.
Many students choose to live in the city area. Out of the 72,000 students more than 36,000 in 2013 taking four-year programs, decided to live in the Boston area. These 36,000 student lived off-campus in rental housing located at 13,380 unique addresses throughout Boston.
About 11,746 students live in dwellings classified as 1-3 residential family properties which were built to provide residences for the Boston workforce.
The rental housing market is under pressure by the students as there are clusters of educational institutions in specific neighborhoods such as Jamaica Plain/Mission Hill, Fenway/ Kenmore, and Allston/Brighton. There’s local competition in these areas as investors will pay premiums for this housing and then these beds are rented out to students.
There are many reasons why students decide to live off campus. The university housing can be quite expensive when compared to private housing in the Boston real estate market. Students compete in the private market as they try and find housing.
Landlords of residential properties have capitalized on the increasing demand that students place on housing which is near the colleges and the universities. They rent to groups of students as the groups can afford to pay the rent payments as they split them up among the group. This forces families to be displaced from the market, but it also increase the rents of the area. Students need to take on more roommates to pay for the increased rent.
The neighborhoods adjacent to downtown have the highest rents. The neighborhoods closest to universities also have higher rents then other hosing in different locations in the city. In 2013 the average rent in the Allston-Brighton area was $1,900. It was around $2,300 in the Fenway-Kenmore neighborhood. In areas where there were fewer students like Roxbury, Roslindale, West Roxbury, and Dorchester, the average rent was $1,600.
The current Boston workforce housing production strategy needs to reduce the pressure that students face in the Boston real estate rental market. Creating student housing is critical to relive the problems in the Boston real estate rental market so regular workers have access to housing as well as students.