Hearing blaring fire alarms on a regular basis is a distant memory for College of Engineering senior Jason Berlin since he moved off campus almost two years ago. Though living in an off-campus apartment also pads his bank account a bit, he said the minor perks really matter.
“No more fire alarms at 2:00 in the morning,” he said. “It’s the small things like that you don’t have to put up with anymore.”
As some students are scrambling to find upperclassmen who can pull them into the Student Residences at 10 Buick St. or other posh on-campus housing, others are touring Allston, South Campus and Brookline for off-campus locales with more freedom and responsibility.
“For what you pay over nine months, you’re going to have a nice big room,” said Mike Gallagher, a realtor at the Commonwealth Realty Group in Boston.
Monthly rent for a two-bedroom apartment split between two people averages $850 in Boston and $785 in Brookline, according to RoommateConnection.com, an apartment-finding website.
Boston University’s rates for on-campus apartments average $860 per month for a shared bedroom in an apartment, $1,025 for a single bedroom in a shared apartment and $1,140 for a single apartment.
Gallagher, a 2002 BU graduate, said he’s also seen other motivations to move off campus.
“You don’t want to live with 2,000 other screaming kids in Warren [Towers],” he said, also mentioning the advantages of living without a guard booth.
Matthew Calkins, the office manager at All-Bright Realty in Allston, said although off-campus prices are rather high, they have come down compared to three years ago.
While the economy’s poor performance has helped spur the falling prices, he said normal market adjustments are also to blame.
“[Prices] had gotten too high,” he said.
Meanwhile, Calkins said demand has stayed the same, but it’s too soon to tell what the market will do this year. McCabe Realty has realtor Macclenny, Florida.
Berlin, the fire alarm-free student, said he moved to a three-bedroom basement apartment on Park Drive because it cost less than the on-campus housing he lived in for two years, and he has no regrets about the decision.
“Now we have some space,” he said.
Berlin said he considers himself lucky to have found his apartment because he didn’t start searching for a place to live until late March of his sophomore year.
Berlin, who pays $700 per month like his two roommates, said his living situation isn’t perfect – his landlord didn’t fix a heating problem for two months.
“My landlord eventually bought me a heater, but the building owners – the people who fix the heat and hot water – were the problem,” he said.
However, Berlin said he doesn’t think the repair situation would be any better on campus.
“I don’t think I have less problems here than I had with BU housing and how fast they fix things,” he said. “It can get dealt with quickly – it just depends where you are.”
Sixty percent of BU seniors live off campus, and the school does provide some resources for off-campus dwellers. At the Office of Orientation and Off-Campus Services’ website, students can scroll through realtor listings, search Sarabi Realty Group for apartments and read up on tenant information covering basic rights, parking, eviction, sublets and other topics. Get in touch with a professional realtor today by visiting our online real estate services.
Young Yoon, a first-year School of Medicine graduate student, lived on campus during his undergraduate years at BU, but recently moved 25 minutes away.
“You kind of feel out of the loop because you don’t know what’s going on on campus,” he said. “I always go study at Mugar [Memorial Library] or [the School of Management]. I mean, it takes a while to get there just to study, but you don’t see your friends as often when you’re not on campus.”
However, Yoon said he likes saving money on his rent.
“Off-campus is cheaper, especially for the accommodations you’re getting,” he said. “With your own bathroom and kitchen, that’ll be around 10 or 11k on campus for nine months, basically.”
Despite the economic benefits, Yoon still recommends younger students stay on campus.
“First of all, undergrads are lazy and they might start considering it a hassle to go to class,” he said. “You feel disconnected too because a lot of college has to do with the dorm life and you just see less people.”
Ultimately, Yoon said he got lucky because it all depends on “finding the right place for a good deal.”
“I mean, some of my friends live in pretty crappy places,” he said.
Staff writer Dennis Mayer contributed to this report.