Short Term Housing
Coming for the immersive weekend or a campus visit? There are multiple hotels around campus as well as downtown Boston that fit your budget. The best places to find discounts and to customize your searches is to check websites such as Kayak or Booking.com. You can also check out https://www.airbnb.com/ to rent out an entire apartment.
Feeling adventurous and interested in staying with a stranger for free? A popular travel app in Europe and slowly catching on in the U.S. is couchsurfing. You can create an account for free and there are locals all around the world who are willing to host you and show you the city. Typically you are staying on someone's couch and it is expected that you buy them a beer as thanks.
Summer School
Coming to campus for one of the three summer school semesters? You have a few options for housing lasting from 3 weeks to the entire summer:
- On-Campus Housing is done directly through Harvard and is a great way to have the student experience. But it will cost you. Housing for the 7-week term is $5,850 (equivalent to $3,342 a month) or $2,925 for the 3-week session.
- Airbnb has multiple options for stays of a few days all the way up to a few months. You have a clear overview of the location and details of the property and all payments are done through Airbnb. This will cost you between $1,800 - $2,500 a month for the basic room or apartment.
- Boston Housing and Sublets is a Facebook group which is a platform for locals to list their properties, open rooms, look for roommates, or inquire about housing. During the summer students are looking to sublet out their rooms cheaply. You can find temporary housing from $700 up to $1,800 depending on the quality you are looking for and your willingness to have roomates. If you are just looking for a place near campus to stay, you can likely find one for around $1,000 a month with a private room and a few roommates.
Long Term Housing
Are you moving to Boston? Buying a house within the reach of public transportation will cost you $700,000 and up. And parking in Boston will cost you $40+ a day if you can make it through Forbe's 'Worst City in the U.S. for Traffic.'
Your best option is to rent near the T (what Boston calls the subway). Here are a few sources:
- Boston Housing and Sublets is a Facebook group worth mentioning again. It is a platform for locals to list their properties, look for roommates, or inquire about housing. This option will allow you to skip the realitor fee and find housing options that are drastically lower than the normal market cost. You can find as low as $700 if you are willing to share a bathroom and common area with a few roommates. If you are looking for your own bathroom and a better location you are looking at closer to $1,300 a month. Having your own place entirely will be $1,500 and up depending on the location and size. ($1,500 would be a reasonable price for a small studio apartment outside of downtown) This page will save you time and money.
- Craigslist can be a great source of budget-friendly housing. Tenants often list their properties here when they are trying to get out of a lease early or looking for an additional roomate. But be careful, this is the most popular platform for scammers. If a property is too good to be true, then it likely is. Never sign a lease or send money before seeing a property in person or having a friend check it out for you. Read this article to learn more about the signs of a housing scam.
- Zillow is a professional platform for real estate owners and agents to list properties for sale and rent. You can filter the search by your preferences and find professional listings that match your needs. This option will be the most expensive and typically comes with a realitor fee of one month's rent. But this option is the most professional platform to find housing.