Roommate Finder in Fenway, Boston, MA

Часто задаваемые вопросы

• How many people are looking for roommates in Fenway right now?

  The median age in Fenway is 27, and nearly four in five households are people living alone or sharing with someone they are not related to, which is a different starting point from most of Boston. That is the pool the roommate finder draws on here: 36 people are searching the area, a mix of students from the five Fenway campuses, hospital and laboratory staff who walk to Longwood, musicians and restaurant workers along Boylston, and young professionals commuting to Back Bay. Read several profiles before writing to anyone, because the schedules behind them vary enormously.

• What do roommates in Fenway typically pay to split?

  The arithmetic rewards larger groups here more than in most of the city. Two people splitting a two-bedroom face an average of $3,726, about $1,863 each, against $2,931 for a one-bedroom alone. Add bedrooms and the share keeps falling: three-bedrooms averaged $4,761, close to $1,587 a person, and four-bedrooms $6,273, roughly $1,568 each, because the older Hemenway and Symphony Road walk-ups are priced by the unit rather than by the head. To hold your share down, look at four- and five-bedroom units and at upper floors in buildings without a lift.

• Is Roomster a good roommate finder for students at the five Fenway campuses?

  It suits them, largely because of how the consortium works. Students cross-register between Emmanuel, MassArt, MCPHS, Simmons and Wentworth, so households here routinely mix people from different schools with different term dates, studio access and laboratory hours. An art student working late in a studio and a pharmacy student on early rotations can share comfortably as long as both say so first. Put your campus, your year, your usual hours and your lease end date in your profile, then sort for people whose calendar actually matches rather than assuming a shared school means a shared schedule.

• Which areas near Fenway are best for finding a roommate?

  The West Fens, the blocks between Massachusetts Avenue and the parkland around Hemenway Street, Symphony Road and Westland Avenue, holds the densest supply of shared apartments and the lowest prices. Audubon Circle and the streets off Park Drive are quieter and face the green. Kenmore sits on top of three Green Line branches. Push west past Saint Mary's Street into Brookline, or north across the Turnpike into Allston, and shares get cheaper again. South of Huntington Avenue, Mission Hill is the other dependable source of rooms within walking distance.

• When is the best time to find a roommate in Fenway?

  Two cycles run here instead of one. The larger is the academic turnover in late summer, when leases across the five campuses end together and whole households re-form at once. The second is quieter and particular to this corner of Boston: Northeastern's co-op program sends students out on six-month work placements, and many leave for a semester rather than for good, which produces a steady flow of sublets and mid-year openings you would not see in a neighborhood without a co-op school. Searching in November or March for a January or July start puts you ahead of that supply.

• How does Roomster keep Fenway roommate profiles trustworthy?

  Many people searching here are renting for the first time or arriving from abroad for a program, which is precisely the group housing scams target. The ID and address checks on Roomster cost nothing and are entirely up to the member, and each profile shows which ones that person has completed, so you can start with those. Keep the conversation on Roomster while you are getting to know someone, ask for a live video walk-through of the actual room rather than photographs, and never send a deposit or a holding fee to anyone you have not met in person or on video.