How many rooms for rent are available in Belmont, MA right now?
Belmont calls itself the Town of Homes, and that label decides how this search goes: detached single-family houses are roughly 46 percent of the housing stock, and only about 35 percent of the town's 10,412 occupied homes are rented at all. So a room for rent in Belmont is almost always a spare bedroom in someone's house or one bedroom on a two-family floor, not a unit in a leasing office. Roomster has 130 of them listed at the moment, clustered around Waverley, Cushing Square, Payson Park and the side streets off Trapelo Road. The whole town is one ZIP code, 02478, so if a listing quotes anything else you are actually looking at Watertown, Waltham or Arlington.
How much does a room for rent in Belmont cost per month?
Shared listings here generally run $900 to $1,325 a month, with most landing between $1,000 and $1,200. You can find rooms under $1,100 in Waverley, along lower Trapelo Road, and in the two-families near the Watertown line below Cushing Square, while anything walkable to Belmont Center or sitting up toward Belmont Hill asks more, because those blocks are quiet, leafy and close to the Fitchburg Line platform. Set that against splitting a two-bedroom, which averages about $2,750 townwide, or roughly $1,375 a head. Renting a room is usually the cheaper route into Belmont, and under $1,200 it is realistically the only route.
Can I find a room for rent near McLean Hospital?
McLean Hospital is the town's anchor employer at close to 2,000 staff, and it runs the largest research program of any private psychiatric hospital in the country, which brings in a steady flow of fellows, postdocs, residential-program clinicians and overnight staff on one- and two-year appointments. That turnover is the main reason Belmont rooms come open at all. The hospital sits on Mill Street on Belmont Hill, and the realistic search radius is Waverley Square, Pleasant Street and the Belmont Street corridor, since Belmont Hill itself is mostly large single-family houses plus the 121 townhouses at The Woodlands, built after the town rezoned McLean's land in 1999. Put your start date and appointment length in your profile, because Belmont hosts read clinical schedules fluently.
Does Belmont limit how many rooms a homeowner can rent out?
Yes, and it is worth knowing before you sign anything. Belmont's zoning by-law treats renting rooms as Lodging and Boarding: an accessory use inside a dwelling covering not more than three rooms without separate cooking facilities, and only where the arrangement does not put more than four unrelated people on the premises. That quietly rules out the six- and seven-bedroom share houses common in Allston or Somerville, and it explains why Belmont ads are usually one or two rooms in an owner-occupied house. If someone offers you a bed in a place already full of unrelated tenants, ask how that squares with the by-law before any money changes hands.
Are Belmont rooms for rent near the commuter rail and the 73 bus, or do I need a car?
You can live here without a car if you choose the block carefully. The Fitchburg Line stops at Belmont Center and Waverley, both in fare Zone 1; the next stop inbound is Porter, where you pick up the Red Line, and North Station is about 16 minutes out. The true workhorse is the 73 bus, which runs Waverley Square to Harvard Station along Trapelo Road all day and ran on trackless trolley wire until March 2022, with the 74, 75 and 78 also feeding Harvard from Belmont Center and Arlmont. One caution before you take a room by Waverley: that station sits below street level, is reached by steep stairs, is not accessible, and the MBTA has only set aside planning money for it in the FY2026 to FY2030 capital plan. Rooms up on Belmont Hill or out near Route 2 are far easier with a car.
Who pays the broker fee on a Belmont room for rent, and what can a landlord ask up front?
Since August 1, 2025, Massachusetts has required the broker's fee to be paid by whoever hired the broker, so if the landlord listed the room, the landlord owes it; you pay only if you hired an agent to represent you, and billing it to you anyway is a Chapter 93A violation carrying triple damages. Most Belmont room shares never involve a broker in the first place, since they are posted by the owner living in the house. On move-in money, state law allows only first month, last month, a security deposit no larger than one month's rent, and the cost of a new lock and key, and a deposit must sit in a separate interest-bearing Massachusetts bank account with the bank's name, address and account number sent to you in writing within 30 days. Then do the ordinary things: message through Roomster, walk the room in person or on video, and never send a deposit to someone you have not met.
