Renting in Longwood/Fenway area (Boston: apartment, rentals, car insurance)

[Cathys]

Hi
My daughter is going to Simmons for nursing as a 22 year old. We are headed into town on Friday to look at housing. She can live in the dorm OR look for an apartment. She would like to bring a car.
1. Typical rent in this area?
2. Car or no car? Is parking even available?
3. Better off in the dorm?
The program is 18 months long.
Thanks
Cathy

[Akhenaten]

Fenway is becoming more and more expensive - what size apt are you looking for and how much are you willing to spend on rent?

I'm in a 1BR currently - five years ago when I got the place I was paying $1090/month, as of right now it is $1325. You should be able to find a studio or a "studio with alcove" for a bit less.

[Akhenaten]

P.S. I always have used street parking with a parking sticker that the city will give for free. I've never had a problem except for a couple of towing incidents which were my fault.

[Bostonian08]

Originally Posted by Cathys

Hi
My daughter is going to Simmons for nursing as a 22 year old. We are headed into town on Friday to look at housing. She can live in the dorm OR look for an apartment. She would like to bring a car.
1. Typical rent in this area?
2. Car or no car? Is parking even available?
3. Better off in the dorm?
The program is 18 months long.
Thanks
Cathy

studio = 950.
leave the car at home, she doesn't need it. Public transport is great.
dorm is better.

[jronald]

The Fenway is a great neighborhood, I am sure she will like it. Congradulations on her program at Simmons. Now for the questions.

1. Rent depends on the size. 1 bedrooms are about 1350-1500 sometimes more sometimes less, like the above 'Akhenaten' said in the earlier post. Studios are cheaper. I would estimate around 1100 or so, maybe more maybe less. I can imagine that the dorms are pretty nice at Simmons.

2. Both previous posters make good points. I just wanted to let you know that car insurance is very high in Boston and she will have to pay an excise tax just to own a car. Plus if you go anywhere in Boston, it is hard to find parking. There are ride share programs where she could use a car when she wanted (rented by the hour) it is called Zipcar and there are several cars located in the Fenway neighborhood. If she really did want to have a car though, the parking pass is great. I would not recommend having a car though. The transit system is pretty great in Boston and it is a very walkable city. Boston proper is pretty small in size.

3. Is she planning on staying in the Boston area after her program is done? There are a number of great hospitals to work at. If she is planning on staying after the 18 month program, I would recommend an apartment, otherwise I would recommend the dorms. If she does decide to live in the dorms and decides to bring her car, that would be problematic. Parking space rentals are very very expensive in that area because of the hospitals in the Longwood Medical Area (which Simmons boarders) and Fenway Park. If she had an apartment she could get a resident sticker to park in Fenway/Kenmore resident spaces.

Good luck with your decisions.