So how *do* grad students find housing around Northampton??? (Boston: apartment complexes, rental)

[heading_north]

I'm trying to help a family member (PhD student) who has what appears to be a great internship opportunity in Northampton. Turns out getting the internship was the easy part. We're not from the area and had no idea housing would be so hard to find. We've been searching for weeks through Craigslist, the UMass off-campus housing listings, assorted roommate and rental websites.
Budgeted around $1k/month for rent. Internship is for a year, beginning mid-August. Looking for a safe, quiet place, not too rural or isolated.

Looks like the ideal locations would be Florence, Easthampton, and Northampton. Hadley or Amherst are apparently ok as well.

Been advised not to look at Springfield or Holyoke because of the distance and because of being new to the area. Not sure what to think of Chicopee. There's a building there that has apartments "right now" but looks sketchy for a young student.

Questions:
-Seems a private room or a roommate situation is the only option given budget and time constraints, is it so?
-Is it a waste of time to fill out apartment applications with parents as guarantors?

-Is this the kind of area where you just go with a one-way ticket and hope to find something?
-Is it unrealistic to expect to find something for around $1k or under?
-Is it realistic to expect to find anything this late in the game? Are there any resources we have overlooked? Any other towns worth looking into?

Any and all advice will be most appreciated!

[bizcuit]

My suggestion would be to join the Northampton Facebook group as well as Nextdoor. I'm sure there are similar groups for Easthampton and other towns as well.

1k and under will probably be tough in Northampton if they want their own apartment, but may be doable in a roommate situation.

[mdovell]

Are you looking to share a room or get an apartment? You should be able to get a room somewhere for that but I *really* don't think you can find an apartment. I was in downtown springfield and to live in a managed apartment $1,000 wouldn't get you an apartment six years ago. Now it's maybe $1,300.

Rents in western mass have gone up significantly since covid. Outside of Amherst and Northampton there isn't that much of a significant clustered student base. For $1,300 or so there's Stockbridge Court and Silverbrick in downtown springfield. Both have professional management companies. The only side note is Silverbrick doesn't have their own parking. In Holyoke Northampton street is nice and I'd argue you should find some good roommates there.

Development happened. I've seen houses flipped for probably 2x what they were eight years ago. When people get priced out of one market they go to another and they bring their job with them. Maybe I could argue for greenfield if you plan on using a car.

[heading_north]

Thanks mdovell and bizcuit. Mdovell to your question, we started by looking for an apartment but now that we're getting to know about the area, we're settling for anything we can find as long as it feels safe. And yes, now realizing that a room or shared space is the likeliest option. Will look into the places you mentioned. Good to know which are the areas with the largest student population. Thanks again.

[in_newengland]

Grad students usually share an apartment or in some cases, you can find a decent place in Greenfield. Avoid the partying student filled apartment complexes in S. Amherst and Sunderland.

[heading_north]

Thanks, in_newengland! Definitely don't want the partying student filled complexes,  so appreciate the warning. Will look into Greenfield, though it looks like a room around Northampton is the way to go.

[charolastra00]

Have them reach out to the grad student association at UMass to see if there are housing boards/FB groups. Most colleges have one to help grad students find roommates and rooms separate from potentially having to live with an undergrad.

[masssachoicetts]

Dang... Northampton is that much? Right outside of NYC I pay about $750 for a newer pet-friendly room. My expenses are not more than 850 per month. Im also a PhD Student.

What is Massachusetts doing up there? They give 1/3 the quality and charge 5/3 the price.

[in_newengland]

Originally Posted by masssachoicetts

Dang... Northampton is that much? Right outside of NYC I pay about $750 for a newer pet-friendly room. My expenses are not more than 850 per month. Im also a PhD Student.

What is Massachusetts doing up there? They give 1/3 the quality and charge 5/3 the price.

I don't know the reason except that there are five colleges within a relatively small area and the landlords stuff as many students into an apartment as they can and charge a lot. Also, it's a pleasant place to live with a lot going on. It's even worse for a working person who has to complete with students for a place to rent. You get UMass with 19,000 students, Amherst College, Mt Holyoke, and Smith all nearby.

I don't know why you say 1/3 the quality because QOL in Northampton is great and it's not dank and smelly and crammed in like NYC. The area still retains some of its former rural flavor and has beautiful and green surroundings. You can get to Boston or NYC if you need to and you can also get to actual rural countryside and in winter it's not too far from good skiing.

Anyway, it was the NYers who initially drove the prices up in the mid 1980s, forcing locals to relocate. A lot of NYers live there even now and I think some even use Northampton as a second home. A home in the "country", lol.

[OutdoorLover]

If you're having trouble with off-campus housing, are there any any graduate dorms provided by the university? Grad dorms will normally be very different than undergrad dorms. Undergrad dorms are mostly teenagers and many of them aren't remotely serious about school in any case. You don't need to be elite to get into grad school, but you need to make it through undergrad successfully and certainly be one of the better students, plus of course you're 4 years older, a big difference at that age. So grad students tend to be more mature, more serious and quieter - there's been maturing and filtering of the people since raw teens fresh out of high school like you have in an undergrad dorm. They could always do the on-campus housing the first year and then do off-campus after they know some people they may want to get an apartment with. I didn't actually have my own apartment until my post-doc, when I had a living wage at last... but I did fine in various shared housing situations through my schooling years.