Student Population Increasing along Beacon and Newbury Street

By Nick Davis
BACK BAY – Across from Deluca’s market on the third floor of a cozy apartment building overlooking Newbury Street, Boston University junior Andrew Wang begins to crush pine nuts for a pesto sauce as the beats of Interpol’s “Heinrich Maneuver” fill the small space. Despite having only room for the bare essentials (bed, plain wood desk, bureau, kitchen), Wang says there is no place else he would rather live.

Newbury Street, along with other pricey blocks in the Back Bay area, is becoming the more of a hotspot for college students to reside. Wang decided to move to Newbury Street because he wanted to get away from Boston University properties, which he considers lackluster. “By living in the Back Bay, I’m more centrally located to other areas of Boston than most students,” Wang said. “The BU area is generally very stale and doesn’t offer exciting places to go.”

Most students renting apartments here attend schools in the Back Bay, said Edythe Dyer, a real estate agent for Boston Realty Works. “Many of these same students are now living in the Back Bay or the South End, where it’s a five minute T ride to class, so it’s almost like living on campus,” Dyer said. Students say convenience outweighs the high cost and small size of their apartments.

The September 2008 to September 2009 rent prices for a studio apartment range from $1000 - $1300, according to the Boston Realty Works website. “As expensive as rent is on these highly-priced streets in Back Bay, rent prices around Northeastern are the same,” Dyer said.

Northeastern senior Ryan Nadelson said he decided to move to Newbury Street last September, because a realty agency, Cabot and Company, gave him an amazing offer. After being let down by places he saw near Northeastern, Nadelson said they showed him a one-bedroom apartment on Newbury Street for the price that a studio would have cost in the Fenway.


“It was a steal, and I took it,” Nadelson said. When asked if he noticed an increase in student population on Newbury Street, Nadelson said that he sees many students living in the area. However, Nadelson says that students may have difficulty finding places since there are many buildings in the area that do not allow undergraduates.