Two words that go together like mac-n-cheese: Boston and expensive.
San Francisco-based housing startup Bungalow is confident it can change that - with its concept of co-living. The two-year-old startup debuted its co-living rental units in Boston last week.
It's like Craigslist but better. The startup will lease large single-family homes in its 15 properties across Back Bay, Charlestown and Cambridge and rent out individual rooms for rents ranging from $800-$1300. The units are furnished and with all amenities in place, they're ready for tenants to move in. Bungalow's draw is the convenience factor - where tenants have the ability to move between homes within cities and even between cities without having to break a lease. They do, however, have to give 60 days notice before vacating.
Bungalow's typical residents are early career professionals in their 20s or 30s looking for affordable rental options in fast-growing urban areas.
Housing has long been a concern for Boston, where the population in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, which includes Cambridge and Newtown, grew from 4.55 million in 2010 to 4.875 million in 2018. With that number, Boston is now the 10th most populous city in the nation.
To add to the list of superlatives, commute times in the city is also one of the longest in the country, with an average of 40 minutes each way, making people consider leaving the city. And why not, home buyers have to spend 56.34 percent of their monthly income on owning a house.
The soaring real estate market is in part attributed to the tech boom in the area. With nearly half of all new office leases signed by tech companies in the city last year, there is, naturally, an upward tick in the housing market as well.
But legislation is in tow - Governor Charlie Baker is advocating to resolve the issue with the Act to Promote Housing Choices, filed by his office in February that calls for targeted zoning reform to housing production with a goal to produce 135,000 new housing units by 2025.
