Boston micro-apartments are either (a) a balloon-juice racket to build more apartments that will rent at the city's same high rates or (b) the solution to Boston's chronic housing shortage, especially when it comes to young professionals. A team of Northeastern students has opted for (b) and have created a micro-apartment model pivoting around shared living space.
Per Emily Badger at The Atlantic Cities:
In [the] scheme, 419-square-foot private quarters are paired around a reconfigurable social space for dining or entertaining. Each unit still has its own private entrance, its own bathroom, its own kitchenette and small balcony. But some of the walls around the shared space can also be reconfigured to create either one seamless outdoor space, or an expanded balcony for one unit and a private living room for the other. The paired micros would still be targeted at young professionals wanting/needing to make Boston's real estate dynamics work for them. As one of the Northeastern students told Badger, the paired micros would be for "the young twenty-something who no longer wants to clash with roommates over the cleanliness of the bathtub, but who also can't afford his own full-fledged one-bedroom." Yeah, yeah: But how much might they cost? Around $1,200 to $1,400 a month, or much less than a traditional downtown Boston 1-BR (or even studio)... and much less than a theoretical Boston micro-apartment. Hmm...
· A Proposal to Make the Micro Apartment a Little More Livable [Atlantic Cities]
· Are Boston Micro-Apartments for Real? [Curbed Boston]
· South Boston to Get Hundreds of Manhattan Apartments [Curbed Boston]
· Here's How Much Micro-Apartments in Southie Could Go For [Curbed Boston]
· 10 Things Cheaper Than a Boston Micro-Apartment's Rent [Curbed Boston]
· Our Rent Check archive [Curbed Boston]