Salem State University

Enrollment

Of 6,230 students enrolled in fall 2024, 4,867 were undergraduates and 1,363 graduate students. 13% studied exclusively online, students who don't need a bed near campus. Headcount fell by 9 from fall 2023 (−0.1%).

Housing the college controls

IPEDS counts 1,656 beds of institutionally controlled housing for 2024-25. That figure is the school's own capacity, on or off campus, so it includes halls the college leases or manages but not private buildings that simply market to students. Capacity shrank by 19 beds from the year before (1,675 in 2023-24).

What students pay

The school can't split food from housing, so it reports one combined 2024-25 charge: $16,838 for the academic year. Its aid office budgets $12,100 for food and housing for a student living off campus away from family.

Those are the college's own figures. Private by-the-bed rents near campus can sit well above or below them, so check current asking rents before you underwrite a project.

How lenders read a campus like this

At 6,230 students the campus is below the 10,000-student minimum in Fannie Mae's Multifamily Guide for Dedicated Student Housing (Part III, Chapter 1, section 103.01). Freddie Mac has no stated enrollment floor, but its own product summary says most of its student housing loans are at schools with 15,000 or more students. Banks, debt funds and conventional multifamily programs are the likelier lenders here.

To size a specific property, use the student housing loan sizer. It works by the bed and shows which constraint sets the loan.

Among the 28 Massachusetts campuses on this site, Salem State University ranks number 15 by full-time students beyond college housing. See the Massachusetts table.