<p>We are finding out how ridiculously steep Ithaca rents are. There seems to be very limited availability, students are frenziedly signing leases for 2014-15 (is that even a word? idk. But it applies) Apartments are being snapped up even as you call a landlord or mgmt. company to view.</p>
<p>So is $800 per month for one bedroom in a 3-bedroom apartment normal? (not including electricity, water, heat, wi-fi, garbage, recycling, etc. etc. etc.) yikes!!! This is in the College Ave. or Eddy Street areas.....</p>
<p>The whole thing is NUTS! Yes, right now everyone is in a frenzy trying to lease the perfect apartment for NEXT year when they’ve barely moved in for THIS year. </p>
<p>There are a very limited number of “plum” places – defined as those places in high demand because of their proximity to the hot spots of Collegetown. Those places do command $800+ per bedroom per month, for an 11-1/2 month lease. </p>
<p>There will still be decent places up through February. Lots of people find sublets for each semester at reasonable prices. It’s just that right now, everyone is gunning for that gorgeous mid-rise building on College Ave – and that one is not cheap. (I know – my son lived in it!)</p>
<p>Breathe. Good luck. And personally, I sorta think college is about the education --not how close you can be to the bars.</p>
<p>Yes, $800/mo for Collegetown seems low, especially for a studio. The reason everyone is in a frenzy is because the better apartments for reasonable rents do go first. There will be other apartments left, but possibly not with the better landlords or the better locations or prices. You can sublet at much cheaper rates and land in a prime apartment in Collegetown or wherever you want due to the study abroad students who need to sublet. The only downside is that if one needs a year’s lease, they would need two different sublets.</p>
<p>There are options in the dorm to be a house scholar - it involves going to weekly dorm meetings. It guarantees housing for junior year. It’s a new program and the application is due on September 111th.</p>
<p>Good luck to everyone. The housing can cause many problems among friends and it requires parents to put down security deposits a year in advance. Do your homework and find a good landlord and a safe location.</p>
<p>Just went through this with our D, living in a 4 bedroom in Collegetown. Landlord notified them that they had two days to decide if they wanted to renew for next year before he opened the apartment up to other prospective renters. The girls didn’t feel that after living there for only two weeks they could make that decision. They lost the apartment to another group. They went out & found another apartment in close proximity, $40 a month more ($760 a month), but they feel is nicer. The only problem is that now we have to pay ANOTHER deposit!</p>
<p>My D put in a deposit in Collegetown for next year the first week of school. She wanted a 3 br in a secure building in Collegetown with laundry and a good landlord.</p>
<p>csdad, are you aware of the new 60 day law? Landlords are not allowed to ask for a lease renewal, or show it to prospective renters for 60 days from the beginning of the lease. So he should not have asked them after 2 weeks!</p>
<p>@bootcamp Even though most of the students have just moved in, some of those leases began June 1 or July 1 … so September 1 would have been OK to start showing.</p>
<p>[csdad, are you aware of the new 60 day law? Landlords are not allowed to ask for a lease renewal, or show it to prospective renters for 60 days from the beginning of the lease. So he should not have asked them after 2 weeks
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</p>
<p>…the lease started June 1st but they subleased for the summer since none of them were in Ithaca for the summer</p>
<p>The house scholar is in the Flora Rose House system. Students apply to be a Flora Rose house scholar and if accepted, they can stay in the dorm as juniors and possibly as seniors. They attend weekly meetings, etc and have specific requirements to fulfill. They receive credit for this. It definitely would not appeal to everyone.</p>
<p>what do you all know about getting security deposits back??? My son was in a lease last year that ended the end of May. He STILL has not gotten his deposit back. When he got back to school, he went to talk to the landlord and he said he would mail his check. Last weekend he called and the landlord said he mailed it to his home address. We never got it. He called yesterday to see if he had the correct address and now his landlord says he did not have his address, but that he would send it yesterday! Has anyone had this happen???</p>
<p>My D lived in a huge house on Eddy last year. Paid about $900 for her own room with 10 roommates. Bathrooms were despicable - I don’t know how they lived with it. Very surprisingly, she got about 90% of her deposit back - unheard of apparently from this landlord. One good thing was the lease started in mid-August and ended in May. I hated paying for those extra months in her junior year apartment.</p>
<p>The least enjoyable component of my Cornell experience was the whole Collegetown housing situation. I now live in Manhattan and pay $200 more per month than the apartment I lived in at Collegetown, for an apartment of equivalent quality. Considering Manhattan is supposed to be the most expensive city in the country, that tells how ridiculous the rent prices are in Collegetown.</p>
<p>That being said, Cornell doesn’t have enough dorm rooms to absorb its students either, so many students end up having to suffer.</p>
<p>I really wish more real estate developers will build more nice apartments in that area and provide more apartments at lower prices. Cornell students are getting ripped off every year.</p>
<p>We were just up at Cornell this weekend. They just built a lot of new apartments at the bottom of college town on RT 79. They look beautiful. Are they for graduate students?</p>
<p>i’m guessing you’re talking about the end of collegetown below the hill, right? right above the commons.</p>
<p>they’re for rent for the general public, but their price point is right below center/312 level so iunno how they’re doing in terms of filling their vacancies because it’s so far from campus.</p>