DS17 expressed an interest in off campus housing for next year as some of his friends are planning to live off campus and he is very unhappy with his housing assignment. He goes to school in California and we were not prepared for the prices. We knew it would be expensive but hadn’t realized how expensive. The cost for a studio is 2200/month, 1 br 2600/month, 2 br 3000/month, and 3 br is around 3600/month. It sounds like the guys in one of his groups have no desire to share a bedroom so they are trying to find a 4-5 br house to share. At this point, DS17 will most likely stay on campus for sophomore year. However, he will probably be in off campus housing in the future as he plans to do an internship near school the summer after junior year. I have the following questions:
What is the monthly rent for your child and approximate cost of utilities? (Curious to see regional differences)
Does your child have his/her own bedroom or share a room? If it is a shared room, is the rent less compared to someone else in the house/apartment who has his/her own room? Or is the rent split evenly regardless of who has a private bedroom?
How far in advance did you secure off campus housing?
What is the monthly budget for meals (especially if you have a son)?
We told him it is probably most economical to us for him to find 3 other guys to share a 2br apartment when the time comes for off campus housing.
My grad student is at a state university in a small midwestern city and is paying $495 a month for a room in a shared apartment not far off campus (about a mile away, regular busses run from right nearby). Utilities are included. I think the kid with the master bedroom in the apartment (so not sharing a bathroom) is paying $525. My kid shares a bathroom with one other student.
I think a person with their own bedroom should pay more. Or rotate that once or twice a year so everyone gets a turn with the single room.
In her college town, they seem to sign leases for the fall in Feb/March, with Aug 1 move in dates. Leases are pretty much all a year, and it can be against the lease rules to sublet or hard to find someone for the summer.
I know this isn’t a ton of help —SoCal housing prices are nuts. My kid did her undergrad there, but just lived on campus all 4 years. I’m relieved, I wouldn’t have wanted to deal with it.
Both of my kids are at SEC schools. My son lives in a house with 7 guys with 7 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. His rent is $540/month. It is a great location - across the street from the business school. He pays his own utilities and for all extras (including food) so I am not sure how much that is monthly. My daughter’s apartment the last two years was $550/ month. 4 bedrooms\2 bathrooms 4 girls. Her complex had a gym and a pool but not walkable to campus but they had a bus.
My younger kid went to college in CA. She shared a four bedroom house with six others…so seven total. Everyone shred a room except one person who had a teeny bedroom. Each of them paid $850 a month…not including utilities. So…over $6000 total to rent a four bedroom place.
None of them would have been able to live in this very convenient house without sharing rooms.
This in Santa Clara.
Oh…and we gave our kid $200 a month for food, and other household things.
It would have been cheaper for her to live on campus.
Remember also…off campus is usually for 12months…not the 9 of the school year. Oh…and we had to buy furniture.
6 bedroom house shared by 9 students at $6000/month in San Diego. My son’s costs for a single room/utilities is $927.00. About $250/month for food. Additional personal expenses are on him. IKEA bedroom furniture.
My kid is paying $650 for the biggest room in a house shared with other students on the edge of campus. Each has their own room and their rates are slightly lower for smaller rooms. This rate actually saves us money vs living in a single room on campus. If costs were more expensive than living on campus, I don’t think I’d be keen on paying more than a little extra.
It was secured about 9-10 months beforehand. Students pass the houses down to underclassmen and its always a scramble to get a good one close to campus. The rates that landlords get are definitely a premium for the area but I guess if I was renting to college students I’d charge a premium, too.
I’ve given both my kids of both genders $300/month for food once off the meal plan. I also gave them a lump of cash initially for kitchen items, staples, spices, etc. to start out. They seem to function just fine on this. It’s win/win because I save money over the meal plan. One of my kids’ schools requires all students not on meal plan buy a basic meal plan which is basically around $300 a semester. It can be used for overpriced groceries at the school store but my kid tends to use it for a coffee account and an occasional meal in the dining hall.
My kid secured her off campus house in sept or oct of the year before she moved in. I suggested she talk to the tenants who were all seniors…and see if they would be willing to sell all the furniture. Those graduating seniors were thrilled…$1000 for everything in the house. So they all had beds, dressers, a couch or three, lamps, a table and chairs for the kitchen and stools for the bar area.
When they were graduating, they sold to the next renters…for the same amount.
DD1 spent 3 years in a 4 bedroom 4 bath apartment in a Rust Belt collegetown. $550/month, not bad at all, incl TV and internet.
Moved into a more remote Midwest collegetown, studio to 1 bedroom for herself (architecture students are not good roommates due to crazy schedules) anywhere from 670 to 800 a month. Utilities are a BIG expense… Student housing is not exactly built well and it adds up.
For her PhD she’s getting a 1 bedroom in an urban renewal zone, 850/month for an awesome renovated apartment + 100 garage parking. Low utilities as place is LEED certified.
DD2 is at a university apartment, nice amenities, 800 a month for a tiny studio, utilities included.
Both girls had furniture upon move as we accumulated ‘dowries’ for them ahead of time including all kitchen stuff.
My D shares a 2br apartment with 3 friends right next to the dorms. She pays $500 a month. Basically the annual rent is about the same as the dorm for 2 semesters. However, living in dorm requires the near $5000 meal plan. So the money is mostly saved in food cost.
Could you folks please put the locations of your kids’ off campus apartments.
This poster is in CA.
I had one kid in grad school in Winston Salem…one bedroom apartment above a garage…$450a month including electricity. But that was 2007-2009…and a much less costly real estate market than CA.
For undergrad one kid was in Boston…3 bedroom apartment…4 students. $800 each not including any utilities. It was $200 additional each for utilities between internet access, heat, electricity, gas (stove), very costly utilities. Oh…and it as very very convenient…but it was a dump.
OP should also note that the financial aid may change depending on housing options. That is the case for UCB. My nephew need up paying more after moved to off campus apartment due to reduction in aids.
My son graduated from CalPolySLO in 2011. His last 2 years he was sharing a house on the other side of town. It was 4 people in a 4 bedroom house. His share of the rent was 700 plus utilities. Being so far away from campus was a little cheaper but you needed a car and a campus parking pass (which cost a few hundred a year).
By contrast, his younger sister went to WPI and lived off campus, but easily within walking distance. She didn’t have car at all at school. For her, there were 3 people in a 3 bedroom apartment. Her share of the rent was 333 plus utilities.
We have been looking and it is between 300 and 600 for a bedroom depending on if you are by yourself or with roommates plus utilities. He will probably share a house after next year. This is a small town in the midwest, college town with all the houses and apartments within biking distance of the school, many within walking distance. They are college places, not beautiful but fine for college boys.
CA is a big state with a lot of cities - perhaps OP should state which city they’re talking about. My D’s rents in LA have varied from around $900 - $1200 depending on the particular apartment for a shared bedroom. So generally seems in the same 2k per room ballpark (regardless of number of bedrooms) as previous posters in Santa Clara and SD. Parking is another $150/month. The apartments are generally quite small for the price, too, but these are all units close to campus; further out things get cheaper.
$1225/ month for house share with 2 other roommates for a house near beach in San Diego. This does not include utilities. Last year’s rent was $850 month closer to campus.
In LA, where both our kids were in college, we often paid over $1000/mo for them to share a bedroom and often had to rent for a full 12 months, even if they only lived there 8-9 months. Utiltiies were extra. They walked or biked to campus.
S now lives in Arlington in a 1-bedroom condo for $2000 or so/month plus utilities. D lives in a room in a house and her share plus utilities is now less than $1000/month, but it’s far from any campus. Both of them have parking included because each needs and has a car.
About $630/mo which covers all utilities. Big house, each girls has her own room, D and 1 share a bath. This is a 3 bedroom house like a family would live in with an open kitchen, dining room, big living room, a Florida room. There is a laundry room and car port. It is next door to the school, so highly sought-after. These 3 seniors are moving out and 3 sophomores moving in. It is a year round lease. Dorms are about $8000 per year, this about the same, but no meal plan required and tHar is a sings of several thousand per year.
