[pricilla90]

I will be attending NMU next fall and am trying to find information on apartments and it is extremely hard. Anyone have any suggestions on nice parts of town to look at? Preferably close to NMU. Thanks!

[willzzz88]

You are going to have to lower your standards a bit in the UP. I lived in Houghton for ~6-12 months and the UP is one of those places where I HIGHLY recommend you visit the location in person before signing anything. Some of the apartments are decades old. Not much new builds. The recent builds (within the last 10 years) are mostly around the NMU area for transient students like yourself. I would also get in touch with the schools housing department. Again like I said not much of a population up there but wilderness and there's no inter-state in-between major metro areas either.

[cmuguy25]

How close are we talking? Do you want to walk to campus? Have a short commute? Give a little more information and maybe we could help a little more.

[pricilla90]

Originally Posted by cmuguy25

How close are we talking? Do you want to walk to campus? Have a short commute? Give a little more information and maybe we could help a little more.

I would like to walk to school. Probably no more than a mile radius. It is going to be my boyfriend and myself so I am not going to be looking for any roommates. We want to stay below $600.

[pricilla90]

Originally Posted by willzzz88

You are going to have to lower your standards a bit in the UP. I lived in Houghton for ~6-12 months and the UP is one of those places where I HIGHLY recommend you visit the location in person before signing anything. Some of the apartments are decades old. Not much new builds. The recent builds (within the last 10 years) are mostly around the NMU area for transient students like yourself. I would also get in touch with the schools housing department. Again like I said not much of a population up there but wilderness and there's no inter-state in-between major metro areas either.

That's what I am nervous about but it's not like it's the cheapest thing to just pack up and head on over there for a weekend because I live in California. If I could I definitely would! The pictures of the naturey types of places is beautiful but the actually buildings and houses look a little iffy. I am counting on me and my boyfriend's love of doing outdoorsy things (hiking, snowboarding, going to the beach, etc.) to get us through school until we can come back to California.

[cmuguy25]

Marquette is great for the beauty. People are very nice, good food and affordable prices. You mentioned you like outdoor adventures, Marquette is going to be right up your alley. (Just be prepared for extremely long winters, extremely).

But, as mentioned earlier, the rental market is dated. Most apartments and houses are going to be a little older and the amenities are not going to be the best.

With that being said, I went to Northern for a year and have had many friends graduate from there (I'm originally from a town called Negaunee, next to Marquette). You can find rentals on hotpads.com and I would recommend craigslist. Obviously, it's going to be tough to sign a lease without seeing the place, but if you can I would recommend it. Like a lot of college ares, lease season is near the end of the semester. You are going to have slim pickings right now. Look around March/April for more listings - and through the summer. I know it's exciting and you would like to lock something up now, but the reality is most landlords will not list until they know they need to, hence most listings will come up at the end of the semester. If you can get to the area sometime during the summer, a lot of landlords just put "for rent" signs in their yards and do not advertise.

Once their are ample listings, I do not believe you will have an issue finding a place. Everyone I know, found some palce to live near campus. There are not many "apartments" in Marquette to rent. Popular are duplex's and houses to rent. $600 is tight, but doable. I asked about the walking, because winter is extreme and walking to campus during the winter is not fun (well, at least not for me, haha). Ice and 200+ inches of snow is never fun. In my year at Northern, I think I slipped twice on the ice, heading up to Jamrich hall. If you are able to drive to campus, you open up the rental market. Negaunee, Harvey, and around 550 (which is more isolated, but a beautiful area).

If you have other questions, let us know. Good luck!

[Republic of Michigan]

You are going to school. So you will be studying and concentrating on work. So who cares if Marquette is outdated and not as exciting as Flint, Saginaw, or Detroit? At least you will not be distracted.

[joemits]

In the last two years, roughly 5 new apt buildings just went up in mqt. The east side is a high density neighborhood close to downtown, 3rd st village, and campus. The rentals there will be more house oriented. Rentals are scattered about almost every neighborhood but I think the closer to NMU and downtown/lake they will be a bit more expensive. That is my guessing anyway. Walking and biking are very common in Mqt and you even see snow bikes in the winter.