man i'm surprised at rental prices near campus(pitt) (Pittsburgh: apartment, leasing)

[BarqCider]

While my move to pittsburgh will depend on how many credits transfer (and figuring out how the heck im going to get 10k to cover the difference between financial aid and full-time rates at pitt), i have been searching for places near campus that are in need of a roommate. Most of the ones close to campus (shadyside,sq hill, oakland) are either too small with higher rent than i want, too many people will too high of a rent or slightly above what i can afford.

i will need to find a job just to pay for my rent, but man it looks like i really need to move out to mt.washington or monroeville. Further away and relying on my vehicle to get to campus.

i didn't expect to pay nova room rates(suburbs) for such tiny and old housing. ive been willing to compromise, but it seems im compromising everything and getting nearly nothing for my range (ideally under 600/mo with utilities).

can i expect more places to open up in the next month or so for my budget?

[ex-burgher]

Look in the Craigslist's "rooms and shares" section as well. For example I found this:
1 bedroom for rent on 1st floor large Shadyside house 2 BA

[UKyank]

Originally Posted by BarqCider

While my move to pittsburgh will depend on how many credits transfer (and figuring out how the heck im going to get 10k to cover the difference between financial aid and full-time rates at pitt), i have been searching for places near campus that are in need of a roommate. Most of the ones close to campus (shadyside,sq hill, oakland) are either too small with higher rent than i want, too many people will too high of a rent or slightly above what i can afford.

i will need to find a job just to pay for my rent, but man it looks like i really need to move out to mt.washington or monroeville. Further away and relying on my vehicle to get to campus.

i didn't expect to pay nova room rates(suburbs) for such tiny and old housing. ive been willing to compromise, but it seems im compromising everything and getting nearly nothing for my range (ideally under 600/mo with utilities).

can i expect more places to open up in the next month or so for my budget?

This is a pretty unrealistic expectation that a suburban place in nova would be equivalent to a place right in the city near the university. A more apt comparison would be Georgetown or something.

[SteelCityRising]

Pittsburgh is offering something these days it probably never has before---rental sticker shock. For decades right on up to the early-to-mid-2000s all everyone did was brag about the dirt cheap cost-of-living here; however, now that we've gained a lot of positive national press lately (and corresponding population growth), our apartment market has tightened, and rents have risen accordingly. My own rent in a non-trendy neighborhood has risen 27% since 2010, and we expect that to increase again August 1. No, we're not Manhattan, Georgetown, Beacon Hill, Beverly Hills, Castro, etc. expensive, but we're not supposed to be. We're supposed to be similarly-priced to our PEER cities like Buffalo, Cleveland, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Louisville, Columbus, etc., and we seem to have experienced higher median rent appreciation than those cities over the past few years while our income growth has struggled to keep pace. What does this mean? Pittsburghers are paying a higher percentage of their income towards housing than in the past, so they're cutting back elsewhere in their budget to account for it. We're also soon going to be paying a higher proportion of our incomes towards rent in the coming years than those in our "peer" cities, and once Pittsburgh loses its reputation for being a great "bang for your buck" we're going to be in trouble when it comes to competing with our peer cities for new residents and investment. One of those other peer cities will be "discovered" as the "new Pittsburgh", and people will descend upon it like locusts for the comparatively cheaper rents.

Part of what you see in Oakland is the result of spoiled out-of-town college kids having their parents pay for off-campus housing for them. I made a delivery to a girl once while working for a former employer, and her mother (in CT) was paying over $1,000/month in rent for her to live in a posh Shadyside apartment building while she attended school here (according to the leasing office). Judging by all of the luxury vehicles and newer vehicles you see around the campuses here there is obviously a lot of out-of-town wealth pouring in, and local slumlords certainly are going to cash in on that, leaving everyone else out of luck.

I highly recommend rooming. I currently have a roommate, and we each only pay $350/month in rent. The money I saved from having a roommate just helped me to pay down debt and save enough to buy a brand new car. The lack of privacy, sharing the bathroom, different sleep schedules, etc. can be hectic, but the savings certainly make it worthwhile.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by UKyank

This is a pretty unrealistic expectation that a suburban place in nova would be equivalent to a place right in the city near the university. A more apt comparison would be Georgetown or something.

Georgetown > Oakland ---- by a mile. This is coming from someone who hated DC and loves Pittsburgh, too.

[UKyank]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

Georgetown > Oakland ---- by a mile. This is coming from someone who hated DC and loves Pittsburgh, too.

I agree that Georgetown is leagues above Oakland, but was merely pointing out that comparing Oakland (university area in the city near downtown) to a NOVA suburb was unrealistic & made no sense comparison wise & that comparing oakland to somewhere like Georgetown (university area in the city near downtown) would make Oakland seem like a bargain.

[sealie]

The point UKyank is trying to make is not that Oakland is the cultural and beautiful-people equivalent of Georgetown, but that ANY neighborhood around a college is going to charge higher rent for a not-as-nice place. Doesn't matter if it's Oakland or Ann Arbor or Ithaca. I don't know what the equivalent comparison of DC would be if it isn't Georgetown.

[UKyank]

Originally Posted by sealie

The point UKyank is trying to make is not that Oakland is the cultural and beautiful-people equivalent of Georgetown, but that ANY neighborhood around a college is going to charge higher rent for a not-as-nice place. Doesn't matter if it's Oakland or Ann Arbor or Ithaca. I don't know what the equivalent comparison of DC would be if it isn't Georgetown.

Yes, that ^

[grep]

Originally Posted by BarqCider

tiny and old housing.

Well, there's almost no way to get around Old in Oakland. Because it's mostly an undergrad rental neighborhood, many of the buildings have a ramshackle appearance (although many were also quite grand originally, if you look closely). But if you can just bite the bullet, you'll realize that in Pittsburgh, unlike many other cities, a run-down looking block isn't necessarily a dangerous one. In Oakland especially, this is a result of the transient renter population, and most of Oakland is in fact a safe, diverse, and exciting neighborhood with may affordable restaurants, concerts, and events (especially Pitt and CMU sponsored ones) to walk to. If you're interested in making it easy to have a rich social life and lots to do, I'd recommend just biting the bullet and getting a cheap room in a shared house with some other people, assuming you like roommates. The general rule is that the more roommates you have in a house, the cheaper the rent per person. Things also get cheaper the closer the farther away from Pitt you get (think about streets like Robinson, Lawn, Frazier....)

Also, if budget is that much of a concern, consider Greenfield: it's cheap, a little nicer than Oakland, and you can still walk to campus (although it will take a while).

[ferraris]

I'd take a look at surrounding neighborhoods. Bloomfield and Friendship are your best bets on a budget, but Squirrel Hill, Lawrenceville, Greenfield, and Shadyside are worth checking out as well. You can spend less money and get a nicer place. You'd also remove yourself from the undergrad party lifestyle, which may or may not be a plus to you.