When you’re searching for student homes to rent, deciding whether you want to take up residence in an apartment near Ohio University or find a home to split the rent with a friend or two can be a tough choice. Both types of housing offer their fair share of benefits and drawbacks (depending on how you look at it, of course). But which one is the best place to rent for you? We’re here to break it down.
The Lifestyle of Apartment Living vs. Home Living
Believe it or not, whether you take up dwelling in an Ohio University apartment or an off-campus rental home can say a lot about certain preferences and personality characteristics of yours. For example, if you’re living in an apartment, you might not have as much privacy as you would in a home. Chances are, in apartments—especially luxury-style rental apartments in massive buildings—, you’ll either be living above or below someone, and you might even share walls with neighbors on either side, meaning you’ll be hearing a lot of their noise and vice-versa. While in a home, you’ll still have your neighbors on either side, but you certainly won’t be sharing paper-thin walls.
Which choice you go with might also decide just how close you are to campus. If you’re someone who doesn’t want to have to walk too far to get to class, finding an off-campus apartment by Ohio University might be your best bet. The immediate area around the outskirts of campus is filled with student apartments, while the further you get away from campus, you start to find more two and three-bedroom student homes. Of course, keep in mind that it’s Athens, and the homes aren’t even positioned that far away from campus, but apartment-dwellers will usually find themselves naturally closer to campus.
Renting a home gives you a lot of things that college apartments won’t, such as increased space, less noise (generally), but it also means you might need to take on additional responsibilities from time to time. For instance, if you find a home to rent with a big yard out back that’s perfect for hosting friends and parties, but your landlord either might not have someone lined up for consistent, routine yard work, or they might not have anyone at all—that means it very well might fall on you to help keep things tidy for when friends come over… and after, when you’re picking up stray beer cans from the yard the next morning.
Luxury apartment rentals also offer additional amenities that you just don’t have in rental homes like on-site pools, gyms, and common areas where you can meet with friends to study or relax. While you can certainly still have a gym membership and rent an off-campus student home, you’re saving a ton of time commuting when you’ve got luxury amenities right at home base.
Ultimately, homes may require a bit more work, but they offer you housing for Ohio University that is both spacious and quiet. Apartments are going to keep you closer to campus and potentially allow you to live by yourself, but you’re going to have less square-footage to work with, and you might have to contend with noisy neighbors at odd hours of the day.
Budgeting Between an Apartment and a Rental Home
The most obvious comparison between renting a home or an apartment for students is going to be the cost. Renting an apartment—even a studio apartment—can tend to be more expensive than finding a home and splitting the rent with however many of your friends tag along. For example, if you’re getting a one-bedroom apartment to yourself, you might end up paying around $600-$700 a month in rent, but if go in on a four-bedroom home for rent with some friends, that number suddenly turns into a much more manageable $400-$550 per person for the rent.
Of course, this gets flipped on its head when you consider the amount of furniture and items you’ll need to fill your space. Suddenly, that one-bedroom apartment around the corner from campus sounds a lot more appealing instead of that four or five-bedroom rental home. Even with other roommates bringing their own furniture into the mix to fill in the space, you’ll likely still need to find more furniture and décor, especially as a college student with limited personal belongings.
The choice of renting an apartment or home really does come down to more than just whether you want to live with other people or not. The next time you’re thinking about finding student rental housing in Athens, think about what kind of lifestyle suits you best and go from there.