Looking for an apartment or house in Athens, especially for the first time, can be a nerve-wracking experience.
Deciding where you want to live, even if just for a semester or a year, is a big decision that should not be taken lightly. There are several things to consider: how many people do I want to live with? What street do I want to live on? Do I prefer a house or an apartment? All these factors play a role in when you start looking to find your perfect college pad.
Location, Location, Location
Arguably, location is the most important element in deciding when to begin your search.
If your goal is to be in the thick of it all on Court Street, you’re going to need to move quick. Apartments here usually go under lease for the following academic year in September or October. That is, if you’re looking for a place for 2022-23, your best bet would have been to have a place under lease by the end of October 2021.
Other streets close by, like College, Congress and Mill, fill up soon after. Like the example above, if you’d want a place on these streets for the 2022-23 academic year, you’d typically want to get your place settled by the end of the year. In this case, that would be the end of 2021.
Otherwise, the general rule of thumb is that the further a street is from campus, the longer you have to find a place there.
House or Apartment?
Another determinant in when you should start looking for a place depends on whether you want a house or an apartment.
Most streets with residences on them in Athens have “apartments,” but many of these are just sections of a house. If you’re looking for an apartment in a traditional apartment building close to the action, your best bet is on Court Street. There are a few apartment complexes scattered around the peripheries of campus, but the majority lie on Athens’ main strip.
Houses, meanwhile, are ubiquitous on every street besides Court Street. Many of these are partitioned into apartments, but some houses in their entirety are leased out. Similarly, if you and enough of your friends go in on a house and occupy every unit, it is essentially the same as leasing out an entire home.
Deciding what style of living space you want – house or apartment – can help narrow down the streets you look for properties on. The streets you look on then help set your timetable for when you should have a lease secured.
Obviously, this is not a foolproof process. There may be some sneaky vacancies on Court Street well into the spring, and a house way down on West Union Street may be leased out in September of the previous year. But these are the exception.
Starting early is encouraged, regardless of where you’re looking and what you’re looking to live in. Having enough time to fully search around town will ensure you land on a property that is suitable for you.