Temple Class of 2010 (entering in Fall 2007)

[riskyasset]

Hey TempleAce...

there's hidden gems all over.  I think Washington Square West is a really great place to live... between like 13th and 10th/9th and between pine and walnut.  Easy access to the orange line (it takes me 20 minutes from my door to school).  Tons of coffee shops (for studying).  And best of all... it's probably the cheapest place to live in center city.  You can find cheaper options in Art Museum area, but I feel like it's farther away from nightlife when you have time for it... ie it's gonna suck to take cabs all the time. 

my brain is fried and i have a civ pro final tomorrow...hope i could help.

[templeace]

Hey TempleAce...

there's hidden gems all over.  I think Washington Square West is a really great place to live... between like 13th and 10th/9th and between pine and walnut.  Easy access to the orange line (it takes me 20 minutes from my door to school).  Tons of coffee shops (for studying).  And best of all... it's probably the cheapest place to live in center city.  You can find cheaper options in Art Museum area, but I feel like it's farther away from nightlife when you have time for it... ie it's gonna suck to take cabs all the time. 

my brain is fried and i have a civ pro final tomorrow...hope i could help.

Oh I know all about the city, just not the best place to live. I live in West Philadelphia now and caught the orange line everyday for 4 years to Central High School. I just want an idea of some places where I can live sort of comfortably, and still not pay much in rent lol. I kind of cautious about the center city thing, I need parking.

[ututsumuju]

Hey risky,

Do a lot of law students live in Manayunk?  What are your thoughts on that?

[wooshi23]

hi everyone!
I just wanted say hi and also chime in with my thoughts on living in philly (as I've been here for the past 5 years attending drexel and actually work in leasing in the city right now)

rent's have gone up significantly in cc in the past couple years; its difficult to find a deal now, your best bets are washington sq. west and the art museum in terms of decency of neighborhood and cost.

quick note about washing sq west- certain chunks are bad at night as they get turned over to drug dealers and transvestite prostitutes. Generally nothing happens to the residents, but its loud at all hours and your bound to trip over a condom or a pair of discarded underwear every once in a while should you live on/near one of the afflicted corners- 12th and pine is particularly bad.

queen village and the italian market are nice too but a bit harder to do trains fro, but there are lots of buses.

if you have money to burn old city, society hill and rittenhouse sq. are all great neighborhoods to live in, but generally pricy unless you find a deal (which does happen occasionally, my friend just moved into a 1 bd. for 1050 a month like two blocks off the sq)

I live in society hill and love it, but rent's here are ridiculous- only reason I'm here is because my landlord is senile (and rented the apartment way under market price when we first started renting) and hasn't raised the rent a dime in the four years we've been living here.

craigslist and phillyweekly.com are really the way to go if you want to find something in an affordable price range, particularly phillyweekly.

also if you find a place you like that you are ok with the price on, put a deposit down immediately, I can't tell you how many people I know have missed out on really amazing places and prices because they went home to think about it overnight, called the next day and found the apartment to be taken- it even happened to me a few years ago.

also here are some notes on areas I would avoid living in: obviously the area immidietly surrounding campus (that should go without saying at this point,) I would avoid university city as well, and fishtown/northern liberties might be nice in a couple years, but right now they are pretty miserable.
Personally, I'd also avoid manayunk/roxborough/etc., mostly because I don't own a car and they aren't exactly friendly areas to that lifestyle, but also because you really are quite removed from everything center city has to offer (which is surprisingly much and getting better everyday I think.)

On a random note: I'd also recommend philly car share to anyone who isn't bringing a car, I just started using the service and I love it, there are cars all over the city and its like $5.50 an hour.

Sorry for writing a small novel there, but I hope it helps anyone coming from out of town! I know I would have loved some of this info. when I came out here from chicago a few years ago.

[Barbie22]

1050 for a 1 br is cheap?.....looks like i should take out the max on all my loans then...crap.

[wooshi23]

jammy-

in that neighborhood it is actually quite cheap, a one bd around there will easily go for $1300 and up- you can do a bit better in art museum and wash sq. west but not much, I would really consider the average cheap studio to be around $700-900, cheap one bd to be from $850-1100, two bds can be found between $1150-1400.

you're going to have a hard time getting anything cheaper than that right now, imo.

I've worked at two buildings in the past two years (one in chinatown and one in center city)_ neither luxury, though one tried to market itself as such, and rents were about $1000 for studios, $1200-1400 for 1bds, and $1600 and up for 2 bd's. Those prices I think are over the top (I would never recommend living in either buildign btw.) to pay that much I really think you'd have to be a) stupid, b) in a serious rush to find something, or c)not at all interested in where your money is going.
But, lots of places in the city actually go for a lot more than that.

my rents $975 for a 1 bd and people are amazed by how cheap my apartment is when I tell them.

rent's not cheap in the city ::shrugs::

[cmickey]

my rent is 1670 (including parking).. center city is expensive.. but i can tell you my apartment would cost 3000 in manhattan

[Temple Gator]

... in that neighborhood it is actually quite cheap, a one bd around there will easily go for $1300 and up- you can do a bit better in art museum and wash sq. west but not much, I would really consider the average cheap studio to be around $700-900, cheap one bd to be from $850-1100, two bds can be found between $1150-1400.

you're going to have a hard time getting anything cheaper than that right now, imo...

my rents $975 for a 1 bd and people are amazed by how cheap my apartment is when I tell them.

rent's not cheap in the city ::shrugs::

You can find pretty good two-bedroom apartments for $1,100 or less in the northwest part of the city and other places further out from Center City. I don't know how much cheaper one-bedrooms are.

You can live in Mount Airy or Roxborough or East Falls or Chestnut Hill and ride the SEPTA regional rail in to Temple in a reasonable amount of time (especially from East Falls). If you need lower rent and/or more space and/or want to avoid the most urban part of the city, those neighborhoods seem like good options to me.

[wooshi23]

for those out of towners moving to philly.. keep in mind if you are far enough away from temple that you need to take regional rail to get there, then expect to pay for a cab ($20-30+) after midnight if you want to get home

ya but if you live in center city you will have to take a bus/cab anyway since the subway stops running at midnight. granted its cheaper than getting to the outlying areas of the city/suburbs via cab, but still somewhat of a pain in the ass.

sort of related: those living in center city may want to look into a Jenkins law library membership if they don't want to hang out on at the campus library on the weekends/when they don't have class (though I don't think they are open late into the evening.)- its at like 8th and chestnut and about $20-25 a year and the hours are decent- they were really good this past year because they stayed open late to let drexel law use the facility, butI don't think the late hours will extend to next year though as drexel's library is supposed to be up and running at this point. I got a membership this past year when I took a paralegal real estate law class for the hell of it and found the libary to be pretty extensive and nice, I'm def. going to renew my membership so I can just go there if I have reading/work to do on the weekend rather than trek it out to temple's campus.

[savage_fred]

i signed up for the refferal thing.  It would be nice to find someone who knows the philly area.

What referral thing are you talking about? Are you talking about the roomate search through the University Office of Housing? I think I'm going to break down and get a roomate after all is said and done.