Ann Arbor, MI

[magnanimous]

14 hours ago, ciistai said:

Hi all! Thanks to everyone who's contributed to this thread so far - very valuable info all around! I'll be moving to Ann Arbor this fall to start my PhD, but I'm currently in Toronto. I'm not far from AA but obviously it's quite a faff to get over there, especially given that I don't drive, and I work full-time during the week, with no off-time available to me (I have to save what I have left for fieldwork this summer). I do expect that I will have to go over there to find an apartment, but I want to kind of figure it out in one weekend.

My questions are: is it possible to wait til late April or May for this, or will all apartments be taken?; and, are there any notorious problems with housing specifically in AA that I should look out for? (for example - I did my Master's in Oxford and a few of my friends wound up homeless when we had bad flooding in January 2014 - they had no idea their neighbourhoods tended to flood, and rented basement apartments there!!!)

Also can anyone share recent experiences with finding a roommate through the off-campus housing site? I'm a woman and graduate student in my mid-20s and am hoping to room with another graduate student (preferably not a man) with a similar schedule to mine. I'm kind of hesitant to reach out to the rest of my future cohort - I get kind of concerned about living with colleagues in case there's a roomie spat! Likewise though I'm just a little worried about rooming with strangers due to some bad past experiences which were fine for dealing with as an undergrad but I'd rather not re-experience as a graduate.

Thanks in advance!!!

 

2 hours ago, BellaBendrix said:

Hey! Hi! I'm also moving to Ann Arbor this fall, though from a bit more to the south (aka, Chile). I'm also looking for housing options, so if you have any ideas, insights, or whatever, just PM me :D!

Hey! I currently live in Ann Arbor as an undergrad and have lived off-campus for the past two years. The off-campus housing website is a decent place to start, but I've found it to be pretty limited since not every landlord or company in A2 posts there. I've used this website (http://housingannarbor.com/) to look through a wider range of housing companies, and I think it's pretty helpful.

Some people find/sign their leases as early as September, but October/November seems to be the standard, at least for undergraduates (I signed my first lease for a house with my roommates in January - so wayyyy after a lot of people had signed theirs - and then in November the next year). Surprisingly, with the first lease I signed, there seemed to be a good of options still on the market all the way into February, and sometimes landlords will lower the rent once it gets that late because they want/need people to rent from them, but I don't know how much things have changed in the past couple of years. There are also a few places with leases that would start in May if that's what you want.

Hope this helps!

[ciistai]

On 3/17/2016 at 1:11 PM, magnanimous said:

 

Hey! I currently live in Ann Arbor as an undergrad and have lived off-campus for the past two years. The off-campus housing website is a decent place to start, but I've found it to be pretty limited since not every landlord or company in A2 posts there. I've used this website (http://housingannarbor.com/) to look through a wider range of housing companies, and I think it's pretty helpful.

Some people find/sign their leases as early as September, but October/November seems to be the standard, at least for undergraduates (I signed my first lease for a house with my roommates in January - so wayyyy after a lot of people had signed theirs - and then in November the next year). Surprisingly, with the first lease I signed, there seemed to be a good of options still on the market all the way into February, and sometimes landlords will lower the rent once it gets that late because they want/need people to rent from them, but I don't know how much things have changed in the past couple of years. There are also a few places with leases that would start in May if that's what you want.

Hope this helps!

Hey! Thank you so much, this is suuuuper helpful! I've located a probably future roomie on the off-campus housing site and we've found a few places we like on there, but now we're investigating the site you've linked to and a few apartments look promising for our neighbourhood and budget requirements. So thank you so much! I'm surprised at how much is still available, actually! Also the prices are... amazing... I'm used to Toronto prices which are terrible!

[magnanimous]

@ciistai Glad I was able to help! I'm used to thinking that housing in Ann Arbor is pretty expensive, but I guess that's because I've never lived outside of the Midwest! There are some pretty good deals around A2, so good luck with the hunt!

[ciistai]

23 hours ago, magnanimous said:

@ciistai Glad I was able to help! I'm used to thinking that housing in Ann Arbor is pretty expensive, but I guess that's because I've never lived outside of the Midwest! There are some pretty good deals around A2, so good luck with the hunt!

Oh trust me - after Toronto and Oxford, A2 is very fairly priced!! It's all about perspective  

Edited March 22, 2016 by ciistai

[BellaBendrix]

Dear all,

Does anyone have any experience with Cribspot when it comes to graduate housing? I know it's relatively new but I was just wondering...

[marmend]

Does anyone have a map of the areas & a list of landlords associated with each area? Sorry, I'm so lost on looking for apartments. It'll be my first time moving away from home. Coming from Texas

.

[magnanimous]

1 hour ago, marmend said:

Does anyone have a map of the areas & a list of landlords associated with each area? Sorry, I'm so lost on looking for apartments. It'll be my first time moving away from home. Coming from Texas

.

Hi @marmend! I tried searching around and couldn't find a dedicated off-campus housing map, but here is a list of all of the off-campus neighborhoods, and if you combine that with the interactive campus map, you might be able to go from there! Also, I don't think there are landlords dedicated to any specific area. . . They tend to be focused right on central campus in a variety of places (probably so they can reach as many students as possible).http://housingannarbor.com/ and http://www.johnwcooper.com/annarbor/offcampushousing-universityofmichigan.htm might be helpful for a starting point since they're collections of many of the housing companies and landlords in Ann Arbor, and you could probably compare the addresses of any houses or apartments you're looking into to the neighborhoods and points on the map just to get an idea of distance. Those neighborhoods are also searchable on the off-campus housing website, but the selections there are a bit more limited.

Hopefully this helps a bit, and feel free to PM or let me know if you have any other questions!

[marmend]

Hi! Thanks @magnanimous so much for all the helpful info!

 

So I'll be a grad student at UM starting Fall and I know orientation begins sometime in August. Although, a bunch of the leases don't begin until 9/1....what do we do? 

[KatieJaiYen]

How is everyone else securing housing for the fall? It seems like you have to physically be on the ground. What you are guys doing and how long are you going to ensure you get a lease signed?

I am currently living abroad and will not be able to go to Ann Arbor until early June. Is this too late?

Edited April 10, 2016 by KatieJaiYen

[magnanimous]

On 4/8/2016 at 10:27 AM, marmend said:

Hi! Thanks @magnanimous so much for all the helpful info!

 

So I'll be a grad student at UM starting Fall and I know orientation begins sometime in August. Although, a bunch of the leases don't begin until 9/1....what do we do? 

For some of the leases, you could ask the landlord whether you would be able to move in sooner (which would cost some portion of rent, depending how far ahead of the lease you'd want to move in). There is also UMich short term housing that you could look into as well.  

[marmend]

Anyone have advice on which neighborhoods to live in? I've heard good things about Old Westside & Kerrytown, what about Germantown? I'm currently eyeing a place in Germantown but I can't find much info on the neighborhood

[marmend]

On 4/10/2016 at 2:52 AM, KatieJaiYen said:

How is everyone else securing housing for the fall? It seems like you have to physically be on the ground. What you are guys doing and how long are you going to ensure you get a lease signed?

I am currently living abroad and will not be able to go to Ann Arbor until early June. Is this too late?

Hello, 

I'm moving to Ann Arbor in the Fall (mostly around late August) and I'm going to be securing my housing online. I live in Texas, so I can't actually see the places in person before I sign a lease...which sucks. But it's doable. 

Just remember that most leases for 2016-2017 year do not begin til 9/1. This is why I am trying to also look for temporary summer housing just for the month of August (*headaches*). 

[ljo377]

The lease for the place I found in Old Westside officially started September 1, but the property manager is letting us move in any time after August 25 at no additional cost, as long as we affirm that the turnover (cleaning, work, etc.) is okay to still be in progress upon move in. We were able to see the place in person when we visited, so I felt comfortable knowing it wasn't in terrible shape to begin with

So there may be some flexibility here; worth checking in to see!

Edited April 11, 2016 by ljo377

[marmend]

Anyone have advice with living (or not living) in Burns Park?

[BrendonSW]

Has anyone lived at or heard about Liberty Grand? 

[ciistai]

On 4/10/2016 at 4:52 AM, KatieJaiYen said:

How is everyone else securing housing for the fall? It seems like you have to physically be on the ground. What you are guys doing and how long are you going to ensure you get a lease signed?

I am currently living abroad and will not be able to go to Ann Arbor until early June. Is this too late?

I'm up in Canada though not TOO far from Ann Arbor but was worried about this as well. I found a roomie on the Off-Campus Housing site and she happened to be going to Ann Arbor the following week anyway - I did a lot of the Internet footwork in skimming through hundreds of listings to find apartments that suited our needs. She arranged and attended viewings and took photos, then we decided together. If you're okay with roommates and you can find someone already with a lease, or someone who is closer to AA than you, this could work!

[Two-Headed Boy]

Anyone going to umich? Let's get to know each other!

[toolazi]

I am going to UMich this fall for a MSE in aeronautical engineering. I was planning on living in Ypsi but had some concerns with parking on campus. Even if I have a yellow permit, will it be hard to find parking on campus? 

[ghanada]

4 hours ago, toolazi said:

I am going to UMich this fall for a MSE in aeronautical engineering. I was planning on living in Ypsi but had some concerns with parking on campus. Even if I have a yellow permit, will it be hard to find parking on campus? 

Go back to page 14 and read my post on January 31st, I address the parking situation in detail there. Long story short, living in Ypsi and getting to north campus is not straight forward. The yellow permit is doable, but those are commuter lots and they can fill up completely by mid morning depending on the lot you pick. See that previous post for my other suggestions.

[wmkx]

After reviewing a few older posts, it appears that most undergraduates live south of campus and that most of frats and partying happens near S. University Ave. Would this be a correct assessment?

I am an incoming grad student and I am looking for a relatively quiet neighborhood. A few listings caught my eye, one near Hoover and Division and the other is near Granger and Golden Avenues. Does anyone have any insight on these neighborhoods?

[ghanada]

12 hours ago, wmkx said:

After reviewing a few older posts, it appears that most undergraduates live south of campus and that most of frats and partying happens near S. University Ave. Would this be a correct assessment?

I am an incoming grad student and I am looking for a relatively quiet neighborhood. A few listings caught my eye, one near Hoover and Division and the other is near Granger and Golden Avenues. Does anyone have any insight on these neighborhoods?

You are correct, the area between South and Central Campus is mostly where undergrads live and the more buys and louder parts of town. Now, I wouldn't say Ann Arbor is particularly a crazy party town, so those neighborhoods you mentioned might be ok depending what you can tolerate. They will mostly be loud on Thursday/Friday/Saturday nights. During the day and most evenings, it shouldn't be bad. However, those neighborhoods are in the heart of Michigan Stadium street parking. So any home football games there will be tens of thousands of people parking in those neighborhoods. That is also where the streets pretty much shut down so you will never be able to drive in or out of that area pretty much all day Saturday on home games.

But that area is cheap, and if you can find some of the more secluded neighborhoods than it might be worth it. But if you are truly looking for more quiet, peaceful neighborhoods, you need to go more south (past Stadium Blvd) and more east (closer or beyond Packard St).

[chantalchao]

11 hours ago, ghanada said:

You are correct, the area between South and Central Campus is mostly where undergrads live and the more buys and louder parts of town. Now, I wouldn't say Ann Arbor is particularly a crazy party town, so those neighborhoods you mentioned might be ok depending what you can tolerate. They will mostly be loud on Thursday/Friday/Saturday nights. During the day and most evenings, it shouldn't be bad. However, those neighborhoods are in the heart of Michigan Stadium street parking. So any home football games there will be tens of thousands of people parking in those neighborhoods. That is also where the streets pretty much shut down so you will never be able to drive in or out of that area pretty much all day Saturday on home games.

But that area is cheap, and if you can find some of the more secluded neighborhoods than it might be worth it. But if you are truly looking for more quiet, peaceful neighborhoods, you need to go more south (past Stadium Blvd) and more east (closer or beyond Packard St).

I was looking for housing at Hill street but couldn't get more info about the vicinity. I am a new international phd student, so this helps a lot! Thanks! Me and my roomie would like to live in a quiet neighborhood as well, but a walking distance to the Diag (where our labs are located) seems more appealing to us. 

[ghanada]

22 hours ago, chantalchao said:

I was looking for housing at Hill street but couldn't get more info about the vicinity. I am a new international phd student, so this helps a lot! Thanks! Me and my roomie would like to live in a quiet neighborhood as well, but a walking distance to the Diag (where our labs are located) seems more appealing to us. 

Yeah, that's understandable, and pretty much the goal of every student at UM. The Hill St area is definitely the most affordable walking distance, but the closer you are to South Campus the more party-ish it gets. The other factor you run into is that around the intersection of Hill and Church, that neighborhood is all sorority houses, so that area can get busy and loud as well. If you want to be walking distance and quiet where most the grad students are, you have to go more north toward the houses near State and Ann. There are other quieter pockets of neighborhoods a little more to the west of downtown and the east. If you want really a really nice and peaceful area, Kerrytown is the way to go. That's where I am at now. But any way you look at it, if you are walking distance the prices go way up so that is something to consider. 

Also, I'm not sure what type of climate you are used to, but another consideration with walking is the snow and cold. Right now I live about a 30 min walk to campus, which is wonderful in the summer/fall. But throughout the winter (which last for about 5-6 months of the year), 30 min walking in the snow and single digit temperatures (in F, not C) can be a bit daunting. My roommates and I usually switch to taking the bus at that point. But I am also from California so I tend to hate the cold weather more than most. Anyways, I thought I would throw that out there. Even if you find a place that is walking distance, I still think it is worth knowing how close the nearest buses are as well. 

[chantalchao]

2 hours ago, ghanada said:

Yeah, that's understandable, and pretty much the goal of every student at UM. The Hill St area is definitely the most affordable walking distance, but the closer you are to South Campus the more party-ish it gets. The other factor you run into is that around the intersection of Hill and Church, that neighborhood is all sorority houses, so that area can get busy and loud as well. If you want to be walking distance and quiet where most the grad students are, you have to go more north toward the houses near State and Ann. There are other quieter pockets of neighborhoods a little more to the west of downtown and the east. If you want really a really nice and peaceful area, Kerrytown is the way to go. That's where I am at now. But any way you look at it, if you are walking distance the prices go way up so that is something to consider. 

Also, I'm not sure what type of climate you are used to, but another consideration with walking is the snow and cold. Right now I live about a 30 min walk to campus, which is wonderful in the summer/fall. But throughout the winter (which last for about 5-6 months of the year), 30 min walking in the snow and single digit temperatures (in F, not C) can be a bit daunting. My roommates and I usually switch to taking the bus at that point. But I am also from California so I tend to hate the cold weather more than most. Anyways, I thought I would throw that out there. Even if you find a place that is walking distance, I still think it is worth knowing how close the nearest buses are as well. 

I come from tropical areas and I literally have no idea how cold it could be in Ann Arbor... The apartment we are looking at is about a block away from the law school at Hill and there are bus stops nearby, so it's not a problem to go to the lab in winter. The other apt that we are interested in is loacted on Plymouth Rd, north of Island Drive apts, with bus stops outside the apt as well. How about the security in these two neighborhoods? And how convenient is it living there?    

[ghanada]

On 5/6/2016 at 3:24 PM, chantalchao said:

I come from tropical areas and I literally have no idea how cold it could be in Ann Arbor... The apartment we are looking at is about a block away from the law school at Hill and there are bus stops nearby, so it's not a problem to go to the lab in winter. The other apt that we are interested in is loacted on Plymouth Rd, north of Island Drive apts, with bus stops outside the apt as well. How about the security in these two neighborhoods? And how convenient is it living there?    

Haha you haven't looked into the weather yet?? I'm not going to lie, winter will be rough coming from tropical areas. Fortunately, the last couple winters were mild. But a couple years ago was a particularly bad year here. We had over 100 days with temperatures below 0 degrees F, so around the -20 to -40 C range. And really, the temps aren't the worst, it is the wind. For whatever reason Ann Arbor gets pretty windy. So yeah, you will see that once the winter comes you will be indoors most the time. 

All those neighborhoods will be fine in terms of safety. Ann Arbor in general is really safe. There are some robberies and that sort of thing every once in a while, but nothing to worry much about. You can use sites like this (http://www.crimemapping.com/map/mi/annarbor) to check out more specifics. Just use common sense and avoid walking alone at dark. Convenience wise, both areas emphasize different things. Being near the law school will be more lively and louder as I mentioned before. It really puts you in the heart of the school and will feel like a college town. You will be surrounded by students. It also puts you close to downtown Ann Arbor where all the restaurants and events take place. Being able to walk into downtown is really wonderful if you are used to small city squares. However, the major drawback is that you won't be walking distance to any of the cheaper, major grocery stores. Even using the city buses to get to grocery stores from there isn't great. So if you cook a lot, you will be driving a lot to get food. 

Anywhere off of Plymouth is sort of the opposite experience. Plymouth neighborhoods tend to be geared more toward the grad students, and particularly the engineers since that is close to North Campus. Those are definitely quieter neighborhoods and a lot less lively. And depending exactly where on Plymouth you are, you would be pretty close to shops and grocery stores, potentially walking distance or even a short bus ride. But those shops are in more strip mall types of places. And getting into downtown from there is a bit more inconvenient, and not walking distance. 

So you just have to decide which style is more fitting for you. They are kind of on opposite ends of the spectrum. That's actually why I chose to live in Kerrytown because it is pretty much exactly in the middle of the 2 neighborhoods you mentioned, giving it the best of both worlds without many compromises. But that is also why it is much more expensive to live in.