By Spencer Dobkin

Students at the University of Maryland find themselves searching for off-campus housing after their freshman or sophomore year.

They choose from renting houses or apartments, and schools also usually offer university-owned housing outside of campus dorms.

Some of College Park’s most common choices for UMD students are houses for rent in Old Town. Seventy-eight percent of Old Town is renter-occupied, according to the University of Maryland’s Off-Campus Housing Services, mostly due to the constant flow of college students looking for short-term leases.

These houses are an option many students take advantage of, but their monthly rent poses a major problem for some students. Sophomore business major Zack Hunter planned on living in a house that “is for five residents,” the landlord told him. According to the lease he received, rent is $7,100 per month without utilities at his possible house, which would average out to $1,770 a month per resident, not including a monthly utility charge for water and gas or electricity.

This is near double the cost of comparative housing in other areas of town like College Park Towers, where rent ranges from $700 to $900 per month in most apartments and is inclusive of most utility costs.

Besides the cost problem, Hunter and other students looking for large houses off campus are forced to pay deposits as early as October to reserve priority when signing a lease that starts in either June or August of the next year.

And the on-campus living experience presents its own challenges, freshman economics major Jared Rosen said.

“I know people in dorms like Elkton and Ellicott who are in flex triples and have lounge dorms, which don’t have the equal equipment that normal dorms have,” said Rosen.

The university’s overcrowded on-campus housing this semester could result in more students finding themselves in a situation like Hunter’s.

“It’s really a struggle finding a house for next year,” said Hunter, who is still undecided on his living situation. He said he hopes to find a lease to sign soon so he can focus on school and possible abroad plans for next year.

Photo courtesy of University of Maryland Off-campus Housing Database