Hofstra, Adelphi, Stony Brook off-campus housing costs a challenge

Ananya Jain walks 35 minutes from her off-campus apartment to Adelphi University in Garden City. Without a car, she has been walking to class since she moved in last July, making the most of it by listening to the pop music soundtrack that comes through her headphones.

During her first semester majoring in psychology, Jain, of Kolkata, India, lived on campus. But the cost — $6,220 for the spring 2022 semester — motivated her to look elsewhere.

"I’m still struggling to find a place off campus," said Jain, 21. "Somewhere near my college."

Now in her sophomore year, Jain rents a room and shared bathroom in a four-bed, two-bath house in West Hempstead. At $900 a month plus utilities, the cost has surpassed her budget of $850-$900.

Stony Brook University senior Oscar Palomo, who pays $750 a month for one bedroom in a house of seven residents, considers himself fortunate. 

"I got lucky," he said, of a comparatively low rent. Living off campus, Polomo, 22, said, "you save a lot."

I’m still struggling to find a place off campus.

— Ananya Jain, 21, sophomore at Adelphi University

Students across the Island hunting for off-campus housing are navigating the same market as other rental seekers: rife with prices driven by low inventory and high demand, the market does not offer a student discount.

"There’s a scarcity of off-campus housing," said Guy Seneque, a Garden City-based real estate salesperson for Douglas Elliman. "Real estate is tough, in Nassau County and Suffolk."

He added: "And college students also have modest budgets."

What does it cost to rent near Long Island colleges, universities?

In central Nassau, which includes the areas immediately surrounding Hofstra and Adelphi universities, the average effective rent per apartment unit is $2,947, according to data from CoStar, a provider of real estate information data based in Washington, D.C. The same is true for central Suffolk, which includes the area around Stony Brook University, where the average rent is $2,767. This includes legal rentals of various numbers of bedrooms, and does not include the unpermitted rental options many students seek in order to cut costs.

Many students looking for off-campus housing in what he called a "housing desert" are "nontraditional students," said Seneque. By his definition, this group includes students over age 21, veterans, graduate students and students with families of their own. 

"The traditional dorm, residence halls aren’t conducive to those groups," he said. "So they flock to find off-campus housing that provides more independence, that aren’t supervised by RAs or residential staff, and give them more options in terms of budget."

At Adelphi University, just 21% of undergraduate students are living on campus this semester, according to university-provided data. More than three-quarters of the student population commutes, and the data does not distinguish between those living at year-round permanent residences and those living in temporary housing for the school year. Of Adelphi's graduate students, 99% commute to campus.

There’s no checks and balances. The students are under pressure to find housing very quickly;  the rental rates are very high.

— Jonathan Miller, CEO of Miller Samuel

Jonathan Miller, CEO of real estate appraisal firm Miller Samuel, described a market characterized by opportunity for landlords near college campuses to inflate prices. Rental rates are high overall, he conceded; but college students looking for off-campus housing are often left with few options and subject to higher unit rates that will likely be divided among roommates, he said.

"There’s no checks and balances," Miller said. "The students are under pressure to find housing very quickly; the rental rates are very high."

Whether rents will continue to rise or level off by the next school year remains unpredictable, but Miller said tenants in the overall market are likely reaching an "affordability threshold."

"There is a limit to what people can actually pay, and I think we're exploring that territory now," he said.

Real estate agents have difficulty in helping college students who have the burden of paying tuition and rent, said Seneque, who is also a director for residential life and housing. He declined to specify at which university.

"There really needs to be some type of Dunkirk-style rescue," he said, that might involve developers and local homeowners tapping into the market to provide affordable and accessible housing.

Renting near Hofstra, Stony Brook University

I got lucky. You save a lot [living off-campus].

— Oscar Palomo, 22, senior at Stony Brook University

Six student athletes share a house minutes from the Hofstra University campus in Hempstead.

For $850 per person — a total of $5,100 a month — each student has their own room. The base buy-in covers rent, water, landscaping and snow removal. Gas, electricity and Netflix are extra.

"It’s more expensive than you’d think," said Skylar Kuzmich, 22, of Abington, Massachusetts. Kuzmich is a graduate student studying exercise science and is a goalkeeper for the university’s soccer team.

To put down three months’ rent before her June move-in was expected and still tough to stomach, she said. To finance her off-campus living situation, she saved money made working with children at soccer camps the university hosted.

It’s more expensive than you’d think.

— Skylar Kuzmich, grad student at Hofstra

She solidified her living arrangements in May and moved in the following month. The house is "quaint" and well landscaped, she said. There are two bedrooms, a living room, kitchen and bathroom on the main floor. Upstairs, there are three bedrooms and one bathroom; an additional bedroom and bathroom are in the basement, along with laundry machines and a boiler room. 

"I was kind of looking for a while," she said of the housing search. "I was looking for something very specific."

For Kuzmich, one priority was to live with other athletes for scheduling reasons. Through word of mouth, she connected with her current housemates, most of whom play for the field hockey team. 

Stony Brook student Palomo, a math major, advised students look for rentals by asking around.

"People tell you to go to Facebook, right, Facebook Marketplace — that’s what you want to do if you don’t know anyone. If you do know people you want to talk to them," said Palomo, of San Salvador in El Salvador. "You talk to them until eventually you have someone that is a plug. And this plug will basically draw you along and give you the opportunities that you need."

Palomo walks five minutes from his residence to a parking lot known as South P, where he catches a bus to the SBU campus. All inhabitants of his house share the kitchen and bathrooms, but each has their own bedroom — save for the landlord, who shares a room with her son.

What does it cost to live on campus?

As students decide where to live, they weigh the cost of off-campus housing against the cost of an on-campus dorm; but the decision is far from simple. Variables such as broker fees, on-campus fees, meal plan requirements and room specifications factor into the cost of any living arrangement.

At Stony Brook, a corridor- or suite-style double room without air conditioning costs $5,306 — or $5,446 with air conditioning — per semester for returning and transfer students, according to the university’s website. Single rooms cost more, as do rooms in suites with their own kitchens. A student living in a dorm that is not a "cooking building" is also required to pay for a meal plan.

The West Apartments, open to upperclassmen, cost $5,583 per semester for those sharing a bedroom with another student and $6,494 for those in single-occupancy bedrooms.

For graduate students at Stony Brook, rates are broken down into monthly cost. An apartment-style single room in the West Apartments would cost a graduate student $1,443 a month. To share a room would cost $1,241 monthly.

At Hofstra University, the cost of on-campus housing ranges from $5,285 per term for a room shared by three students, to $9,830 per term for a graduate student’s single room, according to the university website. Undergraduate resident students are also required to purchase a meal plan and may have to pay additional fees.

At Adelphi, housing costs range from $6,090 per semester for a double room in Chapman or Earle halls with no air conditioning to $10,085 per semester for an air-conditioned double room in Linen Hall rented to a single student.

What colleges say

College officials at Hofstra and Stony Brook would prefer students live on campus, though they do offer resources for those who choose to live elsewhere.

"We encourage our students to live on campus to take full advantage of every resource Hofstra has to offer," a university spokesperson said in a statement, in part. "Students reported in a 2023 survey of residential life that living on campus supported their transition to college and helped them make friends. Also important, the experience of living on campus gave them a sense of belonging."

Of the 3,470 Hofstra students who chose to live off campus in the spring of 2023, more than 92% were commuting from their home residence, the university said. Fewer than 8%, or approximately 270 students at most, were living in off-campus housing. 

At Stony Brook University, officials estimate in an email 10,000 students live on campus and 15,000 live off campus. The latter group includes students living at home with family. University data does not distinguish between students commuting from a permanent residence and those commuting from a temporary off-campus rental, officials said. 

Officials estimate 50% of undergraduate students and 80% of graduate students commute to the university.

"The main challenge that the campus community faces when seeking housing rentals off-campus is the supply — particularly of legally permitted housing options," Stony Brook University officials said.

The number of students living on campus has boomeranged over the past couple of years. A fall 2018 total of 10,283 dormitory residents on Stony Brook’s main campus fell to 3,730 in the fall of 2020 during the pandemic. This year, there are 10,270 resident students, and the university expects to remain at near capacity in the coming months, officials said.

For students looking to live off campus, the university’s Commuter Student Services and Off-Campus Living unit maintains one official off-campus housing listing site. Those looking to list property on the site must provide the required licenses. The university promotes only legal rentals, officials said. 

Apartments offer privacy, kitchens, pools

For some, a move off campus is a matter of personal preference rather than a financial need. As a student of graphic design at Adelphi, Zee Zee Shreter spent two years at Adelphi living on campus.

"I kind of wanted to get a different experience," said Shreter, 20, of New Jersey.

After a few months of searching, she connected with another student looking to share a two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment. Though the apartment search took longer for some of her teammates — some of whom share a house — Shreter saw her share of listings. The options on the lower end of her price range were places she described as not as clean looking, rooms in houses and small basement apartments with no windows. 

She and her roommate live in an apartment building just over the Hempstead border, a six-minute drive from campus. Shreter moved in a few weeks ago and has enjoyed the opportunity to cook according to her dietary restrictions in her own kitchen, use her own bathroom and take in the view from the apartment balcony. The roommates also have access to the building’s pool and lounging areas. 

I like the fact that there’s more space, that there’s a kitchen where I could cook anything, that I have my own bathroom.

— Julia Khinchin, 21, Stony Brook University grad student

"It was actually pretty tough because it was more on the expensive side," she said of the geographic area, as compared to friends’ experiences in other states. Her apartment is at the top of her price range at $2,000 per month and financed by her parents. As a softball player, scholarships help cover part of tuition and leave some extra money for housing, she said.

For Julia Khinchin, 21, a first-year grad school student at Stony Brook working toward an MBA in healthcare management, moving in with friends off campus was a lifestyle choice. 

"I like the fact that there’s more space, that there’s a kitchen where I could cook anything, that I have my own bathroom," Khinchin said. 

Khinchin and four students — a mix of undergraduate and graduate students — pay a total of $5,000 monthly for the rental. The student in the primary bedroom pays more than the others. 

When she moved in, Khinchin was an undergraduate and her friends were already living in the house. When one graduated, she took the room. The original residents found the house approximately three years ago.

"It was fairly quickly, but it was also during the time where COVID cases were higher so it was easier to find housing — and cheaper housing as well, because not a lot of people were living on campus," Khinchin said.

By Arielle Dollinger

arielle.dollinger@newsday.com@aridollinger

Arielle Dollinger joined Newsday as a staff reporter in 2022. Previously, she covered local and national news as a freelancer for The New York Times, Newsday and other outlets.