The cAWElumn: Housing
By Angela Zhang
Worried about not being able to find the best housing option for you and your housemates? In this week’s cAWElumn, a series where we gather AWE-dvice on common college student topics and concerns, we asked for AWE members to share what they have bought to enhance their living environment, some pros and cons of their current housing situation, and how they search for apartments and roommates. Read more about their tips on Berkeley housing below! Also, be sure to check out last week’s cAWElumn on personal finance if you haven’t already.
Q: What’s something special you add to your living space that just makes your life easier and/or better?
Hetal: 1) Shelf dividers in cabinets and the freezer make organization much better. 2) Giant storage containers that I put under my bed for extra clothes during the other seasons. 3) Dumbbells for quick at home workouts on busy days. 4) A giant pillow to use as a backrest for working in bed. 5) If you have carpet, a pet hair rake really gets the hair out. Life changing!
Jennifer: My roommate loves plants so our living room is full of plants and it brightens the room a lot!
Shivana: Stuffed animals :)
Emily: Our giant whiteboard
Q: How do you like your current housing situation (rent, #bed#baths, amenities, etc.)? Do you think it’s worth the price? Is southside/northside/downtown better? What other beneficial quirks does your place provide?
Irene: I’m currently in an apt near the Tang center, and I love this location because both southside and downtown are so accessible!
Christy: I live near the Tang Center too but I miss my dorm in unit 2 because going to Cory/Soda used to be a straight walk :( but the one perk is that downtown is super close now. Living in an apt is definitely better than dorms and housing is expensive.
Jackie: I’ve lived in a couple apartments in Berkeley and I like my current one because I get to live in a spacious single. I would say Southside > Northside because of the food/boba options nearby (but having a short walk to Cory would be nice..)
Emily: I’m living in an apartment close to unit 2, and I love that my apartment is so close to a 51B bus stop on College Ave. I can bus easily to Safeway and Trader Joe’s, and there are a lot of cute shops in Elmwood. As for the apartment itself, I live in a 2B1Ba. I really wanted to host friends, so I like that my apartment has a spacious living room. I am in a double, and it is not so bad…jk love you Ashley
Kaashvi: I’m currently living on southside, in an apartment right next to Unit 2! It’s definitely an old building but the apartment itself is pretty decent, and I’m super happy with the price for the distance + how close it is to a bus stop. Our setup is pretty unconventional: it’s a 1B1Ba, with the bedroom as a double and a third roommate living in the living room, but the price point and room works for everyone, and we’re able to host in our dining room when we bring people over and have a cute little balcony where we added tables and chairs too :)). One thing that’s super helpful: our sink is outside our bathroom, so someone can be brushing their teeth while another showers with no privacy issues. I definitely like it a lot more than the dorms: lower price point, nice kitchen, and best of all: lovely roomies!
Anonymous: I’m also living southside near unit 2, 2bed2bath for around 800 a person for monthly rent. Laundry is downstairs and shared by the building. I like the unit 2 area because it’s less of an uphill walk to cory / soda / evans imo. Also, close to the 51B which can get me to the Safeway and Trader Joe’s on College :)
Q: What was your apartment hunting journey like? How did you find your current roommates? Are there any red flags to look out for when house hunting?
Angela: For my last apartment, my housemates and I toured a couple places before deciding on our final place. Some key things I looked out for were good lighting, onsite laundry, not too much street noise, and somewhat new appliances so things are less likely to break down for us to fix.
Sashrika: Tips for apartment hunting — the way your windows face and how much sunlight you’re getting! North facing windows get 0 direct sunlight so if you’re a houseplant like me you’re gonna want south (ideal) facing windows or at the very least east/west (direct sunlight either morning or evening). Really consider small things like this to make your living environment as comfortable and homey as possible so when the semester gets stressful you have a nice place to come back to.
Emily: +1 to sunlight! My experience is a bit weird in terms of apartment hunting because it was during COVID and only 1 out of 4 of us were in Berkeley to help us find a place. She did a mix of apt touring and we had a notion of our thoughts on each place. We ultimately landed on a place that a friend of mine showed me when I was a freshman, so I would definitely ask your upperclassmen friends for recommendations and honest thoughts on places they’ve lived in. Found my current roommates through AWE! I had one person I wanted to room with and we found a pair that was also looking for a place.
Irene: Found current housemates because we were originally 16a study group haha :’) we heard that North Berkeley Properties was pretty reliable, so we kinda just searched their website for open apartments and found one close to campus!
Kaashvi: Look at the place and look for housing EARLY ( start in Jan at the latest if you’re looking for fall housing, etc), especially if you’re looking for off-campus housing. I found my roommates on facebook super last minute, and we were all strangers before we moved in together besides a few Zoom calls, but I super lucked out and we get along really well! There are a lot of facebook groups for looking for housing, but a lot of the posts are scams so make sure you’re careful about confirming locations, and also have a list of questions and boundaries you’re not willing to cross when you’re rooming, because it’s important that you can at least coexist with the folks you’re living with (ex: my hard boundaries were no smoking indoors and decently clean in communal spaces.) I started looking very last minute for housing, so it was incredibly stressful and I went through a ton of “interviews” of people looking for a final roomie. I didn’t join my friends in their apartment because they went for on-campus housing, which was too expensive for my budget
If you are interested in contributing to our cAWElumn, follow us on Instagram to reply to our stories and check out the weekly questions posted in the #random channel of our AWE Slack as well!
