Off-Campus Housing in NYC: A Guide by College Campus

Manhattan Campuses Below 34th Street

Nearby medians (StreetEasy’s median asking rent, October 2026): an East Village three-bedroom is $8,120, about $2,707 a room split three ways. A Gramercy Park two-bedroom is $5,830, about $2,915 a room. A Chinatown three-bedroom is $7,160, about $2,387 a room.

• The New School: buildings around Fifth Avenue and 13th Street, near Union Square. Trains: 4, 5, 6, L, N, Q, R and W at 14th Street–Union Square, and the F and M at 14th Street and Sixth Avenue.
• Cooper Union: Cooper Square in the East Village. Trains: the 6 at Astor Place and the R and W at 8th Street–NYU.
• Baruch College: Lexington Avenue at 24th and 25th Streets. Trains: the 6 at 23rd Street, with the R and W at 23rd Street and Broadway a few blocks west.
• Fashion Institute of Technology: West 27th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues in Chelsea. Trains: the 1 at 28th Street and the C and E at 23rd Street, with Penn Station a few blocks north.
• Pace University: One Pace Plaza, beside City Hall and the Brooklyn Bridge. Trains: the 4, 5 and 6 at Brooklyn Bridge–City Hall, the J and Z at Chambers Street, the R and W at City Hall, and the 2, 3, A and C at Fulton Street.

Manhattan Campuses Above 59th Street

Nearby medians: an Upper West Side three-bedroom is $8,720, about $2,907 a room. An Upper East Side two-bedroom is $6,085, about $3,043 a room. Farther up the 6 from Hunter, an East Harlem three-bedroom is $4,415, about $1,472 a room.

• Fordham at Lincoln Center: West 60th Street and Columbus Avenue. Trains: the 1, A, B, C and D at 59th Street–Columbus Circle.
• The Juilliard School: Lincoln Center, at West 65th Street. Trains: the 1 at 66th Street–Lincoln Center, with Columbus Circle a short walk south.
• Hunter College: East 68th Street and Lexington Avenue. The 6 stops at 68th Street–Hunter College, and the F and Q stop at Lexington Avenue and 63rd Street.

Brooklyn and the Bronx

Near Pratt, a Clinton Hill three-bedroom is $5,810, about $1,937 a room, and a Bedford-Stuyvesant three-bedroom is $4,525, about $1,508 a room. Near Rose Hill, a Belmont three-bedroom is $3,420, about $1,140 a room, and a Fordham two-bedroom is $2,660, about $1,330 a room.

• Pratt Institute: Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. Trains: the G at Clinton–Washington Avenues, and the C at its own Clinton–Washington Avenues stop on Fulton Street.
• Fordham at Rose Hill: Fordham Road in the Bronx, next to the New York Botanical Garden. Trains: Metro-North at Fordham station beside the campus, the B and D at Fordham Road, and the 4 at Fordham Road farther west.

How to Think About Distance Versus Rent

Put a number on the trade. An East Village room at about $2,707 and a Bedford-Stuyvesant room at about $1,508 differ by $1,199 a month, or $14,388 over a twelve-month lease. Then count the extra minutes each way and how many days a week you are on campus.

Three things change the answer. Late classes or studio hours make a short ride home worth more. A transfer adds waiting time that a map does not show, especially at night and on weekends. And a campus you visit three days a week is a different commute from one you visit six.

A Way to Run the Search

1. Write down the station names at your campus and the lines that stop there.
2. Follow each line outward and list the neighborhoods at 10, 20 and 30 minutes.
3. Look up each one’s two- and three-bedroom median and divide by the bedrooms.
4. Check your school’s housing office for its own off-campus listings and roommate tools.
5. Visit your top two at night and on a weekend, and walk from the station to the door.

• Find Your School
• Sublets for Students
• NYC Rent by Neighborhood

If You Only Need a Semester

A twelve-month lease is the wrong size for one semester, a co-op term or a visiting year. A sublet of 30 days or longer from a student who is away is usually furnished and matches the academic calendar. Ask the person listing for their landlord’s written approval of the sublet.

• Sublets in NYC
• How to Avoid Sublet Scams in NYC