Help me find housing in New Orleans

July 6, 2015 7:28 AM

I'm moving to New Orleans for a one-year masters program and need an apartment starting this August. I've never been there and can't visit before moving. Please help me find a place to live!

Since I'll only be there from August-May/June, finding something furnished would be ideal. I'm not sure if this is easy to find in NOLA. I would also prefer to live alone if possible-- how much is a studio/1 BR in a safe area? I need to be near the Tulane campus, but I can bring a car down if need be. Any input on whether or not a car is needed down there would be helpful as well! I literally have no idea about the city and have just started to research, so please be as specific as possible. Looking to spend under $1000 and as little as possible (<$500) on furniture.

Thank you!

posted by DayTripper to Grab Bag (7 answers total)

Hi, I live in New Orleans! I'm assuming by "Tulane campus", you mean the uptown campus, where the undergraduate and liberal arts/sciences grad programs are located. The health sciences, public health and social work schools are downtown near the Tulane hospital. The benefit of being near the uptown campus is that there's lots of student friendly housing nearby. Unfortunately for you, you're going to have much, much better luck looking for a room in a house than a 1 bedroom. The Carrolton and Broadmoor neighborhoods are probably going to be your best bet for a cheap place, and most of the apartments for rent there are going to be part of houses- they mostly have three or four bedrooms. Another possibility is living in a detached apartment in the backyard of a larger house- I know someone who did that while doing a master's at Tulane, and I saw a unit like that on Craigslist when I searched just now.

As for getting a furnished place, most of the furnished places I saw were way out of your price range because they were corporate rentals. You might get lucky and find a student moving out who wants to leave their stuff behind, but I think most of that happened in May. You've also missed the desperate "please take my bed, I'm leaving tomorrow" Facebook posts, but you might get lucky. There's a few pretty active Facebook groups for Tulane classifieds and apartments that could be useful to you.

I would bring your car if you can. New Orleans has OK public transportation and is moderately bikeable (lots of new bike lanes, but cars only sometimes respect them, and the roads are awful- someone told me once they were most scared of the potholes than crazy drivers), but it's very car friendly and having a car makes it much much easier to get around. On the other hand, I know people who rely on public transportation and they do ok. It's definitely possible, especially if you live near school and make a friend with a car for grocery runs!

Let me know if you have any other questions, and feel free to Memail me if you want an opinion on specific apartments :)
posted by MadamM at 8:23 AM on July 6, 2015

Craigslist is going to be your best bet here.

One thing to know is that almost all rentals in New Orleans are owned by individual landlords or small companies. There aren't very many big corporate buildings - and the few that are there are all high-end places downtown. I agree that you probably won't find anything furnished, unfortunately. I haven't lived there in a few years and rent has gone up, but you should be able to find an studio or 1br under $1000 (4 years ago you could get a 2br for $1100).

Do not rent from HR Properties (sometimes called HR Milan, HR Prytania, etc.). They are horrible slumlords. They know they have a bad rep and don't list their company name on their ads.

Agree that you'll want a car. There's public transit but it's not great. It is fairly bikeable but it's hot as hell. And there are a lot of chain stores (Target, Macys) that are only in the 'burbs. However, parking at the Uptown campus is horrendously expensive, so I'd recommend living within walking/biking distance.
posted by radioamy at 10:26 AM on July 6, 2015

Hiya. Don't know where you're coming from, but the definition of "safe" can vary wildly here. I used to live mere blocks from Tulane's campus and had a car stolen for a joyride, but never felt unsafe while walking around. I now live in what I guess I would call a less-safe area, statistically speaking, but I love it a whole lot more, as I'm not a big fan of the Tulane campus area.

New Orleans is a small city, so living anywhere in the greater metro area and commuting to Tulane is not impossible, aside from the parking situation on campus.

I agree that Craigslist is going to be your best bet. If they offer an address, plug it into a New Orleans crime map and you can see what it's like in that neighborhood, more or less. If you find a place you like and you're not sure about it, well, I'm sure most of us who respond in this thread would also respond to a MeMail saying, "yeah, that's totally safe" or "no, I would not live there."
posted by komara at 9:35 PM on July 6, 2015

To build on what komara said, Nola can be a bit of a "checkerboard" - you can have a crappy few blocks right next to a nice neighborhood. I for one am happy to look at some listings for a quick yay/nay if you want to MeMail me.
posted by radioamy at 4:57 PM on July 7, 2015

Oh and the area new Tulane's main campus is called University Area.
posted by radioamy at 5:03 PM on July 7, 2015

Looking on New Orleans Craigslist brings me back.! This is what I'd consider a typical Uptown/University Area Craigslist listing. It's a shotgun-style duplex close to campus for $945.
posted by radioamy at 5:07 PM on July 7, 2015

Just checking in to see if you were able to find anything.
posted by komara at 9:27 PM on July 28, 2015