Off-cycle apartment rental in State College, PA

December 28, 2021 1:11 PM

I'm looking to rent a small place near Penn State University, with move-in flexible but ideally in the next month or two. The market seems to be dominated by complexes that cater to undergrads, and such places are mostly renting for summer 2022 and beyond. Where should I be looking?

I anticipate a lot of travel to State College, possibly at short notice, over the next year to visit family who are in a tough spot. I'd like to have semi-permanent lodging in town so that I can cope with surprises (like COVID isolation or other emergencies). A 1bd/1ba apartment would be ideal, but a studio or a 2bd could work, depending on location and price. I need to be somewhere with easy transit access to Toftrees. Definitely no roommates/house-share situations.

So far I have looked on rent.com, apartments.com, and apartmentguide.com, which are very undergrad-heavy; and sabbaticalhomes.com and zillow.com, which are a better fit for my demographics, but which tend to have listings that are either too expensive for the situation or not in the right part of town.

I've found one lead so far, but I've already been warned by the property manager that pretty much every other renter is an undergrad. I'd like to have some sense of whether I'm likely to find other reasonable options if I keep looking. I do have a healthy stash of earplugs...

posted by eirias to Home & Garden (8 answers total)

You might try craigslist.com as well.
posted by KayQuestions at 2:19 PM on December 28, 2021 [1 favorite]

There's a Penn State "Living Off Campus" site that lets you restrict a search to "Available Now" and "Suitable for Faculty/Staff", though the latter may be aspirational in some cases. A friend looking for a place to rent in my own college town has found the equivalent website has some leads that don't appear in other places.
posted by yarntheory at 3:42 PM on December 28, 2021 [2 favorites]

Re: living with undergrads, you might want to listen to this episode of This American Life which is about life in State College.
posted by BlahLaLa at 4:50 PM on December 28, 2021 [1 favorite]

Contact toftrees management, they often have lots of openings and sublets. There may be a few different management companies for the various properties. Or is there some reason you're avoiding it? It's a nice place and I had lots of friends live there when I was at psu.

Also there's a neighborhood around weaver st by the Walmart that is quiet and close and may have a small house or duplex for rent.
posted by SaltySalticid at 5:57 PM on December 28, 2021 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: SaltySalticid, thanks for the testimonial about Toftrees itself. I actually exchanged some emails with a property management company about a place there, but the terms seemed unfavorable (a million fees, plus a non-ignorable number of poor reviews online). Renting in that neighborhood had actually been Plan A. Can I ask how recent your experience there was? Trying to suss out if it's likely to be under different ownership now.
posted by eirias at 6:21 PM on December 28, 2021

I wish I could tell you where not to go, but I can't. Just know there can be awful pitfalls dealing with prop managers up that way. If you know any alumni from PSU, please ask them.
posted by james33 at 6:52 AM on December 29, 2021

I had three groups of friends lived there for several years centered around 2010, all couples, non-rich grad students. The apartments were nice enough, and half or more of them have nice views into the woods. I can't vouch for the management per se but they seemed tolerable enough at the time that people usually stayed there and didn't bother with moving until they left the area.

It's kind of a pain to cross into the rest of town by transit or bike from there due to the highway, but it is doable. In the apartment/golf/resort area there are nice running/biking paths and a decent Americana restaurant. Feel free to memail me if you want more info, I can probably also dig up the info of my nice small-time landlord when I lived on Weaver st behind Walmart which was much more walk/bike/transit friendly.
posted by SaltySalticid at 7:39 AM on December 29, 2021 [1 favorite]

It's maybe not a permanent solution, but some hotels like this one will offer 7, 14, and 30-day rates. Might be good in a pinch. Probably also negotiable if you call the front desk directly.
posted by hydra77 at 9:14 AM on December 29, 2021