Allen School Grad Student Housing Information

Last Updated: January 30, 2020
Previously maintained by: Eric Zeng (ericzeng@cs.washington.edu).

Click here for the most up-to-date version of the housing info page.

I. Frequently Asked Questions

II. Rent Survey Results

III. Deciding Where To Live

IV. Housing Search Advice

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does a typical Allen School PhD student spend on rent per month? (top)

As of January, the mean rent paid by PhD students in the Allen School is $1160/month. Detailed statistics are available here.

Where does everyone live? (top)

The most popular neighborhoods are (in decreasing popularity):

  • University District
  • Capitol Hill
  • Ravenna
  • Wallingford
  • Roosevelt/Green Lake
  • Sand Point/Laurelhurst

What is the housing process like? (top)

You can find listings for housing on sites such as Zillow, Craigslist, PadMapper, or aPodment.com, and contact the listing agent (or landlord directly). The listing agent (or landlord) gets back to you with a time to visit the listing. Once you visit the listing and would like to move forward with the process, you pay a non-refundable application fee of $40. The application consists of a background and credit check. The agent (or landlord) will filter applications based on the application. If the agent moves forward with your application, you and the agent (or landlord) sign a lease and the keys are delivered to you!

When should I start apartment hunting? (top)

The best strategy is to look as soon as possible. The busiest times usually peaks on August 10th because of the projected move-in date of September 1st. Since UW does not start until mid- to late- September, most of the students prefer to start their lease period by September 1st. Existing tenants only have to give 20 days notice, so landlords are only guaranteed to know about vacancies that far in advance. This means that the best time to look for new places is just after the 10th of the month before you want your lease to start.

It’s typically very stressful as a potential renter. It is a landlord’s market in Seattle, meaning that there is a huge supply of renters with limited rental inventory. Each listing receives many inquiries and landlord’s receive multiple rental applications per listing. The window for applying for housing is typically short. Within a week of a rental listing, multiple offers are submitted and selected by the landlord. If you find a place you like, contact the landlord, visit the place, and sign the lease as soon as possible!

What about graduate student dorms? (top)

UW-managed graduate student dorms and apartments can be found here. Historically, rates range from $1080 to $1400 a month depending on the housing configuration (e.g., 1BR, 2BR). Some benefits of on-campus housing are that they are very close to campus, and are furnished.

Where can I find roommates? (top)

Finding other grad students (inside or outside of CSE) to live with can be very helpful for lowering costs. If you're affiliated with the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science at the University of Washington, try e-mailing cs-grads@cs.washington.edu to see if others are looking for roommates. misc@cs.washington.edu is also a great mailing list (and typically subscribed to by faculty and staff in addition to grads). The incoming new-grads (at new-grads@cs.washington.edu) is a great place to search for roommates for the upcoming Autumn quarter.

On Facebook, you can join these two UW specific groups: University of Washington (UW) Housing, Sublets & Roommates and Washington Housing. When browsing these sites, please be cautious of scams!

How do I find the best deals? (top)

The best way is to consistently monitor Zillow or Craigslist, as good deals will appear very briefly before they are rented out. The best deals usually occur during off-rental months (such as December-April). The demand is much lower during this time, but the number of units on the market will also be less.

What is on the standard lease? (top)

Leases are typically year-to-year, and contracts tend to default to month-to-month, thereafter. It’s very common that after your lease that the landlord may increase the cost of rent.

Do I need a car to live in Seattle?

In general, no. Many people in the Allen School and the city live car-free. The UW campus is very accessible by public transportation and bike infrastructure. Popular neighborhoods such as Capitol Hill, the University District, Fremont, Roosevelt, and Wallingford are dense (for Seattle) and walkable - many amenities like restaurants, parks, and other services are within walking distance.

However, many students do choose to own cars, which are helpful for making cross-city trips, doing activities in the surrounding wilderness like hiking and skiing, or if you want to live in the more suburban neighborhoods farther from Campus. Note that street parking in the inner neighborhoods like Capitol Hill is often difficult to find, and may require a paid permit.

How is public transportation in Seattle? (top)

Seattle has two main modes of public transportation: light rail and bus. You can see an overview of the system here.

The Link Light Rail system connects the UW campus with Capitol Hill, Downtown, South Seattle, and the airport. The light rail is very fast and runs mostly on underground/elevated tracks. Many students live in Capitol Hill and commute via light rail, and other neighborhoods like Beacon Hill and Columbia City are also possibilities. The light rail system is rapidly expanding, and new stops will open in the University District, Roosevelt, and Northgate in 2021, and in the Central District and the Eastside in 2023.

Seattle also has great bus service that covers the rest of the city, operated by King County Metro. In core neighborhoods, buses run frequently, every 15 minutes or faster. Except on certain buses at rush hour (usually downtown buses), buses are often uncrowded and move quickly.

What is the biking situation in Seattle? (top)

Seattle can be wet and hilly in places, but many of us commute via bike and use bikes to get around!

There are some good pieces of bike infrastructure around to make biking easier and safer. The Burke-Gilman trail is a great bike/pedestrian trail that links many neighborhoods with Seattle, including Ballard, Fremont, Wallingford, the U-District, Sandpoint, and more. There are protected bike lanes on certain thoroughfares, such as Broadway in Capitol Hill, and Roosevelt in the U-District that make it safer to ride on the street. However, outside of protected corridors, you may have to share the road with cars, which can be dangerous on fast moving streets. You can view the city bike network here.

Is there air conditioning (A/C) in apartments? What about heating?(top)

Air conditioning is not usually built into housing in Seattle, especially older housing. To stay cool during the summer, it's common to use a box fan to pull cool air from the outside at night. Most of the heating is forced air; heaters are typically per room or per area (instead of a central furnace).

Grad Housing Survey Results

We conducted a survey of Allen School PhD students in January 2020, asking about where they lived, and how much they paid in rent. We received 120 responses, or about 40% of the student body.

Rent

The mean rent paid by respondents was $1160, with a median of $1128, and interquartile range of $943-$1340 (25th percentile-75th percentile). Though rent is higher in units with fewer bedrooms, most opt to live in studio to 2 bedroom units. Especially in 1 bedroom units, the cost is offset by sharing a room with a roommate or partner.


Distribution of monthly rent paid by grad students, by unit size and whether they share a bedroom with another resident.
Count of grad students living in different sizes of units.

Locations

Grad students are distributed fairly widely across the city, but among our survey respondents, most are clustered in neighborhoods nearby campus: the University District, Capitol Hill, Ravenna, Wallingford, and Roosevelt.

Note that the data on the map is not comprehensive! Grad students are also known to have lived in Queen Anne and South Lake Union, and in greater quantities in Fremont, Ballard, Sand Point, and the Central District. One respondent, not pictured on the map, lives in Bellevue, across Lake Washington.


Deciding Where To Live

Here’s a few words (from past and current grads) about each of the neighborhoods.

University District

  • It's a very student-oriented area - the Ave (University Way) has a lot of food on it, there's good shopping opportunities nearby, etc., which are in a student-like price range. Being able to walk or take a short bus trip to work is very useful for me - I'm close enough that going to work isn't a huge production, but far away enough that I can relax at home.
  • Excellent bus access. The University transit center is at NE Campus Parkway. Buses lead to all parts of the city.
  • Parts of the Ave get sketchy late at night. There are occasionally noisy undergrads around. But generally a fine neighborhood, I really like being within walking distance of campus.
  • I like quiet and so I've stayed away from the neighborhood between 15th and 22nd Ave, and 45th and 52nd St. Pretty much anything outside of that rectangle is fine for quiet lovers and certainly not far for walking or biking. I'd recommend not dropping below 45th St. - it tends to be noisier and more crowded there than, say, above 50th St.

Capitol Hill

  • I love Cap Hill! I'm in the quieter 15th Ave district which is a great neighborhood. I love being able to walk to grocery stores, bars, breweries, cafes and get around without a car.
  • Capitol Hill! [expletive] LOVE IT. I come from a city of 10 million people, so seeing people is very important to me. Cap Hill offers lots of people, majority of whom are very interesting to spend an afternoon watching :) I love the fact that there are very cool dance venues nearby, bookshops with cats, plenty of bus connectivity, fancy schmancy grocery stores like Central Co op where I can go and test the overpriced cosmetics for free, plenty of parks to have picnics/walks in, great distance from SPL, great views of the mountains and water in the horizon. It's a treat to live in, and I never stop thinking of how privileged I am to be able to live in the most liberal neighbourhood of the most liberal city in the world. Love it, will bawl my eyes out when I have to graduate and move to a new city.
  • The northern part of Capitol Hill is quiet and doesn't seem to have as much noise as people from the southern part complain about. But there are still lots of grocery stores, shops, restaurants, and other things nearby. I also really love being so close to the public library and post office. It seems to be an area with lots of young folks, which I like. ... It's also so easy to get around because of the light rail - getting to campus and downtown is so insanely fast and I love not having to wait for buses.
  • Great! Walkable to busy areas and light rail, but otherwise quiet with a few shops and restaurants and quick access to multiple parks. There are many grad students who live in this area because it's proximity to both bus to UW and downtown Cap Hill area.

Eastlake

  • Eastlake is a very cozy, friendly part of Seattle. There are dogs, restaurants, and views a plenty. However, it certainly feels a bit removed from the rest of Seattle because of I5 and Lake Union limiting the ways out of it.
  • Close to campus and easy to walk (~30 minutes). Also easy to bus in on the 70.
  • Quiet and undergraduate-free (although this might be cause and effect).
  • Only one small local grocery in walking distance (Pete's Market). To get to larger markets (QFC, Safeway, Whole Foods), you have to take a bus.

Wallingford

  • Lots of families and "normal" people, so I don't feel like I'm in school all the time. I love being able to walk to the grocery store, bars, and restaurants. Still very convenient to get to campus.
  • Lots of shops around 45th street. Practically a sushi restaurant per block.
  • Feels very residential and safe, and a quick commute to school, but can be inconvenient to go to certain downtown areas depending on where in wallingford you are.
  • A medium size QFC grocery (regularly shopped at by Dave Matthews) and a Bartell Drugs pharmacy are easily accessible.
  • Parks: Gasworks, Wallingford, Meridian. Wallingford Park has a great playground and a medium-sized wading pool filled every day over 70 degrees in the summer.

Fremont

  • Fremont is nice, plenty of bars and restaurants close by, and right on the Burke-Gilman trail. Not as hip as Cap Hill, but quieter and cleaner.
  • A fun part of town. Lots of shops and restaurants, plus good bus access to both downtown (5, 26, 28) and UW (31,3 2).
  • Where else can you live near both Lenin and a giant troll?
  • One full-size grocery store: the PCC.
  • Some reasons why Fremont is awesome: far enough from campus that you can forget you're a student, close enough to campus to bike, two direct bus lines to campus (10 minute ride), beeline to downtown (5 minutes drive, 10-15 minutes by bus)
  • Some reasons why Fremont is not awesome: rents a little higher than other places, may be too yuppie for some, can be noisy.
  • Nearby parks: walking distance to Gasworks on Lake Union, and a new small park in old empty lot on 35th.

Ravenna

  • Ravenna is great! It's convenient to commute to Udub but also has its own character. It's also pretty quiet. There are a lot of nice coffee shops and restaurants near by, and Greenlake is close as well!
  • North Ravenna: Quiet residential neighborhood next to Dahl playfield (park/playground). Transit to UW is good (via 372) but limited/no other transit options (fully dependent on 372 which goes along 25th). Cons: Grocery stores/businesses are sparse in this area and often just outside comfortable walking distance (~20mins walk involving a hill) but also a bit too close for driving ~5mins.
  • Parks: Ravenna/Cowen - playground on the Cowen Park side, lovely walking paths through the ravine by and over a stream. Pooh sticks played here often...

Central District

  • Quiet, ethnically diverse, mostly new families
  • Not as dense as Capitol Hill, but lots of new apartments are opening on 23rd Ave.
  • Cherry Street has 5 different Ethiopian restaurants within a few blocks of each other!
  • Madrona is very close — one of my favorite study places is a Starbucks in Leschi overlooking the waterfront.
  • If you like walking to school, it’s about a 45 minute walk, and the views are breathtaking! Walking to school means walking through the Washington Park Arboretum.
  • Expect at least a 20-30 minute bike and/or bus ride.

Green Lake/Roosevelt

  • Roosevelt is a nice neighborhood with a lot of families. It's within 3 min walk of 2 grocery stores (Safeway/Whole Foods), a strip of restaurants on 65th street, and the 48 and 67 bus line to campus.
  • It has a reasonable number of bars and restaurants. Many grocery stores close by (closest is Whole foods, but Safeway is 10 min walk). The neighborhood is relatively quiet but not empty. Getting to campus is very convenient, but getting downtown takes an hour on the bus. There should be light rail connection within the next year so it should become even more convenient
  • Mixed age and income. I love seeing families, young people, high school students, elementary and middle school students waiting for the bus, and retired folks all in the same spots. The number and diversity of grocery stores is also neat. Not to mention the best part: Green Lake to walk around!
  • There's this really big lake there that's nice to look at. Seattle's most popular park. 3 mile jogging/biking path. Around shores of the lake, there is a playground, rec. center, boat rentals, ball fields, beach with lifeguard in summer, a large wading pool refilled every day over 70 degrees in summer, Seattle Public Theater at the Bathhouse, public beach with lifeguard in summer, bleachers for watersports (crew, waterskiing, etc.), and small putting course.

Wedgwood

  • Wedgwood is a quiet suburban neighborhood with a few shops and a small but sufficient grocery store. I love it because it's quiet and definitely removed from work, but not too far away. I can walk to work in a little over an hour if I feel like it, and it's close enough to the Burke Gilman trail that I can easily bike to work in the same time it takes me to bus. Cons- it's difficult to get places that aren't the U-district or Northgate.
  • It is nice and quiet, with decent bus access (65 to UW and Light Rail, 62 to Fremont and Downtown, 71 to U-District and Downtown, though the latter two take on the order of 45min to an hour). The houses themselves are far from boring, ranging from relatively inexpensive older homes to some large (probably expensive) modern homes. However, the nearby grocery stores (PCC and Metro Market) are a little expensive, necessitating either a bit of a walk up to Safeway on 75th, or stopping by the QFC in U-Village on the way home.

Sand Point/Laurelhurst

  • Upside: Quiet, a <10 min walk to the beach, plenty of parking, close to UW. Downside: it's a little out of the way from anything happening. It's definitely posslve to get downtown and to caphill, just takes a little longer than elsewhere
  • Convenient access to buses (74 and 75).
  • Next to Magnuson Park, so lots of trees and pretty quiet. A bit far from any grocery stores/restaurants, definitely need to take a bus
  • Bus service isn't too great into Laurelhurst but it's a very nice house and quiet area. Still close enough to UW, U Village for groceries, etc.

Greenwood

  • Greenwood is a relatively quiet neighborhood, with a mix of young people, families, and retirees.
  • Greenwood has a convenient neighborhood shopping area, with a grocery store, a Fred Meyers, drugstores, a hardware store, and several restaurants. This is also the main area for antique shops in Seattle.
  • Greenwood also abuts Aurora Avenue (aka Highway 99) -- both good news and bad news, since you'll find a couple more grocery stores (Larry's Market is great if you enjoy cooking) and a major bus line here, but you'll also find traffic, seedy bars, and used car lots.
  • If you want to live in Greenwood and you don't like to drive, be sure you are within walking distance of the 48 bus's route down 85th St. -- changing buses to get to the university is a nuisance.

Queen Anne

  • Queen Anne is an upscale, mostly single family neighborhood, with nice restaurants, grocery stores, and shops. Close to Downtown, on a big hill, with great views of the Space Needle.
  • Rents can range from affordable to downright expensive, but the views are almost always grand.
  • Bus access to the university is a bit limited and for some parts of Queen Anne, non-existent.

Northgate

  • Cheaper part of town, though you will pay more for the noise since Northgate Way NE is a major road (many buses)
  • Being next to the Northgate Mall is nifty, so very easy to go to Barnes & Noble or go shopping
  • Biking the hill to and from CSE improved my endurance. The bike ride is about 30-45 minutes, and is slightly dangerous with Roosevelt Blvd (you bike along the traffic).
  • If you have a car, it's very easy to navigate around Seattle from Northgate
  • Light Rail from Northgate is expected to open in 2021!

Housing Search Advice

Here are a few anecdotes and pieces of advice from grad students in the Allen School about how to find housing in Seattle.

Grad #1: "I remember when I first moved out to Seattle. What I ended up doing was renting an AirBnB with my family for two weeks, calling a bunch of places from Craigslist the first morning I arrived, and signing a lease that afternoon (but the lease didn't start until a week and a half later, so I made full use of the AirBnB). In retrospect, this plan worked out well enough for me, but there are lots of other options (fly out a month ahead of time and house-hunt for a week, find a place for 2-3 months and then house-hunt for a longer-term rental, live in campus housing, etc.), and I'm not sure if any one of them is better or worse than others."

Grad #2: "I started my program during one summer. I subscribed to misc@cs and cs-grads@cs and saw a sublet posting from a CSE grad student. I originally thought $950 for a 1 BR studio was expensive; I came from Virginia where cost-of-living is low. Eventually, I relented and agreed to the sublease without physically visiting the place. I drove from Virginia to Seattle and picked up the keys the Sunday before my first day at CSE. I was extremely lucky -- $950 for the studio was actually underpriced for the apartment as it was modern and had brand new amenities. The location was in Northgate, which is about 5 miles away from CSE. 5 miles in Virginia is nothing, but it turns out that 5 miles in Seattle is fairly far. Living in Seattle in the summer gave me time to scope out a year-long lease and find roommates. I sent an e-mail to cs-grads@cs and new-grads@cs and found two CSE new-grads as roommates. Since two of us were already in Seattle, we scoped out several apartments on Zillow & Craigslist. We eventually signed a lease for a townhome in Central District after house hunting for a month."

Grad #3: "I didn't find much benefit in starting early. I did come to visit in person even though I moved from out of state, because finding out about and coming to see housing in person is so much better than trying to do it from far away (if that's an option for you). Generally, I think having a very clear sense of your negotiables and non-negotiables is really important because apartments move really quickly, so don't waffle. Just make a decision and don't look back."

Grad #4: "Housing away from campus (which is the only kind I have experience with) is generally only available within 30 days of the lease start date. This is due to the fast that most landlords in Seattle require 30 days notice before leaving a property (this applies only to independent landlords; I cannot speak to corporate managed apartment buildings, which are likely more structured). This was different from my experience in undergrad and in various other U.S. cities where availability was visible and leases were typically signed months in advance of the start date. This means, for better or for worse, that it is difficult to secure housing more than a few weeks in advance of your desired occupancy date -- so don't be discouraged if you can't find housing far in advance of moving to Seattle :)."

Grad #5: "*Call phone numbers* on housing ads to set up appointments because messages often get lost in the abyss. Set up a BUNCH of tours (many will cancel on you early) and be ready to decide fast. The Seattle housing market has a VERY fast turn around and there's not a lot of leeway for long consideration periods."

Grad #5: "Check for MFTE units. These are income restricted units in many apartments across Seattle. The prices are based off of median income of the neighborhoods. A grad student stipend usually qualifies for MFTE."

Grad #6: "Don't be worried about taking buses! Seattle public transportation is much better than the rest of the country. If possible, come get a sense of what the different neighborhoods feel like. Visiting and standing on the street at night feels very different in real life than reading about it on the internet."

Grad#7: "It's next to impossible to find a decent living situation without having feet on the ground. The tour+application+background check+security deposit process can move very quickly and if you're not there to usher it through in person then most decent apartments are snatched up long before you have a chance of making your way through the process."