New Grad Student at UNT--apartment hunting. Help! (Lubbock, Denton: apartment complex, rental)

[celticlord88]

I'll be starting this fall at UNT getting my MPA. I'm currently in the process of looking for an apartment. I'm trying to avoid undergrads and the loud parties, but still would like to live relatively close to campus so I won't have to drive as much. Trying to stay between $500-$700.

[TexasVines]

good news and bad news

bad news first.....you will be highly constrained at that price point the $700 will work, but it will not get you into a top complex

now the good news....Denton and north Texas are highly overrated as party schools and places where parties go on....so really you need to concentrate on getting an apartment that is within EASY walking or biking distance to campus and then it will just be hit or miss if you happen to have neighbors that are loud....having lived in a multitude of college towns over the years Denton is far from what College Station, Lubbock and others can be like where you go to an apartment complex for a party and you have to wade through 5 other parties to find the one you were going to.....Denton is probably the most dead of all the ones I lived in

the keys in Denton are avoid the area to the west of campus called cement city because some of the complexes (the new ones) are decent, but the rest are low rent crap and they attract low rent trash that are not students......go towards the complexes towards the east of campus near the IOOF cemetery and again stay WELL within walking or biking distance because parking is atrocious and you can spend 1.5 to 2X the time it would take to drive to campus looking for a decent spot and worse you will probably end up with a spot that is a further walk or bike ride than if you had just lived near campus and walked or biked.....there are many many smaller complexes to the east of campus as well as you go towards the IOOF cemetery and then a couple of complexes that are large near the IOOF cemetery the smaller complexes especially should not have a wild party scene going on and just to be sure keep off the street that happens to also be frat daddy row (Maple is frat daddy and Highlands is bowhead)

east of Bernard, south of Hickory, west of Carroll, and north of Eagle will have what you want with the above factor of avoiding the frat and sorority streets (right on those blocks only)

you can go east of Carroll and find some decent rental houses and small complexes or duplexes as well and still be within an easy walk to campus as long as you stay only a block or two east

west of Bernard to campus will have small complexes mixed in as well in between university parking and other scattered hodge podge university crap....and of those should be quiet unless you just have a bad draw of neighbors

north of campus (north of Hickory) will probably be the area with a bit more or a regular party atmosphere in some of their complexes and the quality of the complex is very hit and miss as will be the "party" factor

so look around IOOF.....realize it will still be hit and miss, stay within walking and biking distance no matter what you do, avoid the frat daddies, and avoid cement city next look to north of campus if what you see around IOOF does not work for you and it will still be hit and miss on parties and also complex quality

[celticlord88]

Thanks! I'll check out those areas. If worse comes to worse, I'll go for a higher rent apartment. Avoiding parties is priority number 1.

[el_greco]

Any other recommendations?

[JenG1974]

Rent has gone up a bit since I lived there - but I lived in Windsor Village Apartments for 4 years. They were quite, spacious and safe. The drive wasn't bad either.

Windsor Village Apartments - East Windsor Drive | Denton, TX Apartments for Rent | Rent.com®

[Restrain]

TexasVines has good recommendations for being around UNT. There are smaller properties over towards TWU, not that far away. The downtown lofts are way out of your price range.