BYU Off-Campus Housing by Area: How Far Each Provo Neighborhood Really Is from Campus

The closest off-campus housing near BYU sits 0.7 miles from campus, which FMP's commute data clocks at a 19 to 22 minute walk or a 3 to 5 minute drive. Push out to 1.0 or 1.3 miles — Riverside Avenue, State Street, the 1720 and 1800 North blocks — and that same walk stretches to 29 to 38 minutes, while private rooms start listing at $455 instead of $579. Here's the part nobody tells you: at BYU, miles and minutes rank differently, so any map that shows you only mileage is hiding the number that matters.

Key Takeaways

• 0.7 miles is the floor. Nothing in FMP's Provo inventory gets closer to BYU than that.
• Walk times run long. A 0.7-mile property reads as 19 to 22 minutes, not the 14 you'd expect — the route goes around campus, not through it.
• Same mileage, different minutes — Alpine Village (1378 Freedom Blvd) and Belmont (195 E 600 N) are both 0.7 miles out, but 19 minutes versus 22.
• Cheapest walkable option we could verify: Heather Heights at 72 W 880 N, a shared room from $399, 0.7 miles, 20 minutes.
• Drive times barely move. Every property below is a 3-to-7-minute drive. Parking is your constraint, not distance.
• Ratings ignore geography completely. The highest-rated place on this list is 0.7 miles out. So is the lowest.

Read the BYU map by street number, not by neighborhood name

Provo's student housing map runs on grid addresses, and the three numbers that matter are 600 North, 800 North, and 2230 North — the spines most student buildings hang off of. So when a listing says "72 W 880 N," you already know roughly where it lands before you open a map.

Every distance, price, and rating below was read off FMP's live property pages in August 2026, straight from each one's commute widget. We didn't calculate any of it ourselves.

The 0.7-mile ring: 600 North, 800 North, and Freedom Boulevard

Six properties tie for closest at 0.7 miles, in three clusters that feel nothing alike.

The 800 North cluster is the walkable-and-cheap corner of the map. Heather Heights (72 W 880 N) lists a shared room from $399 at a 20-minute walk and rates 3.9 across 3 reviews. Liberty on Freedom (865 N 160 W) lists from $435 at 21 minutes, with a 3.7 over 128 reviews — the largest review sample in this ring by a wide margin. Township (747 N 200 E) is the outlier: $565 for a private room, 20 minutes, a 4.8 rating on only 3 reviews. Promising rather than proven.

East on 600 North you're paying for proximity to the Joaquin side of campus. Belmont (195 E 600 N) lists from $579 at 22 minutes and rates 4.2 on 17 reviews. The Village at South Campus (602 E 600 N) is the priciest in the ring at $680 for a private room, 21 minutes, and carries a 4.1 across 130 reviews.

Then there's Alpine Village at 1378 Freedom Blvd — the fastest walk on the entire map at 19 minutes, $585 for a 4x2, a 3.6 over 182 reviews. Freedom Boulevard sits west of the main student grid, which is why it reads cheaper than it prices.

The 0.8-to-0.9-mile ring: where the walk times start lying to you

This is the band that breaks the intuition. You'd assume 0.8 miles costs you two or three extra minutes over 0.7. It costs you up to nine.

Raintree (1849 Freedom Blvd) is 0.8 miles from BYU and a 28-minute walk — the longest walk-per-mile ratio we found anywhere in Provo. It's also the best-reviewed building in this guide at 4.3 across 141 reviews, with a shared room from $480 and a private room from $790. Nine extra minutes each way for the most trustworthy rating on the map.

Its neighbors at the same 0.8 miles do better. Old Academy (47 E 600 N) walks in 26 minutes and lists private rooms from $525. Campus Way (580 N 100 E) is 25 minutes with a shared room at $460 and a 3.4 rating. Temple Lane (236 E 2230 N) also walks 25 minutes but drives in 3 — the fastest drive in the dataset, because 2230 North feeds straight onto campus. And Mountainwood Condos (62 W 700 N) walks 24 minutes with rooms from $419.

Four minutes of spread at identical mileage. If two places both say "0.8 miles," open both commute widgets. The mileage is a tie; the minutes aren't.

The 1.0-to-1.3-mile ring: Riverside, State Street, and 1700 North

North and west of campus is where rent actually gives. Riverside Condominiums (1559 N Riverside Ave) sits 1.0 mile out at a 32-minute walk, listing a private room at $455. Its 2.8 rating over 6 reviews is the weakest in this guide, so the savings aren't free. Millrace (237 W 2230 N) is also 1.0 mile but walks in 29 minutes and lists a private room at $555 with a 4.6 rating — again on only 3 reviews.

At the far edge: Old Mill (728 W 1720 N) is 1.3 miles and a 36-minute walk, with 64 private-room listings running $485 to $535, all 4-bedroom units. Crestwood (1800 N State St) matches the 1.3 miles at a 38-minute walk and lists from $560.

Watch what the numbers do here. Cross a mile and the walk roughly doubles versus the 0.7 ring, but the drive only gains three minutes. That's the real argument for a car in Provo.

The FMP Minute-Per-Dollar Check

Here's a test we use internally. Take the rent gap between two places, divide it by the walking hours you'd add over a month, and you get what you're paying per hour to not walk.

Belmont at $579 (22-minute walk) against Riverside Condominiums at $455 (32 minutes): a $124 monthly gap for 10 extra minutes each way. On campus five days a week, that's roughly 7 hours of extra walking a month — so Belmont costs about $17 an hour to skip it.

Whether $17 is a good deal depends on how you'd otherwise spend that time, and on whether you'd actually walk it in January. Provo winters wreck most distance math. A 32-minute walk in October is a podcast. In February it's a decision you regret making in April, when you signed.

Two things this map can't tell you

Full disclosure: this is our own data, and we'd rather show you where it thins out.

First, BYU-contracted status. None of the 18 Provo property pages behind this guide displayed a BYU Contracted flag, and our contracted tagging here is thinner than BYU's own published list. If you're in your first two semesters that status isn't optional — BYU's Student Housing Policy requires all single, matriculated undergraduates to live in on-campus housing, BYU-contracted off-campus housing, or with qualifying family. We break down who that covers in our guide to whether BYU students have to live in contracted housing. Don't infer approval from proximity.

Second, pricing basis. Provo prices per bed, and the listings labeled "Private Room" or "Shared Room" above are per-person figures — that's what those room types mean. But FMP's "Whole Unit" label is unreliable here: Belmont lists the identical 3-bedroom unit at $599 under both "Private Room" and "Whole Unit," which can't both be true. Where a property only offered a whole-unit label, we've said "lists from $X" and left the division to you.

Frequently Asked Questions About the BYU Off-Campus Housing Map

What is the closest off-campus housing to BYU?

0.7 miles, and six buildings tie for it: Heather Heights, Liberty on Freedom, Township, Belmont, The Village at South Campus, and Alpine Village. Alpine Village has the shortest walk at 19 minutes. Closer than 0.7 miles and you're looking at on-campus housing.

How long is the walk to campus from off-campus housing at BYU?

Between 19 and 38 minutes across everything we mapped. The 0.7-mile ring runs 19 to 22 minutes, the 0.8-mile ring 24 to 28, and the 1.0-to-1.3-mile ring 29 to 38 — longer than the mileage suggests, because the route goes around campus.

Is it actually cheaper to live further from BYU?

Yes, but less than you'd hope. The gap between the closest ring and the mile-plus ring runs roughly $100 to $125 a month on a private room. And the cheapest place on this entire map, Heather Heights at $399, sits in the closest ring.

Do I need a car to live off campus at BYU?

No, not for getting to class. Every property here drives to campus in 3 to 7 minutes, so a car buys you almost nothing on the commute. Where it matters is groceries, winter, and the Orem side of the valley. Check parking cost first.

Which Provo areas have the most BYU-contracted housing?

Historically the 600 North and 800 North blocks, but we won't hand you a count from our own data — our contracted tagging in Provo is thinner than BYU's actual list. Pull the current year's list from BYU's housing office and cross-reference whatever you tour.

Does a longer walk mean a worse apartment?

The data says no, if anything the opposite. Raintree carries the strongest rating in this guide, 4.3 across 141 reviews, and the longest walk-per-mile ratio in Provo at 28 minutes for 0.8 miles. The weakest rating we found, a 2.8, is a full mile out.

Where to go from here

Pick your ring first, then your building. For the full inventory with live prices and each property's commute widget, start with off-campus housing near BYU. To read the areas as neighborhoods instead of street numbers, our guide to the best off-campus neighborhoods near BYU goes deeper on Joaquin, the 300 East corridor, and Canyon Road, and we've broken out the walk-versus-rent trade in how far off-campus housing is from BYU campus. Read the BYU housing reviews before you tour, not after.