6 Best Neighborhoods for Temple Off-Campus Housing in Philadelphia (2026)

Six neighborhoods do almost all the work for Temple off campus housing: Cecil B. Moore, Yorktown, the North Broad corridor below campus, the blocks west of Broad, Northern Liberties, and University City. Cecil B. Moore is the default choice, where Temple Crossing sits 0.4 miles from Main Campus and lists from $740/mo. Yorktown is the cheapest per person on Find My Place right now, with shared rooms at University Village Temple listing from $479/mo. Past about a mile, you stop walking to class and start riding the Broad Street Line.

Every distance below is the number FMP's commute widget reports to Temple's Main Campus, and every price is the live listed base rent as of August 2026. Fees are extra almost everywhere, because most of these buildings haven't published theirs.

Key Takeaways

• Yorktown wins on price per person. University Village Temple lists shared rooms from $479/mo, 0.4 miles out.
• Cecil B. Moore is where most Owls actually end up, and it carries the deepest inventory of any single pocket.
• Read the bed count before you read the price. A "$600 whole apartment" attached to a four-bedroom is a per-person number wearing a costume.
• $1,496. That's the cheapest studio at Piazza Alta in Northern Liberties, and the building's FMP score is 1.9 out of 5.
• University City is 2.4 miles away — a Broad Street Line ride plus a transfer, not a walk.
• Fall is the season. Temple's leasing wave starts signing in October and November, and the close-in blocks go first.
• Walk the block at 10pm before you sign. Daytime tours hide a lot.

1. Cecil B. Moore (Templetown): the default, and the one with the most listings

This is where you land if you don't overthink it, and that's not an insult. The stretch running from roughly 13th to 18th between Cecil B. Moore Avenue and Susquehanna is dense with student rentals, and it's the only pocket where you can tour six places in an afternoon on foot.

Temple Crossing at 1000 Diamond St is the anchor: 0.4 miles out, listing from $740/mo, private rooms in the 4x2 floor plans from $815/mo, and a 4.2 FMP score off five reviews. One resident specifically called out the front-desk staff keeping the building locked down at night, which tells you what people here actually care about. Skyline Apartments at 1417 North 15th lists from $725/mo at the same 0.4-mile mark, though its 2.5 rating is a real gap you should ask about on the tour.

Best for: sophomores who want the shortest walk and the biggest pool of roommates to pick from.

2. Yorktown: cheapest per person, and the walk is barely longer

Yorktown is the value pick, full stop. Sitting east of Broad around 10th and 11th, it's tree-lined rowhomes and longtime homeowners rather than party blocks — quieter than the strip on Broad, and closer than most people assume.

University Village Temple at 1701 North 10th Street lists shared rooms from $479/mo and a 2x2 shared plan at $494, both 0.4 miles from campus. That is the lowest per-person number in FMP's Temple inventory. The catch is real: the building holds a 4.2 score, but one 2026 reviewer went scorched-earth about roaches and dead laundry machines. Tour the actual unit, not the model. The York at 1600 North 11th is the calmer, pricier neighbor at 0.3 miles and $1,125/mo for a one-bedroom.

Best for: anyone whose budget is the deciding variable, and who will actually inspect before signing.

3. North Broad below campus: high-rise living, half a mile from class

Head south down Broad from Temple's Main Campus and the buildings get taller and newer. This is the corridor between campus and Francisville, and it's the compromise pick — you give up a few blocks of walking for an elevator, a lobby, and a lease that doesn't involve a rowhome landlord named Dave who answers his phone twice a week.

The Nest at 1324 on N. Broad Street is the clearest example. Shared rooms in the three-bedroom plans list from $749/mo, private rooms from $949, private-with-ensuite from $1,249, and a genuine two-bedroom whole unit from $1,299. FMP clocks it at 0.5 miles. It has zero reviews so far, which cuts both ways — no red flags, and no verification either.

Best for: juniors and grad students who want a building with a front desk and a predictable lease.

4. The blocks west of Broad, around 18th and Berks: the budget play nobody markets

Cheapest listed rent near Temple lives out here, and it's the pocket that never shows up in glossy roundups. The Berks at 1850 N 18th St lists a 3-4 bedroom from $600, a few blocks west of Broad and an easy walk in. The rowhome stock is older, the finishes are hit-or-miss, and the deals are correspondingly better.

Worth knowing: this footprint sits inside the zone Temple's public safety office publishes as its patrol boundary, so Temple Police respond here alongside city police. That's a genuine reason people choose these blocks, not a euphemism. Also worth knowing: FMP's commute widget currently reports The Berks against La Salle rather than Temple, so ignore the mileage on that page and use the address.

Best for: students splitting a rowhome four ways who want the rent to stay under $700 each.

5. Northern Liberties: the nightlife neighborhood, with a review-score problem

NoLibs buys you a real neighborhood — restaurants, bars, a scene that existed before students arrived — and charges you accordingly. Piazza Alta at 1099 Germantown Ave is the flagship, 1.3 miles from Temple's Main Campus, and its cheapest studio lists at $1,496/mo. One-bedrooms climb past $2,400. It's whole-unit pricing only, so there's no roommate split to soften it.

Here's the part the building's marketing won't tell you: Piazza Alta holds a 1.9 FMP score across five reviews, and the most detailed one describes a ceiling leak "repaired" by covering mold, then three months of no response. Read all five before you tour. The commute is a Broad Street Line ride or a bike, not a walk.

Best for: students with a bigger budget who want a neighborhood, not a campus — and who will pressure-test this specific building hard.

6. University City: only if your life is already over there

Skip this one unless you have a specific reason. University City sits west of the Schuylkill, 2.4 miles from Temple's Main Campus, which means the Broad Street Line down to Center City and a transfer to the Market-Frankford Line — roughly 30 to 40 minutes door to door on a normal day.

The Standard at Philadelphia at 119 S. 31st St. lists from $747/mo and carries a 4.2 score, so the value is genuinely there. It just isn't Temple value. The reason a real number of Owls still live here: a partner or roommate at Penn or Drexel, a co-op, or a lab placement that makes the west side of the river the center of gravity. Temple's own getting-to-campus guide is worth reading before you commit to a daily transfer.

Best for: students with a concrete University City reason. Everyone else, look north.

How to read Temple listing prices without getting burned

Call it the FMP Bed-Count Check: before you react to a price, look at the bed count sitting next to it. Philadelphia student listings mix per-bed and whole-unit pricing constantly, and the label on the page doesn't always sort them out.

Real example from FMP's own inventory. University Village Temple lists a four-bedroom, four-bath at $649 and a two-bedroom, one-bath at $714, both tagged "Whole Unit." A four-bedroom apartment does not cost less than a two-bedroom in the same building. That $649 is a per-person figure that got labeled wrong somewhere upstream.

The tags that are reliable are "Shared Room" and "Private Room" — those are per-person by definition. When a listing says "Whole Unit" on a three- or four-bedroom and the number looks impossibly low, treat it as per-person and confirm with the leasing office before you budget around it. Until floor-plan labels get cleaner across the board, the bed count is your check.

Frequently Asked Questions About Temple Off-Campus Housing

What's the cheapest neighborhood for Temple off-campus housing?

Yorktown, at $479/mo for a shared room at University Village Temple — the lowest listed per-person rent in FMP's Temple inventory as of August 2026. The blocks west of Broad run a close second, where The Berks lists a 3-4 bedroom from $600. Both are inside a half-mile of campus, so cheap here doesn't mean far.

Do I need a car at Temple?

No. Parking in North Philadelphia is a tax on your patience and your wallet, and the Broad Street Line stops at Cecil B. Moore/Temple University station on campus. Temple participates in SEPTA's University Key semester pass program, which prices out well below a parking spot plus insurance. Every neighborhood on this list is either walkable or one subway line away.

When should I start looking?

October, which feels absurdly early and isn't. FMP's Temple page puts the leasing wave in October and November for the following school year, and the close-in blocks near 13th and Cecil B. Moore are largely spoken for by the end of fall semester. Search in April and you're picking through leftovers a few blocks farther out.

Is it safe to live off campus near Temple?

It depends on the block, not the neighborhood name, and anyone who answers this with a flat yes or no is guessing. Temple publishes an actual patrol boundary where Temple Police respond alongside city police, and most of Cecil B. Moore, Yorktown, and the 18th Street blocks fall inside it. The practical move is the same everywhere: walk the specific block after dark before you sign, and ask the landlord to rekey the locks.

How many places are actually listed near Temple?

92 properties on Find My Place as of August 2026, spanning everything from $479 shared rooms to $7,800 Northern Liberties penthouses. You can sort the full set on the Philadelphia listings page or read what students said about them in the Temple housing reviews. For the safety-and-boundaries deep dive, our Temple neighborhoods and safety guide covers the patrol zone in detail.