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New Rochelle, NY is a Westchester County city on the Long Island Sound, about twenty miles north of Midtown Manhattan, home to Iona University. It's a small city with a fast-redeveloping downtown, a long shoreline, and an easy rail link into the city. Iona's roughly 45-acre campus sits a couple of miles from the water, giving the North Avenue corridor and downtown a steady college presence. Downtown New Rochelle has been transforming, with historic buildings converted into apartments and a walkable core. Public green space is a genuine draw: miles of shoreline and waterfront parks like Hudson Park, Five Islands Park, and Glen Island Park. For a campus town that still gives you the coast and quick New York City access, New Rochelle delivers.
The standout for car-free students, with historic buildings turned into apartments and the Metro-North station steps away for fast city access.
Near Iona, this keeps you close to campus and the student crowd, a practical pick for walking to class.
Closer to the water, neighborhoods near Hudson Park and the Sound offer shoreline access and a calmer setting.
Here's what you need to know about getting around New Rochelle.
The standout is rail: the New Rochelle station puts Manhattan about 35 minutes away via Metro-North, so a car-free trip into the city is easy. The Bee-Line bus system covers Westchester well, and New Rochelle gets fairly frequent service as one of the county's denser cities. Getting to Iona is easy by bus, and downtown rentals trade the campus walk for a fast Manhattan commute.
Downtown and the blocks near the station are walkable, with shops and converted apartment buildings clustered together. Out toward Iona's campus, things spread out and feel suburban, so walking everything isn't always practical. For shorter trips around downtown and the waterfront, getting around on foot works well in good weather.
Plenty of students keep a car, especially farther from downtown, since it helps for errands and the Sound-side parks. A car makes reaching Iona's campus and the outlying neighborhoods simpler. Closer to downtown and the station, you can often manage without one.
Common questions from students searching for housing.
It's a Westchester market, so it runs higher than upstate. Shared rooms and budget-friendly units can fall in the $800-$1,500 per person range, while full apartments near downtown or the water climb well above that. Splitting a multi-bedroom place is the usual move to keep the per-person figure reasonable.
Browse student housing near each New Rochelle-area university.