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Syracuse University sets about 21,000 Orange on a hill in central New York, a campus that earns its winters and embraces them. The place runs on its teams: the JMA Wireless Dome, long known as the Carrier Dome, packs in tens of thousands for football, basketball, and lacrosse. Marshall Street, the walkable strip right off campus, is the everyday hub for grabbing food and meeting up, and just east the Westcott neighborhood gives the area a leafy, lived-in college-town feel. The hill means real elevation and real snow, so students layer up and lean into it, and a campus shuttle connects the quad to the apartment-heavy South Campus a mile away. The Finger Lakes are an easy drive, but most of student life happens between the Dome, the quad, and the streets just downhill.
Syracuse requires undergraduates to live on campus for their first two years, so freshmen are in North Campus residence halls and most sophomores move to the apartment-style housing on South Campus, about a mile away and connected by frequent shuttle. That two-year rule is the big thing to plan around.
You generally can't move into a private off-campus apartment until junior year, with exemptions limited to commuters from a family home, married students, and similar cases. Once eligible, most students at Syracuse rent houses, especially in the Westcott area, rather than big complexes.
Watch two things in older houses: how utilities and heat get billed, since Syracuse winters make heating a real line item, and the occupancy and lease terms, since landlords near campus often want a full 12 months and a group of housemates on one lease. The local rental process is standard, with an application, credit check, and a guarantor if you don't have income.
Housing policies change frequently. Always verify current requirements directly with Syracuse University before signing a lease.
Syracuse runs an unusually early house-hunting cycle. Because students mostly rent houses near campus, the best ones get claimed almost a full year ahead, with groups locking in leases for the next fall as early as the previous fall semester. If you want a solid house in Westcott or close to campus, you will be searching and signing in the fall or early winter for the following August, often before you have even moved into your current place.
The peak runs fall into early winter as groups lock in houses near campus nearly a year ahead. Apartments and units a little farther out have more give later in the year. The best Westcott houses go first. Sign in fall or early winter for a solid house close to campus.
If you are searching in spring or summer, you can still find something, just expect fewer of the prime houses and more apartments or spots farther downhill. Spring also brings sublets from students leaving for study abroad or internships, which is your route to a short-term or mid-year lease. Tour in person if you can, since older houses vary a lot.
The closest and most popular off-campus neighborhood, Westcott is a leafy, lived-in area just east of campus full of student houses within walking distance.
University apartment-style housing about a mile out, South Campus is shuttle-connected, where many sophomores land.
The blocks right around Marshall Street put you steps from campus and the everyday social strip, livelier and in demand.
Common questions from students searching for housing.
A room in a shared house near Syracuse usually runs about $550-$800/month per person, with Westcott houses and spots near Marshall Street at the higher end and units farther downhill toward the city at the lower end. Splitting a bigger house among several housemates brings the per-person number down. Heating is a real cost here, so budget another $60-$150/month for utilities in winter.
Other universities in Syracuse share a similar off-campus housing market.