Long Beach State Student Apartments: Off-Campus Housing Guide

Long Beach State student apartments cover a wider range of formats than the phrase suggests. The same search turns up compact studios, two-bedroom flats in older low-rise buildings, downtown condos with building amenities, and rooms inside houses rented out one at a time. Those are four different products with four different cost structures, and choosing between them is most of the decision. This guide compares them as apartment stock rather than as addresses. You can see the current mix on the Long Beach listings page.

Begin your search at Off-Campus Universe, where you can browse current listings near Long Beach and sort through what each format actually costs.

Four apartments on the market now cover most of that range. 9106 Dalberg Ave is a studio with one bathroom at $2,145/month: a whole unit, no roommates, nothing shared. 539 Coronado Avenue is a two-bedroom, one-bathroom flat at $1,045/month, under five minutes from campus and the cheapest whole unit in this set by a wide margin; divided between two people it works out near $523 each. Downtown Condominium is a two-bed, two-bath condo at $2,950/month, which is roughly $1,475 a bedroom and buys you a second bathroom, the amenity people underrate until they share one. Condo in down town Long Beach at $1,900/month is the cheaper downtown condo in the set and sits between the two extremes.

Where Apartment Stock Clusters Around Long Beach

The neighborhoods directly north and east of campus, along Bellflower Boulevard and E. 7th Street, are where purpose-rented apartment buildings cluster most densely. These are mostly two- and three-story low-rises built decades ago, with surface parking, laundry rooms rather than in-unit hookups, and floor plans that have not changed since they were drawn. They are unglamorous, and they are the backbone of the student market, because they are close, they are whole units, and they turn over on a predictable academic cycle.

Bixby Knolls to the north has a quieter feel and a mix of apartment buildings and older houses, with independent shops along Atlantic Avenue. Lakewood to the east leans more residential still and tends to offer more space for the money, which is the trade you make for the drive. Belmont Shore has beach access and a genuine premium attached to it; its apartment stock is older and smaller, and the parking situation is the first thing to ask about rather than the last. Downtown is where you find condos, elevators, secure entry and sometimes a gym or a pool, which is the amenity-rich end of the market and priced accordingly.

The Traffic Circle area sits between those poles and is worth a look precisely because it is unfashionable. It has apartments and townhomes, it is a short ride from campus, and Long Beach Transit routes converge there, which makes it the most workable part of the city for someone without a car.

Long Beach State Student Apartments: What Your Budget Actually Buys

Comparing Long Beach State student apartments honestly means weighing per-bedroom cost and included amenities together, not rent alone. Look at what the four listings above actually buy. At $1,045/month, 539 Coronado Avenue gives two people a whole unit with one shared bathroom close to campus, which is the best value in the set and also the format most likely to generate a bathroom schedule. At $2,145/month, the 9106 Dalberg Ave studio costs twice as much for one person, and that difference is the price of living alone; it is the clearest illustration in this market that privacy, not space, is the expensive thing. The two condos sit higher again, at $1,900/month downtown and $2,950/month for the two-bed, two-bath, where the second bathroom and the building's own facilities are built into the number. Divided two ways, that top listing lands near $1,475 a bedroom, which is more than the entire Coronado unit costs, for a different standard of living rather than a different amount of it.

Parking, Utilities and the Fine Print

Parking is the question to ask first in this city, because most students here keep a car and apartment buildings differ wildly. Some include an assigned space, some sell permits separately, and some leave you to the street, which in Belmont Shore and parts of downtown is close to unworkable. Get the answer written into the lease, including how many spaces come with the unit, because a spoken promise about parking evaporates the week a new tenant moves in upstairs.

Utilities split unpredictably across this stock. Older low-rise buildings often bundle water and trash into rent while leaving gas, electricity and internet to you; condos sometimes fold building services into an association fee the landlord pays, and sometimes pass it through. Ask which line items the rent covers before you compare two rents against each other, because a bundled $1,900 and an unbundled $1,900 are not the same price. Ask about laundry too, since in-unit, on-site or down the street is a weekly difference rather than a detail.

Then read the lease properly. Group leases usually carry joint-and-several liability, which makes every tenant responsible for the whole rent rather than a share. California regulates deposit amounts and return deadlines, but the statute has been amended recently, so confirm the current rule instead of assuming. And check the subletting clause: a twelve-month lease against a nine-month academic year means summer is either something you sublet or something you pay for. Photograph everything on move-in day and email the set to the landlord the same afternoon.

• Ask what the rent includes before comparing two rents; bundled water and trash can be worth a hundred dollars a month.

• Confirm parking in writing: assigned space, paid permit or street-only, and how many spaces come with the unit.

• Price a studio against a shared two-bedroom per person before deciding you want to live alone.

• Check the subletting clause early, so a twelve-month lease over a nine-month school year does not cost you a summer.

For a broader overview of the area, see the Off-Campus Housing Guide: Cal State Long Beach.

Ready to find your place? Browse all listings at Off-Campus Universe.

This article is provided by an independent housing resource and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by California State University, Long Beach.