Room rental: $550 - $900 a month A room rental can be one of three things: 1) A shared dwelling in which the existing tenant(s) are seeking to replace a housemate who has left. With a share, all housemates are considered equal and all the common areas (living room, dining room, bathroom, kitchen) are shared by all the housemates. Your bedroom is generally not shared, although share rentals in newer buildings or expensive rentals near UC Berkeley might involve sharing the bedroom in order to conserve individual costs. 2) A room in a private home involves use of a bathroom, of course, but it may or may not involve use of other common areas. Cooking in the kitchen may or may not be allowed, and use of other areas such as living room and dining room may be off-limits. In this situation, you are likely to be renting a room from in an owner-occupied dwelling and the home owner sets the rules. 3) Berkeley also has many room rentals available in private rooming houses, which are privately-owned dwellings and often operated like dormitories. There may be meal service, there might be residential staff on hand, and rooms tend to range from private rooms to perhaps up to 4 occupants. There are lots of different styles of rooming houses and each has its own feel. Generally, rents might be more expensive in rooming houses due to extra amentities, such as planned activities, meals, inclusion of utilities in the rent, and so forth.

Studio apartments: $1000 - $1700 a month A studio apartment consists of a living area that doubles as a sleeping area, a bathroom, and cooking facilities. There might be a separate room that is a kichen area, or the cooking facilities might be against a wall in your living/sleeping area.   One bedroom apartments: $1100 - $1900 a month A one bedroom apartment has a separate room for sleeping, a living room, a bathroom and a kitchen. It may also include a separate dining room, although the more typical configuration is a living-and-dining room combined or a kichen with enough space for dining. (Sometimes this is called a kitchen nook.)   Two bedroom apartment: $1400 - $2200 a month A two bedroom apartment has two separate rooms for sleeping. The rest of the apartment will consist of bathroom, kitchen and living room. Dining space may be in a separate dining room, although more commonly will be available in a living/dining room combination or eating space in the kichen (kitchen nook).

House, home, or single family dwelling: $1,900 and up per month A house consists of a dwelling unit with no wall, ceilings or floors attached to any other dwelling units, although sometimes (confusingly), a Townhouse is referred to as a house, and Townhouses usually have a wall in common with another dwelling unit. Also, some houses have occupied In-Law or Granny units, which are described below. Most houses have at least two bedrooms and one bathroom. A very small house might be referred to as a bungalow or a cottage, and might have two small bedrooms or even just one bedroom or be arranged studio style with living/sleeping in one room. A house will usually have some land around it which may be used as your personal outdoor space, and it may or may not include covered parking for a car (or bicycle or storage for boxes).                                                                 Large homes usually consist of three or four bedrooms and many large homes are located in the Berkeley hills and tend to rent in excess of $2500 a month. Houses with bay views tend to have even higher rents.   Can I find something cheaper in Berkeley than these typical rent ranges?   Sometimes you might get lucky and find lower rents in Berkeley—these are just the typical ranges. Also, if you need your rent to begin in the fall after the college semester has started, you might find that rents are lower because there is so little demand after August. The peak rental months are April through August, when demand will be high.   TIP: If you are really broke, try looking for a work exchange.  That's free rent, or reduced rent, in exchange for some sort of job duties.  The typical work exchange is babysitting in exchange for a free room.  Or, if you are handy with fixing things, sometimes you can get an entire apartment for free or with much lower rent if you are willing to serve as a resident manager for an apartment building.   Remember, there are many nice communities in cities adjacent to Berkeley where rents might be lower. You can get to Berkeley easily by bus, bicycle or BART (the local subway system) from these nearby areas: Albany, Kensington, El Cerrito to the north, and North Oakland/Rockridge neighborhood, Emeryville and Piedmont to the south. The Montclair neighborhood of Oakland is also very pleasant, although generally one needs a car to travel easily to Berkeley from there. Generally the further north or south away from Berkeley that you are willing to look, the housing costs are cheaper and it will be easier to secure housing.