University costs are increasing in California, and throughout the country. It applies not only to tuition, but rising housing costs means living expenses have been up greatly. Tuition across the University of California system for a year is estimated to be $13,900 for the 2018-10 school year. More details can be found here. Tuition, however, doesn’t even begin to tell the story of how costly university could be. Let’s take a look at the housing costs across UC campuses, both for dorms and apartments nearby.
The on campus numbers are from official sources, but off campus numbers I have compiled from my experience, friends’ experiences, Rentcafe averages for the city and various Facebook housing search groups. I did a lot of housing hunt in college through Facebook and Craigslist, so I like the Facebook housing group prices to reflect roughly on the price range of off campus housing at the particular school.
Before we start our research on housing costs across UC schools, I predict the Bay Area UC Berkeley and the Westwood UCLA to have the most expensive housing, while the less populated area of UC Davis to have the cheapest housing.
Let’s take play guessing game: fill in the boxes on your guess of the cost for a single room in an off campus apartment at each of these schools, and then compare your results after you’re done.
Housing costs across UC Campuses: A Guess
| UC Berkeley | |
| UC Davis | |
| UC Irvine | |
| UC Los Angeles | |
| UC Merced | |
| UC Riverside | |
| UC San Diego | |
| UC Santa Cruz | |
| UC Santa Barbara |
Overview of housing costs across UC campuses
University of California, Berkeley
I went to school at Cal from 2014-2018, so I can provide the most comprehensive information about this school. I shared a room with one other roommates for $650 my sophomore year. The house was 4 bedrooms and 1 bathroom for $4700 with no living room. Then my junior and senior I paid $750 for a shared room with one other person. The house was about $7000, 5 rooms, 2 baths, two single rooms and three shared rooms.
I lived in the dorms freshman year, it was $12,000 for a school year for a triple, which includes a meal plan. We are in school for about nine months, so it’s about $1,333 for food and lodging a month if you choose to live in the dorms.
Living off campus is definitely the cheaper option, but in general, Bay Area housing is very expensive. Any single room is most likely going to be well over $1,000 a month. People usually share rooms and they can get to about $600-700 a month. Proximity to campus also dictates cost. The closer the place is to campus, the more expensive it is. Because Berkeley is so hilly, farther could potentially mean a lot more work.
The school is going through a housing crisis, and it’s hard to see too many effective resolutions.
Affordability: Poor
University of California, Davis
For the 2018-19 school year, UC Davis dorms cost about $16,200-17,700 for singles, $14,700 to $16,000 for doubles, and $13,300 to $14,800 depending on your meal plan. The cheaper option is an unlimited 5-day meal plan and the more expensive option is an unlimited 7-day meal plan.
Off-campus housing at UC Davis is significantly cheaper. Single rooms cost about $650-850. Double rooms are about $450. UC Davis is very bike-friendly, so you can probably get away with living a bit farther from campus also.
Affordability: Excellent
University of California, Irvine
On campus single rooms cost from $17,540 to 18,000 for the 2018-19 school year. Double occupancy rooms cost from $15,300 to $15,800 for the 2018-19 school year. Triple occupancy rooms cost from $13,300 to $13,800 for the 2018-19 school year. The price range depends on the type of meal plan.
For off campus housing, the price is about $500 to $600 for doubles, and $800 to $1,000 for single rooms.
Affordability: Good
University of California, Los Angeles
UCLA is one of the most expensive on the list in terms of housing. Westwood is home to rich people, so housing prices are going to be high. The prices are a bit strange because it depends on your payment plan, but for a full contract payment plan, a single room would cost from $17,900 to $19,000 depending on the meal plan. A double room range from $14,600 to $15,700. A triple room range from $12,000 to $13,200.
Off campus housing at UCLA is similar to the price of it at Berkeley. For a single, it’s typically from about $1,100 to $1,300. For a double, it’s about $650 to $900.
Affordability: Poor
University of California, Merced
For dorms, single rooms cost from $16,000 to $16,850. Double occupancy rooms cost from $15,000 to $15,500. Triple occupancy rooms cost from $14,340 to $14,840.
Studios at UC Merced costs about $800, and 1 Bedroom and 1 bathroom apartment costs about $900. I am having trouble finding information about single rooms, but a 2-bedroom apartment costs about $1,000, so expect $500 to $600 for double rooms.
Affordability: Excellent
University of California, Riverside
The cost for a double room at UC Riverside range from $16,600 to about $18,000. A triple room costs from about $15,700 to $17,400
Off campus housing for a single room is about $600 to $750, and double rooms cost about $350 to $500.
Affordability: Excellent
University of California, San Diego
Single rooms costs from $12,330 to $12,768. Doubles rooms costs from $11,340 to $11,900. Triple rooms costs from $10,570 to $11,000. These rates are a bit unbelievable to me, but it’s written here.
Off campus housing cost about $900 to $1,100 for singles, and $500 to $700 for doubles, but it’s mostly dependent on location.
Affordability: Decent
University of California, Santa Barbara
Single rooms costs from $18,160 to $20,000. Double rooms costs $16,660 to $18,300. Triple rooms costs from $14,660 to $16,240. There are also smaller doubles that costs from $12,960 to $14,540. The range depends on the meal plan.
For off campus living costs, the beachside UCSB skews to the middle to higher end of costly housing among the UCs. Singles are typically from $950 to $1,200, and doubles are from $650 to $850.
Affordability: Decent
University of California, Santa Cruz
For the dorms, a single room costs about $18,200 to $18,750. A double costs about from $16,370 to $16,900. There are also smaller doubles that cost from $13,600 to $14,110. Triples costs from $13,500 to $14,500 depending on the room size and meal plan.
A single costs from about $1,000 to $1,200, while a double is about $650 to $800. Santa Cruz is another one of the UC schools dealing with a housing crisis.
Affordability: Poor
Housing costs across UC campuses: Thoughts
Of course, we could not neglect to mention housing crisis in an article about the housing costs across UC campuses. One cause expensive prices and limited available units forced housing searches to be extremely competitive. Another cause is the university bringing in more people than the environment allows. Naturally, when there are not enough housing for everyone, the available housing gets more expensive.
After comparing housing costs across UC campuses, off-campus housing at UC Davis and UC Riverside ended up being two of the cheapest, while at UC Berkeley and UCLA were the most expensive.
Something that blows my mind is that the costs for dorms vary across the UC Systems regardless of location (With the exception of UCSD, it seems). Off campus housing prices, though, vary wildly. This isn’t a huge surprise. California is a diverse place, and the UC schools are scattered amongst it. From Davis to the very expensive Bay Area to Westwood to the Inland Empire, housing prices differ drastically. Hopefully this information on the housing costs across UC campuses can inform you about choosing your school, or your son and daughters’ schools. Just knowing the cost of residential halls simply does not tell the whole story.