Davis, Athens, and Ann Arbor Top ApartmentRatings.com List of Best College Towns for Renters

Renter Satisfaction Rankings rate college towns’ renter satisfaction based on thousands of user-submitted ratings.

Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) March 3, 2010

ApartmentRatings.com, the leading website for user reviews of apartments around the United States, today released rankings of renter satisfaction for the 200 largest college towns and college cities in the country.

Topping the list is Davis, Calif., home to the University of California-Davis, a highly regarded public institution located in Northern California’s Central Valley. UC-Davis’s 30,000 students enjoy the comforts of a university town (population 64,000) and Mediterranean climate, as well as close access to the state capital of Sacramento (11 miles) and cosmopolitan San Francisco (72 miles). Off-campus housing is plentiful and relatively inexpensive when compared to many major metropolitan areas.

Other top-rated college towns include:

Athens, Ga. (University of Georgia)
Ann Arbor, Mich. (University of Michigan)
Amherst , Mass. (University of Massachusetts)
Albany, N.Y. (State University of New York & Excelsior College)
Tuscaloosa, Ala. (University of Alabama)
Madison, Wis. (University of Wisconsin)
Knoxville, Tenn. (University of Tennessee)
Tucson, Ariz. (University of Arizona)

The full list of the 85 college towns included in the rankings can be viewed at http://www.apartmentratings.com/rate/2010collegetownrankings.

“Congratulations to Davis and the other cities that made the top of the rankings,” said Michael Egan, general manager of ApartmentRatings.com. “There are a lot of factors that go into a student’s decision when choosing a college. Our goal was to use the vast wealth of ApartmentRatings data to help students and their families identify those institutions that are located in cities with well-regarded off-campus apartment opportunities.”

Davis’ ranking was based on reviews associated with dozens of different apartment complexes in the city.

“Renters’ reviews are building-specific, and though apartments in Davis get their share of complaints, consistently positive feedback for things like safety, noise and upkeep put Davis on top,” added Egan.
At the bottom of the list was Cambridge, Mass., home of America’s oldest and most famous place of higher learning: Harvard University.

The satisfaction scores were tabulated from thousands of user-submitted ratings provided in 2009 for apartment buildings in the cities and towns of the 100 largest four-year colleges and universities in the United States. In addition to overall satisfaction, users on ApartmentRatings.com can rate their rental experience on a number of specific factors including noise, safety and maintenance, as well as leave comments about their own experience living in the buildings.

About ApartmentRatings.com
Launched in 2000, ApartmentRatings.com is the largest online rating community for rental housing. The goal of ApartmentRatings is to help renters make an informed renting decision. As an independent resource for renters, ApartmentRatings’ reviews provide a realistic insider’s perspective of apartment communities because they are in renters’ own words. The site is among the top five most-visited apartment hunting sites in the world.

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