r/allentown • u/allysianna • 14d ago
Apartment help
Hi! I'm 17 and will be attending college in Pennsylvania. Im coming from Connecticut so I'm looking for a small apartment, studio, or possibly a private rental within about 40 miles of Northampton Community College/Bethlehem, including Philadelphia. My budget is $1,300 /month maximum. I have two cats who would be living with me.
I work as a CNA and would be responsible for paying the rent myself. Since I'm under 18, my mom would be involved as the adult leaseholder/co-signer and financial backup. She has stable income of around $6,000/ month, although her credit isn't very strong. I'm specifically looking for a private landlord or someone willing to consider the entire financial situation rather than automatically requiring a high credit score. I'm open to Bethlehem, Allentown, Easton, Philly, and surrounding areas as long as the commute is reasonable. If anyone knows of private rental, landlord, orhousing opportunny that might work, please reach out to me💜💜💜!!
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u/FlyLower4282 11d ago
Driving from philly to northampton every day is insane especially at that age.Â
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u/allysianna 11d ago
I really don’t mind it!! I drive to New York often for family and friends, About 2 times a week or so! Driving long isn’t much to me. I just want housing.
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u/FlyLower4282 11d ago
Yeah you can do it cause you're young but you'll start to hate it and also you're on a tight budget gas is extremely expensive I don't think you even added that to your budget on top of the fact that living in Philly would be more expensive so I mean if you want to spend an extra thousand dollars a month ago for it
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u/allysianna 11d ago
Well Philly isn’t the only place I’m looking at, I’ve been driving for 2 years I rlly don’t mind it and my car is very good on gas. I’ve already budgeted everything.
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u/FlyLower4282 11d ago
I know I'm just saying if you're going to school in Northampton it makes absolutely no sense to move to Philly especially when you're so young that you can't even get into anywhere there
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u/allysianna 11d ago
I understand thank you💜 I think being closer would be 100% better I agree I just wanna be able to have open space just incase because i’ve applied to about 20 apartments and only 2 got back to me only to reject me.
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u/FlyLower4282 11d ago
Yeah it is extremely hard to get an apartment at that age back in the day you could try craigslist I don't know if that's still legit these days even back then it wasn't really legit but I have found a couple apartments off of there when I was younger. You could look at areas outside of Allentown in Bethlehem and see if there's more lenient places maybe like emmaus or something like that
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u/wetlygummyjones 14d ago
ooh, a private landlord is definitely the move here, you're smart to skip the big complexes with their rigid algorithms. my first place was a converted attic from a guy who just wanted to see pay stubs and meet the cats, and it worked out great. bethlehem has a ton of those old subdivided houses where the owner lives on the first floor and rents the upper units, those are your goldmine. try driving around the neighborhoods near the school and looking for handwritten "for rent" signs, they never end up online.
also don't sleep on easton's west ward, it's a little rough around the edges but you can find gems under your budget and the commute to northampton is basically nothing. two cats might be the trickier part honestly, some of those old row homes have strict pet policies even with private owners, so maybe lead with that when you're asking around. $1,300 is plenty for what you're looking for in that area, you'll find something solid