Off-Campus Housing for Law Students:
More than 90% of our students live off-campus, and the significant number of affordable apartments conveniently located to campus are likely responsible for this high number. For off-campus housing, typical monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment can cost from $300-500, and a two bedroom apartment can rent for $500 - $900. As these low rental prices indicate, one of the best things about living Lexington is the low cost of living. While law school is a significant expense almost anywhere you go, at W&L, you can enjoy a high quality of life without spending a great deal of money. And if you are financing some portion of your legal education (as 90% of our students are), money saved in law school can have significant implications for your debt load after graduation.
Where do our students live? A great many of our students live in and around downtown Lexington, no more than a 10 to 15 minute walk from the law school. Other students choose to live a few miles outside of town, in Rockbridge County, and there are a number of properties in the area with beautiful views of the Blue Ridge mountains and the Maury River. In addition to the housing options in the Lexington area, the town of Buena Vista is located just under 10 minutes from Lexington. Typically, rentals can be a little less expensive there.
As our students will tell you, if you are moving to Lexington from a major metropolitan area, your housing search will likely look a little different than those you have conducted previously. For example, when searching for an apartment, you may find that internet searches do not yield a great deal of information. While Craigslist does contain listings for the Lexington area (search under Craigslist Roanoke and narrow your search by asking for all properties in Lexington), we typically recommend students broaden their searches and utilize a variety of local resources when looking for housing. Furthermore, you will likely have much more luck if you take a day or two (that's typically all the time it takes to find something you like) and come to Lexington to conduct your search.
For those students seeking off-campus housing, we encourage you to consult the classified ads, utilize the local realtors (all of whom are located along Main Street and do not charge for their services), visit the law school (a great many apartment listings are posted on the bulletin boards in and around the building) and drive around town. Lexington is small enough that a great many landlords advertise an availability by simply posting a sign in front of the property. We encourage you to take a day or two, come to Lexington and look around. Please note that there are a number of living spaces for rent that you may consider less than suitable (admittedly there are some landlords in the Lexington area have very creative definitions of "inhabitable"). We recommend that you do not rent any property site unseen.
If you are an admitted student and have questions about finding housing in the Lexington area, we encourage you to consider joining our Admitted Students Facebook group. This page is monitored by a number of current students, and they are more than happy to share with you their insights, recommendations and stories about finding housing the Lexington area. This is great way to begin any housing search and will likely answer most questions you have about how best to go about this process in Lexington.
You may find the following useful in finding off-campus housing. These sites are not sponsored by W&L, and neither the Law School nor the University makes any representation or warranty whatsoever regarding the properties listed.
Newspaper rental listings can be found by visiting the Classifieds webpages of our local newspaper, The News-Gazette: http://www.thenews-gazette.com/
Property Listings can also be found using Craig's List (search under "Roanoke" and narrow your search by "Lexington"): http://roanoke.craigslist.org/
The Generals Retreat is a complex with many law student renters: http://www.generalsretreat.net/
A list of local Realtors can be found by visiting the "About Lexington/Moving Here" page of the Lexington - Rockbridge Chamber of Commerce website: http://www.lexrockchamber.com. A few of the realtors who typically handle rental properties are as follows:
James Wm. Moore Real Estate - http://www.jwmre.com/
Colonna & Associates, Inc. - http://www.colonnaassociates.com/
The Lexington Company - http://www.welcome2lexington.com/
The Building Management Company - http://www.generalsretreat.net/
Many rental properties in Lexington are advertised with nothing more than a yard sign, so if you're able to visit, be sure to take a drive through town. Detailed street maps of Lexington are available in the Office of Admissions and at the Lexington Visitor's Center on Washington Street; a basic map is available here.