insiders know ...

[october 2024 roommates]

SO, roomiematch.com's Tallahassee roommate rundown:

Tallahassee is Creek or Muskogean for "old fields" or "old town." Some say it also proudly signifies "the other Florida." Tallahassee has always been their own thing.

For one, Tallahassee is in the middle of the Florida Panhandle where it's the main thing for hundreds of miles . . . other than forests and lakes and rivers and streams and National Wildlife Refuges and State Parks.

That's about 300 miles away from Disney, and 500 from Miami. It's closer to Georgia than anything most non-Floridians have probably heard about in Florida.

And it's the capital. And this state capital is surrounded by . . . protected wildlife refuge?

So we've got relative geographic isolation, plus legislation.

Then there's the college students, definitely their larger proportion. Tallahassee has around 200,000 residents, with fully 70,000 attending college classes. Unlike Miami and Orlando (both more prominent in the average American psyche), Tallahassee hosts more college students than tourists.

Plus, it's really cold!

For Florida! Not by national standards!

Tallahassee does (sort of) have four actual seasons, though spring and fall are both seriously shorter than outside the South. You can find spring and fall days at all, that's the difference between Tallahassee and most of Florida.

In fact, Tallahassee has been hit by both hurricanes and tornadoes, but only every few years. Summer thunderstorms are like walking through a car wash. But be prepared to lose power.

Warn your roommates that swarms of hornets can happen, especially after a long rain. While most Tally bug bites are more painful and itchy than dangerous, no one likes a vicious biter!

And palmetto bugs want to be your roommates too. Definitely don't feed them.

The rest of the Tallahassee roommate lowdown:

• Formally established as Tallahassee in 1824.
• capital city, home of most of Florida's state government, including the Supreme Court of Florida, the Governor's Mansion, and many other state agencies
• located in the middle of the Florida Panhandle, about 30 miles north of the Gulf of Mexico, and 20 miles from the Georgia border
• home to about 200,000, about 70,000 are college students
• home to Florida A&M University, and Florida State University, and Tallahassee Community College
• climate is very moist, summer is very hot and humid and frequently stormy, winter is very cloudy and rainy with occasional severe thunderstorms
• no large professional sports teams, but several FAMU Rattlers and Lady Rattlers and Florida State Seminoles teams are very enthusiastically attended
• no state income tax
• Regarding public transit, there's StarMetro, or buses that run during the day, less or not at all on nights and weekends. Most of the time you and your roommates will need a car. However, you'll rarely be troubled by rush hour!

After you're settled down, you and your roommates should experience Tallahassee's:

• Mission San Louis Living History Museum: Apalachee Indian and Spanish houses and other buildings from over 300 years ago. These "archives and ancient soils" are "how we know what we know."
• Tallahassee Museum: Over 50 acres of outdoor action offering programs and tours for all age groups to learn about the flora and fauna of North Florida. There's a Group Night Prowl, with guides located throughout the trail pointing at nighttime behaviors. This museum features an obstacle course with platforms and ziplines. Also live wolves, black bears, cougars, and panthers.
• Railroad Square: 10 acres of industrial warehouses turned into funky art district - and there's a First Friday Monthly Festival where everyone is encouraged to come hear local live music while enjoying art for free. You can shop and eat at food trucks too, but that probably costs money.

Here's the city of Tallahassee's official .gov for services for residents, from adopting pets to utilities and urban forests.

Notes

1.   The non-traditional roommate rent average for this city we've experienced over the last 3 years. We can't predict future rental availability, because we're neither in control of any rental market nor psychic, sorry!

But in most cities most of the time, the recent and relatively recent past are the best predictors.


2.   This idea came from smartasset.com's ranking of what a roommate saves you in 50 cities. They ranked where roommates will save you the most money, based on the average cost of a 1BR as opposed to a 2BR ÷ 2. Unsurprisingly, the more expensive the city, the more you can save, but the savings are significant in all larger metros. So we got the data for the rest of our cities from Zumper too.

This is really the minimum you could save, as you could live with more than one roommate, split more services, share food or other supplies, etc. More sharing tends to lead to more savings too, as per our roommate roadmap.

As per the rest of the description at the top of this page, we're calling this "traditional" roommate rent.


3.   From zumper.com.


4.   Directly quoted from the Trust for Public Land's parkland rating system.

"The ParkScore index awards each city up to 100 points for acreage based on the average of two equally weighted measures: median park size and parkland as a percentage of city area. Factoring park acreage into each city’s ParkScore rating helps account for the importance of larger “destination parks” that serve many users who live farther than ten minutes’ walking distance."

While each city's rundown already includes their individual ParkScore, nature lovers might like to see all roommate cities ranked for parkland.


5.   Directly quoted from Walk Score's Cities and Neighborhoods Ranking. They've ranked "more than 2,800 cities and over 10,000 neighborhoods so you can find a walkable home or apartment."

While each city's rundown already includes their individual Walk Score, dedicated pedestrians might like to see all roommate cities ranked for walkability.


6.   From various lists here on our own best roommate cities.