Off-Campus Rentals: Staying Safe in a College Town

Living off-campus at college brings many perks: greater freedom, broader housing choices, and possibly even some money-saving, if you play your cards right. But being out from under the university's thumb means that you're also out from under their security, which isn't always a good thing.

Though tragically high-profile stories like 2007's massacre at Virginia Tech may grab the headlines, property crimes are far more common in the neighborhoods surrounding the nation's universities.

In fact, a recent nationwide study of the most dangerous neighborhoods for property crime zeroed in on the University of California, Berkeley's neighbor, Isla Vista, as having the highest property crime rate in the country, with an average of 1,019 crimes reported per 1,000 residents. That's better than 100 percent odds of getting robbed!