The Housing Search
The Housing Search
Right from the start we heard the hardest thing to do in St John is to find housing. And boy is that not an understatement. Back on the mainland you are used to using various resources to find a place to live. Down here those resources are out there but they are extremely hard to find and utilize. Word of mouth can be one of the best ways to find a place to live or a thing called the connections board. We just had no clue where it was at.
During our first three days we ferried back and forth from St Thomas. (If you are going to plan on living on St John you should set up shop there so you don’t have to pay the fees to ride the ferry every day) During our days we found the connections board. It’s right outside a place called connections in Cruz Bay. There weren’t many options but we went and looked at one unit. It was pretty dismal and ran down. We weren’t sure if this was all there was to offer. The following day we looked at one more place. It was nice but we got there after 2 girls who decided to take it. We then looked at another place in Coral Bay. It was nice but it would mean we had to buy a car immediately. And thats a whole different subject. So we just kept searching.
Three days in we got a place on St john to continue our search. We didn’t have any new leads after a week so we extended our stay. Chelsea found a lead through work so we looked into that. It was a bit of a walk up centerline road, but it was nice. We struggled deciding between the two places he had to offer. One being a studio for $1300/mo plus utilities and the other being a 2 bedroom for $2450/mo plus utilities. Our location is about a 20 minute walk to town on a narrow two lane road and 25 minute walk up the hill. Our place was unfurnished and thats also a great challenge to source furnishing.
What we learned
Be prepared to stay in a place for weeks to find a place to live. Their is no set timeframe for rentals to come open.
Almost every unit will be much tougher living conditions than what you are used to in the states. So be prepared.
key points
Use the local resources to find a place first.
- Connections Board
- Facebook Groups
- Talk with people at restaurants and bars