Many students rent rooms from a house or rent a home with a few of their friends, but Ben Pearl, a senior communications media major, owns his own four-bedroom, two-bathroom house off of Bradshaw Road.

Having a house, Pearl said, feels more like a home than other living situations. Pearl, who lived in the residence halls his first two years at Sacramento State, said though living at the residence halls gives chances to meet other people, you have more privacy and respect in your own home. Less people can drop by, he said.

“There’s definitely a space cushion when needed,” Pearl said. “If you want to work on a project, you can close your door and work, whereas in the dorms you have your roommate, your roommate’s friends and your own friends coming into the room.”

The best thing about owning a house is “Always having a safe place to come home,” Pearl said. “It’s always nice to have a home where things are comforting, where you have someone to talk to.”

Realistically, most students cannot afford to own their own house. Pearl bought the 1,500 square-foot house in 2003 for $233,000, with a down payment of $25,000. Luckily, Pearl said he had help with the purchase through money he had gained from stocks that were given to him. The mortgage for the house is $1,500 a month. Pearl rents out three rooms to his friends for $475 a month – the utility bills, which include SMUD, PG&E and SBC for cable and Internet, are split equally and range from $200-$240 a month depending on the time of the year.

And renting a room is another option for college students. Jacob Parres, a junior English major, rents a room from a three-bedroom, two-bathroom house off Cardale Way in South Sacramento. The house belongs to a woman who lives in the house with her two children.

For $420 a month, Parres’ rent for his 10′-by-12′ room and utilities – including electricity, water, full-access to the kitchen, Internet, cable, house phone usage and use of the washer and dryer – are covered. “It’s a pretty sweet deal,” Parres said.

Parres, who found the room listed on Craigslist on the Internet, said although he thought about renting an apartment, he found that paying a flat rate for utilities is less expensive.”I think this is the best deal I found,” he said, describing the house and its neighborhood as nice, new and quiet.

“It’s kind of nice, a place to come home to,” he said. “I’ve lived in houses before with eight guys in one house. I prefer not living with people my age because they’re not as responsible. They’re not as quiet and not as respectful. Families are a little bit nicer.”

Parres, who attended Arizona State University last year, said living in a house with seven other guys was unclean, stressful, and had a lack of responsibility and privacy.

“The aspect of the house being totally unclean,” he said was an issue. “You’d come home and all the dishes would be dirty – every single dish in the house. That was a problem.”

He explained that there was no division of labor in the house. “Everyone had chores they had to do but no one really did them,” he said.

“You don’t get privacy when you want it,” he continued. He described the house’s activities on a daily basis saying that people would constantly be in the house and anyone could walk in anyone’s room and get a hold of personal items including computers and televisions.

Junior Lindsey Ferguson, who rents a room in Davis, agreed that living in a house with peers could limit your privacy. She said, “If I want privacy I go to my boyfriend’s house.”

But other problems arise, Ferguson said. Dealing with how other people’s ideas of how a household should be run is an issue, she said. “I really want to live on my own,” she said. “But right now I’m having a hard time juggling work and school, so I’m doing whatever I can afford.”

But it’s not a completely bad living situation, she said.

Ferguson, an interior design major, shares a room in the three-bedroom, two-bathroom house. She shares the master bedroom of a newer home for $375 a month and utilities including energy and cable are included. The neighborhood, she said, is safe and quiet.

Ferguson, who found the room on a Web site for a Christian Crusade group, said she lives in Davis rather than Sacramento because of her personal preference.

“Personally, I’m very much a small town person. Living in Davis, it’s not itty-bitty but it’s a lot smaller than Sacramento. It feels more like my home,” she said.

Owning, or even renting a house, involves a lot of responsibility, Pearl said. “I think it’s fun, it’s a new challenge.”

“The collegiate lifestyle is a combination of work and school,” Pearl said. He explained that being young and having fun is something all college students want to do. But a huge portion of being a student is dealing with finances, he said. Becoming an adult and being an active part of the community, buying a car, buying a home or renting an apartment is something college students deal with. “Rather than having things taken cared for you, you have to take care for yourself,” Pearl said.

Nika Megino can be reached at [email protected]