The Housing Game

WASHINGTON—One sublet offer for every 40 emails sent, or a 2.5 percent success rate. By the numbers, my housing search hasn’t been pretty.

It made sense that renters hold the upper hand in a city like D.C., where thousands of interns converge every summer and make affordable housing options scarce. But the D.C. housing game was complicated in a way I hadn’t anticipated: with so much demand, the renters were looking for more than trustworthiness or the ability to pay—they were looking for a winning personality.

Some renters called for “interviews.” One asked all “applicants” to submit paragraphs summarizing their interests and favorite TV shows so she could select a subletter that fit best with her roommates. I pondered what to write: would I sound loud if I said I like to listen to Muse? Would I impress with my knowledge of Japanese dramas, or should I emphasize my more relatable love of True Blood?

Thankfully, I didn’t get a chance to write those paragraphs. Unexpectedly, the dates worked out with another renter, and the apartment was in a neighborhood that looked gorgeous under Google Street View’s perpetually blue skies. After so much trial and error, I found my home for the summer, and I breathed a sigh of relief at having earned the right to bid farewell to Craigslist—until next year, at least.

Alice A. Wang '12, an editorial writer, is a Government concentrator in Dunster House.