I have received permission from College Confidential to post here. My name is Marni Elyse Katz. I am writing an article for the Boston Globe about college and real estate. I’m looking for parents who have bought or rented a home in the town where their child is attending college, either to re-locate with your child or to visit more easily (parents weekends, sports games, etc). I’m also interested in families who purchased a place for their child to live as an alternative to dorm living, and whether this was a good or terrible investment. Please post in this thread if you’re willing to share your experience so I can get in touch by private message. My deadline is Saturday, March 24. Thanks.
I have a relative who bought a condo in TX so his child could live there while attending med school at Baylor. He sold the condo when the S graduated. I don’t think he would agree to be contacted. The investment didn’t go up or down so it sold at roughly the price it had been purchased at 4 years prior. The parents were happy not to pay for lodging for his S, and not to worry about his lodging, only paying maintenance fee, property tax, and transaction costs. They stayed in the condo when they visited.
http://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/at-just-14-ucla-math-student-moshe-229359 notes that when a 14 year old student transferred to UCLA from ELAC, he and his parents stayed in housing normally used for graduate students.
MODERATOR’S NOTE: This journalist does have permission to post here.
I don’t have any relevant experience to share but I would consider buying a condo instead of paying for a dorm when the time comes.
Not personally, but parents of a friend in college bought a co-op for her to stay in near campus for 3 years (freshman year had to be in university housing back then). They thought it made sense as they had to pay $40K back then and expected to make it back after selling it while just a room in a dorm was $400-$500/month.
There have been a couple of parents here on CC asking about buying a condo near campus for themselves or their student as a way to get in state tuition rates. It doesn’t work.
We did, but it was a confluence of events. Originally we wanted to buy an investment property that our son would live in after a year or two in the dorms (and we could stay there for game weekends, etc).
After a happy circumstance of selling our south Florida home (in a market that finally came back after the '07-08 crash), we ended up living in our college investment property. Son is still at the dorm though he comes back and forth when he wants to.
Hoping to move back by the beach in the next year or two. Love Gainesville but I need the beach.
It is fun to live near a major university. Always things to do, and we also have Santa Fe in Gainesville (top community college).
I work with someone who invested in two condo properties near UMass Amherst. She bought them for her children to use for residence while they were there, and then she has kept them and they are rented to current students through a property management company.
Parents of boarding school students do this all the time, and of course especially in New England.
@MAandMEmom I would assume that they are full pay parents, a minority among college parents.
I have relatives who purchased a condo in DC when their son was a student at GWU. He lived there for a time, then they rented it out. I have reached out to them to ask if they would speak with you. I will pm you if they say yes.
@MarniElyseKatz this is an old thread…but you might find the responses interesting.
The most famous Helicopter Mom:
https://lisawallerrogers.com/2009/11/23/general-macarthur-had-a-helicopter-mom/
Background:
1- My D started at UC Berkeley as a CA resident when she was 16.
2- Our residence is about 30 miles (1 hr drive in normal traffic) from UC Berkeley.
We had a few options for my D:
1- lived in dorm.
2- commuted with me (I work about 10 miles from UCB, very flexible hours)
3- had her own place.
We decided on (3), because:
1- (vs dorm) My D was under-aged; we felt more comfortable that she lived in a place we could easily
control.
2- (vs dorm) She was an aspie and still needed help/close supervision with time management and daily chores.
3- (vs commuting) We didn’t want her to lose 2 hours/day in commuting traffic.
4- (vs commuting) We didn’t want her to miss anything at school (activities during weekends).
We considered buying a condo, but at the time didn’t know how long she would be at UCB. We didn’t want to deal with renting afterward. Buying a condo and then selling it within 3 - 4 years might not make financial sense. We decided to rent. Finance was not a big issue because we’d prepared a fund for her to attend a private school. The money saved was applied to the rent.
We found a 1-bedroom unit in a quiet neighborhood on the north side of UCB. It was ideal because the unit was pretty secluded, yet only a few minute walk to campus, closer than most dorm buildings. The unit came with washer/dryer and a parking garage (convenient when Mom or Dad came for a visit, which was very often). The rent was very reasonable, and has not increased at all.
She lived there 3 years for undergrad (graduated at 19). She was then admitted to a PhD program at UCB, and continues living there for 3 more years now (and likely until she is hooded). She doesn’t really need to live near campus anymore, but she still wants to live there.
Had we known that she would be staying there that long, we would have bought a condo. Now whenever we talk about buying, she says not to bother because she will definitely do postdoc somewhere else.
A success story, I guess.
Wow, cool story @bopper!
“Parents of boarding school students do this all the time, and of course especially in New England.”
@MAandMEmom do what? parents buy houses to live in near their kids at BS? or parents buy houses not to live in but for their kids to live in and be day students?
I know this has happened but don’t think it is at all common. I’ve had kids at two different NE boarding schools and know families at a dozen more and the only family I know of who moved to be closer to their kid’s school was a wealthy international family who moved to the States when their second child was admitted to the boarding school his sibling attended. The family had a deep history at the school (father, uncles, etc.) but the child wasn’t yet ready to board so they bought a house so he could attend as a day student.
Each year, at least one parent from the team buys a house in the town and then 3-4 kids from the team live in that house for 2-4 years. My daughter is always invited to live in the house but always declines. She lived in a dorm her second year (with non-teammates) and in a rented house for the final two years (teammates). I think the purchases have been okay from a financial standpoint, but the kids get sick of living together. The one for ‘our’ year is near the beach, but that make is 6-7 miles from the school. The first year there were 3 in the house but one moved out and was never replaced. I guess the parents were willing to eat the lost rent.
That family moved to about 2 hours from the school during daughter’s freshman year. I don’t know if they considered moving to the same town but now own two houses on the Atlantic cost and their younger daughter is on the Gulf coast.