Bloomberg Business has an interesting story about the trend towards luxury apartments for college students, with amenities that are equal to those most would find at a Spring Break hotel.
I think if you were to study this trend you would find that most these luxury resorts serve colleges with relatively low tuition. In the bigger scheme of things, living in a nice apartment doesn’t really add that much to the cost of attending college.
Anyway, I just thought it was an interesting news story, and I knew others would be interested.
I bet you won’t see any of those luxury pools at Bowdoin…with all that lounging about in the sun, somebody might be tempted to put on a wide-brimmed hat…
It sounds like good business to me. I only skimmed the article, I didn’t read in detail because, what the heck, having pools and BBQ’s in warm weather places like FL and AZ didn’t seem all that remarkable to me. I might have missed the point. I suppose the main idea of the article was that the off-campus digs are super luxurious but I’m not so sure about that although yeah, I guess, having a FT staff in the first example might be a bit much.
Some of the on-campus dorms, if they were built or refurbished recently, can be kind of nice too.
In both my son’s college town and the one I live in, those apartments are often cheaper than dorms. Yes, they are a lot nicer than student apartments used to be. But dorms and campuses often have more of these amenities as well.
I was amused that they mentioned laundry machines that text you. Lots of dorms have those now too.
I live in one of those luxury apartments and the total cost per fully furnished room with my own bathroom is still substantially lower than the cost of a shared room in the worst dorm on campus.
@paul2752 One word, monopoly. If universities require students to live on campus for their first x years, barring some limited exemptions, they can charge whatever they want and students have to pay. Once students are allowed to live off campus, their options typically dramatically increase so the apartment complexes have to compete with one another to attract the wealthier students.
And some parents aren’t good at math and think that the off-campus apartment is costing MUCH less.
But dorms are for 9 months- apartment leases are for 12.
Dorms might charge you $100 for making a hole in the wall while lofting your bed and bolting a stud. An apartment might retain the entire security deposit (a thousand bucks? more?) Dorms include utilities, apartments do not. A dorm will charge your kid $20 to replace a lost key- a locksmith charges market rates. etc.
I’ve got a neighbor who couldn’t stop complaining about how expensive our flagship U is for dorming and eating- until her kid got an apartment. One roommate dropped out in January forcing the other kids to pay his share of the rent. A host of damaged and broken items which the landlord claimed was wild partying and not normal wear and tear. Cable was extra. Heat was extra. A renter’s policy on their homeowners.
Boy was she happy when kid number 2 went to a college which had adequate housing for all four years.
Interesting article. Coincidentally, I discovered we had one in my own area, serving UNC-W. Was going to a vendor in a light industrial area of town, and BAM there it was. Looked super nice from the outside. I guess they picked the location so they would never have to worry about noise complaints.
What I find amazing is how the pricing works. Only thing that makes sense to me is that the college views housing as a revenue stream to fund the campus, rather than a service to the students at on a cost+% basis. Dorms should be dirt cheap, since most of the buildings likely incur very little operational cost and were built decades ago so construction cost recovery is no longer a factor. Almost seems like colleges should out-source housing to the guys building the apartments.
@blossom - I checked the complex in my town, and the apartments are rented by the room, and utilities are basically included (electric has a monthly limit). I guess the management companies have learned from the issues you describe about your neighbor.
I’m biased by going to a college with a strong residential college system and 90% of the students live on campus all four years. Some rooms are better than others, each house had different amenities. (Mine had squash courts, a grill, a photolab, a pottery wheel, practice rooms and two big game rooms with foosball, pinball machines etc.) It didn’t matter if you were rich or poor everyone lived together. I like that system much better than one that separates the haves from the have-nots.
My D is moving off-campus next year to a really nice furnished apartment. It’ll net out a little bit more than the dorm if she’s not able to sublet over the summer, but it’s about 3x-4x bigger than her current dorm for the same number of people.
The only explanation in my mind is that the university views on-campus housing as a profit center. D’s in a 2-bedroom suite with 3 girls per room which would be decent for 4 people but it’s crazy to stuff 6 people in there. They have 2 beds bunked per room, and the ceiling is so low you can’t even sit up straight when you’re in a top bunk.
@blossom I interned in the multifamily housing sector and live in a student oriented apartment complexes. Many of these places that are geared towards students are nothing like general apartments. For instance, in places where there has been a wild proliferation of private student oriented complexes, it’s extremely unusual for these communities to not include all utilities or have individual leases. While some do have a cap on electricity, it’s generally rare for students to exceed them. I’ve only gone over my cap once, and had to pay less than $10 to my complex.
I don’t know if my complex offers cable (many others do), but for people of my generation, that’s often irrelevant. My roommates and I share one Netflix account, and it works for us. Damage charges often vary by complex and the student.
I reviewed my nephew’s lease last month and it is unbelievable how much he’s charged for everything. Utilities are NOT included. No individual lease. There is a huge security deposit and I’ll bet they get very little of it back; about half of it will not be returned as it covers cleaning, re-keying, snow shoveling, trash removwl, repainting…
I think my daughter’s dorm costs are really too much for what she gets, but I have warned her about the extra costs in living in an apartment or house. I think the net price would save about $300/month. The real savings G’s would be food. The cheapest meal plan on campus is $1800/semester. She can do much better than that. Her decision will be tough though as she doesn’t have a car so living off campus will be less convenient. I’d rather she just stay on campus.
When/When- my guess is that you didn’t live in student oriented apartment complexes in high rent cities like Boston. I grew up there- even before Brighton and Allston and Somerville gentrified, they were filled with students living in rather expensive apartments (compared with the buildings that rented to “adults”). To compare the cost of renting an apartment in an expensive city to a dorm room is apples to oranges.
I agree that if you’re looking at a flagship U built on a corn field in a rural area, apartments can be a much better deal.
And even in my own city- a small one but with a university close to downtown- no landlord will do individual leases for a multi bedroom apartment. Take it or leave it- but the landlords have experience with kids vaporizing in January and they don’t want to deal with finding a new tenant midyear.
12 month leases and the landlords usually find a way to keep the security deposit in its entirety.