Which school has cheaper real estate around it?

College Search & Selection
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<p>Disclaimer: I left the US when I was very young, so I don't have as much knowledge as those who's living in the US.</p>

<p>I'm looking for some schools to apply, I plan to buy a house and move my family with me when I start college.
I'm wondering which school has cheaper real estate market around it?</p>

<p>I know some obvious expensive states for real estate are: NY, NJ, MA, CT, CA, MD.
PA, IL, NH, WA seem quite expensive too.
I did some research and I think that UNC, Wake Forest, Purdue, Case Western Reserve seem to have a cheaper real estate market around them. Am I right?
Please recommend some schools that have cheaper real estate around them.
Thanks in advance!</p>

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<p>Most cheap real estate is cheap for a reason - low demand. </p>

<p>If you are going to college and are still transient, why wouldn’t you just rent. </p>

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<p>Less expensive does not always equal low demand. Some areas have a lower cost of living than others. North Carolina is a popular place to live, however much of the real estate there is quite reasonable compared to the Northeast prices.</p>

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<p>I can attest to the fact that Case Western has cheap real estate. You can get a lot of bang for your buck in Cleveland. Cleveland Heights, Shaker Heights (can be more expensive though), Lakewood, and Tremont are all great Cleveland neighborhoods. It’s a comeback city too! </p>

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<p>Define cheap, OP. How much do you want to pay to buy or rent a house? </p>

<p>If you’re buying, how will you pay the often hundreds of thousands of dollars houses in the US cost?</p>

6

<p>Wayne State University
University of Michigan - Flint
University of Rochester
Rochester Institute of Technology
University of Toledo
Youngstown State University</p>

<p>All of these schools are in areas that have been economically decimated. The cities tend to have high rates of crime, poor schools, and few opportunities for employment within the city boundaries. Of course cheap real estate!</p>

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<p>Albright College in PA. You can buy a 5-bedroom home for about $25K. Yes, Twenty-five thousand, if you look in the city of Reading.</p>

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<p>@KKmama That means that the median family income there is extremely low. Reading has the highest share of citizens living in poverty in the nation.</p>

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<p>@whenhen - as a resident of the Rochester area, I have to object to your characterization of Rochester. The area around RIT is suburban,and mid-range in affordability. The U of R is on the edge of the city, but there are some very nice areas right near the University. Rochester has not been economically decimated either; although Kodak’s decline has had a negative impact on the area, the area has held steady thanks to the high level of education in the population. Like most urban areas, the center city of Rochester is struggling. However, the suburbs of Rochester have some of the best school districts in the state and a great standard of living. The housing prices are moderate relative to most other northeast cities, but high property taxes counterbalance that benefit.</p>

<p>OP - your best best for cheap housing is where the school is in a more rural area, aside from a large University like Penn State. Many of the SUNY’s and smaller PA state universities are going to have very affordable housing, for example.</p>

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<p>Based on my harrowing walk around the streets of New Haven, CT, I am guessing you could find some great deals there.</p>

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<p>@ClassicRockerDad - I feel that renting cost more money than buying, cause you can sell a house, but you can’t get your money back from the renting.</p>

<p>@vamominvabeach - Yeah I feel that NC seem to have a cheaper real estate than other places too.</p>

<p>@stacks13, @KKmama, @whenhen, @AnnieBeats - Thank you guys for the info!</p>

<p>@jkeil911 - My definition for cheaper is $200000-350000 for a house that is 2700+ sq ft, and has a backyard. (about the money, I have already sold the home that I used to live in)</p>

<p>@blprof - Thanks for the info! I actually would prefer rural area than the cities, cause I’ve been living in cities all my life and I’m sick of it. lol</p>

<p>@Much2learn - New Haven, CT has cheaper real estate? I always thought it’s one of the most expensive real estate areas. I’ll check it out, thanks.</p>

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<p>Places with the lowest housing prices are not necessarily the best places to invest in real estate. Sometimes prices are low because the local economy is in decline, and you’re just buying into future losses. You might do better to invest more in a place where real estate prices are appreciating. </p>

<p>But if you’re just looking for cheap, real estate prices tend to be low in parts of the industrial Midwest (Michigan, Ohio, Indiana), the Great Plains (Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Iowa, S Dakota), and much of the South (West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, S Carolina, N Carolina; the big outlier is Virginia where prices are closer to those in the Northeast). In the Northeast, Pennsylvania tends to be much cheaper than other states.</p>

<p>There’s also a lot of local variation, however. For example, in Michigan housing prices in Ann Arbor are on average 24% higher than in the Detroit metro area. But in Ohio, housing prices in Columbus are 17% less than in Cleveland.</p>

<p>If we take Columbus, Ohio as a benchmark, here are some college town average housing price comparisons:</p>

<p>Norman, OK (U Oklahoma) -9%
St. Louis, MO (WUSTL) -8%
Nashville, TN (Vanderbilt) -5%
Lexington, KY (U Kentucky) - 4%
Lincoln, NE (U Nebraska) -3%
Fayetteville, AR (U Arkansas) - 2%
Lafayette, IN (Purdue) -1%
Raleigh, NC (NC State) -1%
Tuscaloosa, AL (U Alabama) +1%
Durham, NC (Duke) +1%
Pittsburgh, PA (Pitt, Carnegie Mellon) +2%
Knoxville, TN (U Tennessee) +7%
Tucson, AZ (U Arizona) +7%
Bloomington, IN (U Indiana) +8%
South Bend, IN (Notre Dame) +8%
Austin, TX (U Texas) +10%
Stillwater, OK (Oklahoma State) +11%
Baton Rouge, LA (LSU) +12%
Atlanta, GA (Georgia Tech, Emory) +13%
Columbia, MO (U Missouri) + 14%
Blacksburg, VA (VaTech) +17%
Gainesville, FL (U Florida) +19%
Manhattan, KS (Kansas State) +20%
New Orleans, LA (Tulane) +20%
Ames, IA (Iowa State) +26%
Houston, TX (Rice) +38%
Chapel Hill, NC (UNC-Chapel Hill) +39%
Ithaca, NY (Cornell) +41%
Morgantown, WV (WVU) +42%
Madison, WI (U Wisconsin) +43%
Ann Arbor, MI (U Michigan) +45%
Charlottesville, VA (UVA) +45%
Minneapolis, MN (U Minnesota) +49%
Chicago, IL (U Chicago, Northwestern) + 73%
Providence, RI (Brown) +75%
Philadelphia, PA (Penn) +79%
Seattle, WA (U Washington) +80%
Burlington, VT (UVM) +83%
New Haven, CT (Yale) +89%
New Jersey (Princeton, Rutgers) +95%
Boston, MA (Harvard, MIT) +122%
Los Angeles, CA (UCLA, USC) +153%
San Diego, CA (UCSD) +156%
Oakland/Berkeley, CA (UC Berkeley) +175%
Manhattan, New York, NY (Columbia, NYU) +472%</p>

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<p>OP, You will find your price range and square footage requirement in most of Texas.</p>

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<p>As someone who once had a vacant house that took almost a year to sell at a substantial loss, I can tell you that when you rent you are buying the freedom to leave. It’s worth every penny if you ever plan to leave. </p>

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<p>@bclintonk – is this list you provided for housing that students are likely to select, i.e. apartments near campus, or is the list for housing in general? For single family residences in Houston, I seriously doubt that the market is 38% above the national average. However, it could be above the national average for apartments and houses that are within a couple miles of the Rice campus.</p>

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<p>University of Alabama has inexpensive real estate around it. I have purchased 3 properties there in the last 2 years. </p>

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<p>What about Texas?</p>

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<p>^^
Texas has very high property taxes. Which of its better known schools has cheap real estate nearby? </p>

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<p>OP…you will be OOS at least for the first year if you attend a public. Do you intend to live here a year before attending school?</p>

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<p>@bclintonk - Wow, thank you so much for the list! </p>

<p>@ScienceGirlMom - Thanks, I’ll start looking for schools in TX.</p>

<p>@ClassicRockerDad - I didn’t think about buying a house could lose money in the future, cause at where I live, the real estate market price just keeps getting higher and higher, maybe it’s different in the US? Thanks for the info, I’ll think about that.</p>

<p>@mom2collegekids - 3 properties, that’s a lot! What are you going to do with them? (just curious) :slight_smile:
Yeah I’ll be okay to wait a year before attending school if it’s a public school. </p>