The student housing market continues to do well, as shown in this article.
However, in researching for this blog, I came across growing trends in the student housing market that I found disturbing, which is luxury student housing. You can see what I mean listed here and here.
It has only been a couple of years since I graduated and the apartments I lived in were nothing like this, and it was fine. It never crossed my mind that I needed any of these things. No one else I went to school with felt like they were missing out either.
What worries me about these trends is that in order to offer fancy amenities to college students, rent prices have to go up. This only exacerbates the problem for young people who are already obtaining a lot of student loan debt. Maybe right now only rich kids with rich parents to pay for their schooling live in places like this, but as real estate investors look to continue to make more money the trend may spread to those who have to pay their own way.
I hope this doesn’t happen. More debt and high expectations that can’t be matched once the college days are over are not what anyone needs.
