Coldwell Banker Real Estate just issued a report on housing prices in college towns:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/coldwell-banker-real-estate-report-finds-incredible-value-in-college-town-living-2011-11-15
In an interview, CEO Jim Gillespie noted that they found that most listing in a typical college town were below $150,000, with many below $100,000. It may be helpful to those looking to relocate.
College towns also offer a lot of free or cheap cultural activities like plays, public lectures, and the like. Some universities even let the public access their holdings (not enough, IMO).
I love the idea of college towns, but the pragmatist in me doesn't see any New England towns on that list. A number in New York, but for each one, if you venture 30 miles away from the college, the prices drop significantly. Except Syracuse. Blech.
I always liked Amherst, MA, and while it's not wildly expensive, it's still not a bargain. Look at those top 20 in the list though... they aren't the most appealing places to live overall. Now find a nice place to live... Amherst... UCSB.... and they aren't cheap. I think the college is a secondary factor, and ironically (for the purposes of this article) a price increasing factor (see Ithaca NY vs. Rochester or Seneaca).
This would be great if the cities they listed were college towns. I don't know about all of them, but I can say for sure that Las Vegas and Fort Worth are *NOT* college towns by any stretch of the imagination.
Mirwen, that's what I was thinking. When I think of college towns I think of places like Happy Valley and Princeton.
If you take a look at the thread on here (a couple months ago) listing ERE cities, you will see that a lot of them are college towns.
The "college towns" in this list are simply schools with Division I football programs.
I would personally prefer if they took the US News top 100 universities, and top 25 liberal arts schools, and remade the list using that.
I'm half tempted to do that myself, but I don't have the time right now, and I'm not moving any time soon.
I live in a college town, and while there are many benefits in free public services and transportation, the real-estate and renal market are inflated compared to the near-by communities.
It may be because the small-town Iowa prices are going to be lower than any "larger" cities nearby.
I would encourage researching nearby communities and not just assuming prices are lower because of a college-environment. I think Supply vs Demand has a greater influence.
Justin
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http://www.erecalculator.com
@Funkju, that has been my experience as well.
This article is basically just a sales script by Coldwell Banker. Las Vegas, Orlando, Tampa, Miami -- college towns? These and most of the others are mega-metropolises! Hving lived in three of these places, the university is not really considered part of the community.
I spent '98-'00 in Gainesville, FL as a grad student and again in '04-'06 a working professional. UF is a big part of the community and a big employer (along with city government and health care). I enjoyed it but it's still a fairly large city, about 90K residents + 40K students. Traffic was pretty bad. Housing near the university was so-so and surrounded by student apartments. Very walkable near the university but relatively high crime and homelessness. Nice single-family neighborhoods about two miles from the university with prices starting at about $100K to $500K.
There's an abundance of apartments, so rents are not unreasonable. Due to all the graduating students and foreign students that will work for low wages, salaries are depressed. It's always an employer's job market in Gainesville.
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