FOCUS ON BUSINESS - March 2005

Student sharing makes housing affordable

By Matylda Czarnecka
Focus on Business Editor

The cost of today’s college education is likely to involve much more than tuition. For many Fort Lewis College students, rent can carry a big price tag.

Of course, living on campus can keep costs down. And the current FLC census does show 1,114 students living in campus housing – mostly freshmen required to stay on campus their first year.

About 70 percent of all FLC students now live off campus and the current vacancy rate on campus is 24 per cent, said Amy Yeger with FLC’s Institutional Research. In fact, she said, it’s been a while since FLC faced tight housing conditions on campus.

"A lot of the kids want to be off campus to feel like they have more freedom," said Kathy Dunn, office manager at FLC’s student housing.

And splitting rent with several housemates may be cheaper than staying on campus for students.

"If you pay under $350 a month, it’s cheaper than living on campus," observed FLC sophomore Heath Bigman, 19, who now lives on campus.

Like many classmates, he plans to move into a rental house this summer and looks forward to nicer facilities and more privacy.

This is good news for local property managers, who often find it more profitable renting houses to students than to other tenants.

Up to five unrelated individuals can legally live together in Durango, said City Planner Greg Hoch. So, if each resident of a five-tenant house pays $400 a month in rent, a property manager can receive $2,000 per month for that house.

This amount, manageable when divided among five roommates, may become unaffordable for lower-occupancy tenants, such as newlyweds who may not be able to afford a $1,000 each month.

"The situation is geared toward making it easy for multiple people to live together in a household unit, but not easy for young families," Hoch said. Housing, he said, would likely be cheaper in general if students did not raise prices with high-occupancy living.

About 50 percent of units in Durango are rentals - a percentage would drop if fewer than five unrelated individuals were legally allowed to live in one unit. Then, Hoch said, "I think there would be less rentals and people would simply turn around the rentals and sell them because they can't get the rental income they were hoping to get." He said there are no plans to alter the legal occupancy of unrelated individuals, so the current rental market is unlikely to change.

Then, Hoch said, "I think there would be less rentals and people would simply turn around the rentals and sell them because they can’t get the rental income they were hoping to get." He said there are no plans to alter the legal occupancy of unrelated individuals, so the current rental market is unlikely to change.

FLC junior Teresa Nees, 20, lives with friends 13 miles east of campus in the Florida Mesa area. She pays $230 a month for a four-bedroom house that sits on five acres of land – plenty of room for the cat, guinea pig, fish and two dogs that also share the space. She calls it "a pretty good deal" with the downside of the daily commute that costs her about $30 in fuel each week.

Kris Rhodes, manager of Rhodes Properties, loves renting to students. "They add a big boon to the rental market, especially since the market has gotten so large," she said.

But market size can also lead to lower rents, as property owners compete with one another for tenants. Nadene Lemon, a senior at FLC, pays $212 a month for a unit she shares with three roommates in Hillcrest Apartments. Although she calls her rent affordable, she finds living in Durango more expensive than in other cities. "I pay the same for my apartment as my grandma pays for her three-bedroom house in Grand Junction," she said.

Even so, Durango is generally affordable. As FLC junior Nees said, "It seems like everybody is able to find roommates to split it up into something they can afford on a $7-per-hour job."