Posted on 12/25/2011 7:57:21 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
MERCED, Calif. — Heather Alarab, a junior at the University of California, Merced, and Jill Foster, a freshman, know that their sudden popularity has little to do with their sparkling personalities, intelligence or athletic prowess.
“Hey, what are you doing?” throngs of friends perpetually text. “Hot tub today?”
While students at other colleges cram into shoebox-size dorm rooms, Ms. Alarab, a management major, and Ms. Foster, who is studying applied math, come home from midterms to chill out under the stars in a curvaceous swimming pool and an adjoining Jacuzzi behind the rapidly depreciating McMansion that they have rented for a song.
Here in Merced, a city in the heart of the San Joaquin Valley and one of the country’s hardest hit by home foreclosures, the downturn in the real estate market has presented an unusual housing opportunity for thousands of college students. Facing a shortage of dorm space, they are moving into hundreds of luxurious homes in overbuilt planned communities....
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Good for them. Better than a house sitting there vacant.
Next year she will be living off-campus with three other girls in an apartment complex exclusively for college students. She will have her own room and will share a bath with one girl as opposed to three. They will have a living room and kitchen complete with a washer and drier. The apartment is furnished. The complex has a pool, fitness center, tanning beds and will cost me $4,800. I am anticipating another $2,500 for her share of utilities and food.
Either dorms are a major money maker or schools totally mismanage their resources (or perhaps both).
It’s all good until Delta House moves in.
Government housing projects are never a wise idea, even college dorms.
A guy I worked with jointly purchased a condo in College Station TX, with the parents of his daughter’s room mate back in the late 1980s. ....They bought the condo from another pairing of parents who had done the same until their kids graduated from Texas A&M. ....They were able to take the deductions for mortgage interest and property taxes and the costs for housing the students were much less than if they had stayed in campus dorms. ....When the girls graduated from A&M, the condo was re-sold again to parents of incoming students. ....Fairly common practice that saves everyone money and makes money for the folks that built and operate the condos next to the campus.
My uncle from Colombia, SA bought his daughter a condo, car and everything she needed to live at College Station back in the 1980’s. When she graduated he sold the condo and gave away everything else.
I did something similar, I got together with four other guys who were sick of the chaos of the dorms and we rented a 5 bedroom house right off campus. Saved money and my grades improved.
My daughter is one of four girls living in a house about ten minutes’ bike ride from campus. It’s less than half the price of the dorm and way more spacious.
Dorms are a money maker so they force students into them under the excuse young students need the discipline. Dorms are noisy, chaotic, and fail to deliver the needed environment for study. Parents often rent an apartment in their name and the student simply says they’ll be living with their parents to get out of those expensive dorms.
You don’t even want to contemplate what her tuition is paying for.
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