Here's something few people consider when they're flipping through college guides and mailings from prospective universities: The cost of local housing.
That can be a big oversight, given the glaring differences among various cities. Boston College and Rice University both rank among the top 50 on the Forbes' list of top schools. But buying a four-bedroom, 2,200-square-foot apartment in Boston would quite likely cost you $1.4 million. Buying a similar pad in Houston would cost $158,000.
Even if you don't plan to buy your college residence, the gap between rents in those two cities reflects the purchase costs. So if both Boston College and Rice fit your needs, why not choose the latter and put the money you save on housing to better, higher use? At Rice, you might be able to use the savings to pay tuition upfront, rather than borrowing against your future earnings.
In Depth: Most And Least Expensive College Towns
Coldwell Banker Real Estate surveys the cost of buying homes in towns where colleges and universities are located, 120 of them this year. To make the fairest comparison, the Parsippany, N.J., franchisor of real estate agencies uses looks at prices of four-bedroom, 2,200-square-foot homes in each location.
This year, the spread between the 10 places where such homes cost the most and the 10 where they're most affordable is as startling as ever. Palo Alto, Calif., home of venerable Stanford University, is so wildly expensive that you might be relieved to get your rejection letter. The average cost of a 2,200-square-foot apartment there is $1.49 million.
On the other end of the spectrum is the lesser-known but highly respectable University of Akron in Ohio. Apartments near campus in Coldwell Banker's size range cost an average of $121,885.
Coldwell Banker's choice of four-bedroom apartments makes more sense than you might think when looking at college residences. That's because a common strategy for parents who invest in an apartment for a daughter or son in college is to buy one that can be rented out to two or three other students. The arrangement has the tax advantage of enabling the parents to write off depreciation on the apartment, as long as they arrange to have their child pay a market rent for his or her room.
We've assembled a slideshow that identifies the most and least expensive college towns. Coldwell Banker only studies places with colleges that are part of the college football Bowl Championship Series. That excludes New York City, though it's safe to assume the cost of housing in Manhattan is off the charts.
You don't have to be a student or professor to be interested in the cost of buying a residence in a college town, says Jim Gillespie, Coldwell Banker's chief executive officer. He reports that grownup college alums have been snapping up second homes in the places where they attended school. They're attracted by their alma maters' cultural offerings and, of course, their home football games. Gillespie himself is a faithful fan of his old school's football team, the University of Illinois Illini in Champaign, Ill. He and his wife are buying a townhouse there.
