HomeUnion Identifies the 20 Most Expensive College Towns for Off-Campus Renters

UCLA and Stanford University top 2017's list for the second consecutive year

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Aug 29, 2017, 10:00 ET

IRVINE, Calif., Aug 29, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- HomeUnion, an online residential real estate investment management firm, has released a list of the college towns with the most expensive off-campus rents. To create the list, HomeUnion analyzed the median rent within a two-mile radius of university's campus and compared it to the metro area's market-rate rent. Colleges with enrollment of 15,000 students or higher were included in the study, which also examines some of the least-expensive towns for off-campus student housing.

For the second year in a row, rents within a two-mile radius of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and Stanford University are the highest in the nation. Rents within two miles of UCLA topped out at $5,158 per month, compared to the market rent of $2,785 per month, 85.2 percent above market. Near Stanford, in the heart of the Silicon Valley, median rents are $6,066 per month, or 68.3 percent above the market rent of $3,605 in the area. Rents near Georgetown University are the third-highest in the nation: Students pay $3,433 per month around Georgetown's District of Columbia campus, 60 percent above market rents of $2,145.

"With many students returning to campus this month and in early September, we wanted to alert them and their families to the most expensive college campuses in the country," explains Steve Hovland, director of research for HomeUnion. "Tuition for many institutions of higher learning is soaring, forcing students and their families to opt to reside in single-family rentals (SFRs) and other living situations off-campus. To minimize living expenses, students can rent properties further than two miles from campus or choose to have roommates in a rental home. This study illustrates where living near campus is disproportionately more expensive than the market as a whole, and off-campus housing may eat into their college savings," Hovland adds.

Here's a list of the college towns with the most expensive off-campus rents:

Location/Metro	University	Median Rent (<2 Miles)	% Above Market
Westwood/Los Angeles	University of California, Los Angeles	$5,158	85.2%
Stanford, Calif./San Jose	Stanford University	$6,066	68.3%
Georgetown/Washington, D.C.	Georgetown University	$3,433	60.0%
CBD/Washington, D.C.	George Washington University	$3,417	59.3%
East Lansing, Mich.	Michigan State University	$1,715	58.6%
Coral Gables, Fla./Miami	University of Miami	$3,097	47.0%
West Chester, Pa./Philadelphia	West Chester University of Pennsylvania	$2,292	46.8%
Irvine, Calif./Orange County	University of California, Irvine	$4,372	43.4%
Berkeley, Calif./Oakland	University of California, Berkeley	$4,134	34.2%
Boca Raton, Fla./West Palm Beach	Florida Atlantic University	$2,786	34.1%
Davis, Calif./Sacramento	University of California, Davis	$2,499	33.1%
University District/Seattle	University of Washington	$3,126	32.3%
Chapel Hill, N.C.	UNC Chapel Hill	$1,843	31.9%
Amherst, Mass.	University of Massachusetts	$2,465	31.7%
Richardson, Texas/Dallas	University of Texas at Dallas	$2,133	30.1%
Cambridge, Mass./Boston	Harvard University	$3,352	29.9%
Back Bay/Boston	Northeastern University	$3,223	24.9%
Back Bay/Boston	Boston University	$3,198	24.0%
Columbus, Ohio	Ohio State University	$1,649	23.0%
South End/Boston	University of Massachusetts at Boston	$3,127	21.2%