Real Estate Investing in a College Town - Always a Good Investment?

   According to U.S. Department of Education, undergraduate college enrollments are expected to rise over the next 10 years by 15 percent, while graduate and professional students will grow by as much as 25%. This means that no matter what the rest of the real estate market does in the US, college towns will continue to have some sort of housing demand. If you are looking to invest in real estate, it might make sense for you to check out your nearby university housing market.  There are many reasons for checking out this apparent gold mine but pay attention to some of the drawbacks.

   For starters, towns and cities with a continuous draw for more students also have a continuous housing supply problem. Granted schools will build more dorms and developers will build more apartments, but there will also be an increase in residential housing like single family residences to multi units say up to 4 units.  Older students, graduate students, additional professors, and faculty will place a demand for housing near school campuses which is an ideal place to own an investment property. If you do it right, you should always have tenants.

   Along with increasing students and faculty, college towns will continue to be a key location for business research and development facilities due to the availability of educated help at cheap prices. This will obviously help sustain demands on the housing market with the increased non student employee housing needs.

   Parents, if you have kids heading off to college this could be a great way to pay for your child’s room and board. A recent study by the National Association of Realtors showed that approximately 8% of second homes were bought in college towns by parents to provide a place for their kids to live. There are several Fannie Mae and FHA programs that allow for what is called kiddie condo financing. These programs allow for a “blood” relative to participate with the student to purchase a home, even if the relative does not live in the home. Often these programs allow for low down payments, they also allow the mortgage interest rate to be based on “owner occupied” rates, which are lower than what an investor interest rate would be. The other advantage to this type of program is that if the child, or student, is on the loan it helps them to establish a positive credit history and rating.