Rentals in College Towns

[Ashley Vellon]

At the link below, there is a survey from University Presidents. An excerpt from the link is below regarding the content from the survey.  Seems like helpful information when analyzing current/future rentals in college towns.

https://www.acenet.edu/Researc...

"​​​​​​As colleges and universities move past their initial responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, including transitions to remote instruction and operations, higher education leaders are working diligently to plan for the future. In early May, ACE launched its second of 12 monthly Pulse Point surveys of college and university presidents on COVID-19. Three hundred ten presidents* responded on topics such as their current plans for the fall, including actions they may require to consider reopening campus, the impact of the pandemic on future revenue, and the projected impact on fall enrollment numbers. It is important to note that circumstances surrounding the pandemic are constantly evolving, and responses to this survey represent presidents’ thinking at one moment in time."

[Stephanie Jacobson]

@Account Closed Yikes! That's a pretty pessimistic take you've got on Binghamton there! Many things you said aren't wrong, but I'd like to pitch in my two cents' about here and other smaller college towns.

Taxes in New York are horrendous. Our governor is a train wreck. Things are at a tipping point, especially now when so many have been forcefully shut down and life has been interrupted. But we upstate New Yorkers are a resilient people. We know how to navigate this. We prosper here.

Binghamton is full, and I mean full, of people with tenacity and grit. They have survived blight, job loss, high taxes, an influx of drugs from the city, you name it. And they're always working on doing better. These zoning restrictions you mention: a regulation was passed stating that unless given a permit, owners can't have more than three unrelated people living in a house. I specialize in student housing, and have many many clients who have been given their permits and own buildings of eight or ten students. It doesn't matter where these buildings are, it matters that the property is safe, has enough bathrooms and means of egress, and so on. We have no restrictions on where students can live, more for the purpose of them living safely in older converted houses. These regulations are annoying, but in many cases have required owners to repair and renovate these beautiful old buildings that may otherwise have fallen apart.

Taxes are high, but rent and incomes are high too. There's a systemic problem here with high taxes, but if you can buy a building for $150,000 with taxes of $4,000/year and bring in rent of $4,000/month (I can give you examples of this), then you're going to be doing just fine.

I'm not sure where you got your information about the university, but BU has committed to holding on campus classes in the fall. The students are thrilled about this and there has been a rush on signing leases.

As far as the campus being the only life, that's sort of a slap in the face to every business owner, property investor, and resident of Binghamton. We have incubators that are doing extremely well. The hospitals are fantastic. We have restaurants and an adorable downtown that's thriving. Of course upstate rust belt towns have struggled. But have you seen Buffalo? or what's happening in Rochester? We're tough, we love our towns, we're fighting to make them better and we're doing a damn good job.

I have clients who have started their investing portfolios here and are doing really, really well. This city relies on folks who bring money here and improve the community. In my case, many of those folks come from Bigger Pockets and are just starting off. They buy an affordable building, bust butt to revive it, and get good rents at the end of the day. We need young, new, excited investors to keep coming here and keep doing what they're doing.

Lower taxes would only help us. Less regulation generally helps everyone. I know the sentiments in your post are spot on. But don't throw us under the bus! We're doing great over here, and can do even better. We're keeping our heads up and we're proud of our home and what we're making it into.