Demand outpaces supply ...substantially. 

A quick look at prices of units not supplied by UCSB show a 3 BR with 6 students starts at ~$1k/month per student (Own bedroom is double the cost). 

Not horrible and not earth shattering.

In addition, I suspect there are issues/inefficiencies in the materials supply chain due to COVID.

The taxes in the state are not that bad; however, the seller did not supply the actual value.

My name is Abhi Kotti and I am a senior at Arizona State University (Barrett the Honors College) double majoring in Finance and Supply Chain Management.

Neither is the iconic international city, stanford university and berkeley, as well as strict supply constraints. 

Low Inventory With inventory less than 1 month could be temporarily suppressed as people are not wanting to move unless absolutely needed to during this time,  but less than 2 months inventory indicates demand is higher than supply which won't induce price reductions. 

If lenders start to tighten up then this will obviously effect the market and alter the supply/demand 

I think it would help in your points 1 and 2 if they could be expanded by analysis of labor market and its trends which would lead into supply and demand analysis.