As summer quickly approaches and one-year leases expire, over half of SMU students look to find off-campus housing close to campus, which is increasingly limited and pricey.
Brandon Green, a senior at SMU and a senior associate of Carolyn Shamis Realtors, is very familiar with off-campus SMU housing.
“The majority of us want to live close to campus,” Green said. “And the SMU area is specifically overpriced by the owners because they know they can fill the units.”
William Brueggeman, the chair of SMU’s real estate department and a real estate professor at the Cox School of Business, says properties in similar condition tend to rent for more than those farther away because of convenience.
Helen Huber, a junior at SMU, says she and her two roommates pay a hefty price for her apartment on the edge of campus on McFarlin Avenue.
“We pay $3200 a month for our apartment, but it’s totally worth being so close. I literally wake up 10 minutes before class, brush my teeth and then leave,” she said.
While properties are marked up for convenience, Brueggeman says similar properties located farther from campus may tend to rent for less because some tenants will be non-SMU students that are more concerned about commuting to their place of work.
“SMU students may be able to get better rents in these units, but they must travel farther to campus for class,” Brueggeman said.
This summer, Huber will move from her McFarlin apartment to The Boulevard on University Drive, a new apartment complex on University Drive, about a mile farther from campus than her current apartment.
“The rent is $1900 for a two-bedroom place, which is a lot cheaper with lower utility bills than my old apartment,” (So what’s the rent? We need to know, for comparison to the $3200) Huber said. “There is also a pool/grill area, a 24 hour workout facility, and they are building a taco shop and two bars on the ground floor.”
The Boulevard is close to full occupancy, and students have already signed leases for more than 35 percent of the building’s 281 apartments.
While students living near campus often pay around $1000 for a single bedroom at the least, students can find one-bedroom apartments for $200 less, or about 20 percent less.
Green says you can find a three-bedroom apartment on Turtle Creek and Oak Lawn Avenue for about $2000-$2500 a month, but it would be a five to ten-minute commute for class.
For students like Emily Babich who do not have a car to commute to class, living in walking distance is a necessity.
“Most of them are in the $3500-$4000 price range, which is pricey for what we want to pay,” Babich said. “But we are going to have to deal with high pricing in order to find housing close to campus. We need to be able to walk to class.”
According to Louis Bing of Keller Williams Realty, properties closer to campus fill up the fastest and are already limited.
“The condos and homes for rent on Rosedale and that area are typically leased up within the week it first comes out,” Bing said. “There will be openings when people move out because their lease expired, but most of them are over 90 percent occupied.”
SMU has a predictable class schedule of which landlords and returning students are well aware.
Brueggeman said, “Since there is a relatively fixed supply of available rental units close to campus, renting sooner maybe preferable to waiting.
While apartments become available for lease this spring and summer, it is a good idea to act quickly.
“Luckily, there is still available housing near campus to lease around our price range, but we really should have started looking earlier,” Babich said. “Time is money and we need to start making some moves.”
