With rising demand, prices take a hike
Ben Slivnick
Issue date: 4/11/07 Section: News
The exodus of 556 juniors into the off-campus housing market has sent some city rents rising, as leasing season peaks and some opportunistic landlords bank on this year's unprecedented demand.
Facing less oversight downtown than at large apartment buildings under single ownership, some landlords have increased prices in a well-known but notorious practice known as price gouging that is often prevalent during crises that produces shortages. So as high rise apartments fill quickly, and desperate students search deeper into the city and beyond, some are facing steeper prices than they would have just over a week ago.
They include students like Melissa, a junior government and politics and history major, who saw the annual rent at her Colombia Avenue home shoot up more than $1,000 after her landlord caught news that Resident Life denied rising seniors housing last week. She asked to be identified only by her first name so she could maintain a good relationship with him, she said.
In a letter her landlord sent her last week, he cited the housing shortage as the reason for the rent increase, and called it "a very normal practice."
Melissa called it "taking advantage of students."
"It just didn't make sense," she said. "Certainly when there's more demand you can charge more, but I don't think it's legitimate for him to raise the rent that much."
Melissa said she tried to find housing in the city, scheduling several walk-throughs for last weekend. Often, by the time she showed up at one of these off-campus rentals, it had already be leased, she said.
Now, without a car and preferring not to walk to and from school through College Park, where she said she didn't feel safe alone at night, Melissa is looking for housing in Washington. Compared to the high rents in the campus area this year, she said some prices she found were cheaper.
Junior animal sciences major Rachel Niedermayer said she saw a similar practice while searching for off-campus rentals after Resident Life denied her from the Queen Anne's dorm she had lived in for the past five semesters. When she and a friend visited a Columbia Avenue apartment advertised online at $1,850 a month last week, the landlord this weekend said he wouldn't let it go for less than $1,895.
"They know they got us between a rock and a hard place," she said. "They know they got students to the point where they'll pay anything."
Dave Dorsch, chair of the College Park Landlord's Committee, said the rise of rents in off-campus housing was a simple lesson in supply and demand.
"They teach courses like this right there at the university - it's called economics," he said. "This is part of the real world. The closer the units are to the primary point everybody wants to live, the rents are going to be higher."
But SGA Presidential Candidate Jahantab Siddiqui, who is also president of the Off-Campus Student Association, warned that after many students turned away by Resident Life spent three years on the campus, they might not be wise to all the technicalities of signing a lease. At an off-campus housing fair he proposed the university launch this month, he said he wanted to inform students on issues from price gauging to hidden fees.
"A lot of students are in a rush to sign a lease and don't think about what they're getting into," he said.
Despite the office of off-campus housing service's ability to post apartment listings on its website, Siddiqui said students need more guidance before they enter the off-campus market.
"Essentially all the office does is provide a database," he said. "There's only so much they can do. We need more education."
Another SGA Presidential Candidate, Andrew Friedson, encouraged students to seek board in Greek Houses that chapters fill with students not involved in fraternities or sororities if they can't be filled otherwise.
"I'm just encouraging students to look at all the options they have," he said.
Contact reporter Ben Slivnick at slivnickdbk@gmail.com.
Facing less oversight downtown than at large apartment buildings under single ownership, some landlords have increased prices in a well-known but notorious practice known as price gouging that is often prevalent during crises that produces shortages. So as high rise apartments fill quickly, and desperate students search deeper into the city and beyond, some are facing steeper prices than they would have just over a week ago.
They include students like Melissa, a junior government and politics and history major, who saw the annual rent at her Colombia Avenue home shoot up more than $1,000 after her landlord caught news that Resident Life denied rising seniors housing last week. She asked to be identified only by her first name so she could maintain a good relationship with him, she said.
In a letter her landlord sent her last week, he cited the housing shortage as the reason for the rent increase, and called it "a very normal practice."
Melissa called it "taking advantage of students."
"It just didn't make sense," she said. "Certainly when there's more demand you can charge more, but I don't think it's legitimate for him to raise the rent that much."
Melissa said she tried to find housing in the city, scheduling several walk-throughs for last weekend. Often, by the time she showed up at one of these off-campus rentals, it had already be leased, she said.
Now, without a car and preferring not to walk to and from school through College Park, where she said she didn't feel safe alone at night, Melissa is looking for housing in Washington. Compared to the high rents in the campus area this year, she said some prices she found were cheaper.
Junior animal sciences major Rachel Niedermayer said she saw a similar practice while searching for off-campus rentals after Resident Life denied her from the Queen Anne's dorm she had lived in for the past five semesters. When she and a friend visited a Columbia Avenue apartment advertised online at $1,850 a month last week, the landlord this weekend said he wouldn't let it go for less than $1,895.
"They know they got us between a rock and a hard place," she said. "They know they got students to the point where they'll pay anything."
Dave Dorsch, chair of the College Park Landlord's Committee, said the rise of rents in off-campus housing was a simple lesson in supply and demand.
"They teach courses like this right there at the university - it's called economics," he said. "This is part of the real world. The closer the units are to the primary point everybody wants to live, the rents are going to be higher."
But SGA Presidential Candidate Jahantab Siddiqui, who is also president of the Off-Campus Student Association, warned that after many students turned away by Resident Life spent three years on the campus, they might not be wise to all the technicalities of signing a lease. At an off-campus housing fair he proposed the university launch this month, he said he wanted to inform students on issues from price gauging to hidden fees.
"A lot of students are in a rush to sign a lease and don't think about what they're getting into," he said.
Despite the office of off-campus housing service's ability to post apartment listings on its website, Siddiqui said students need more guidance before they enter the off-campus market.
"Essentially all the office does is provide a database," he said. "There's only so much they can do. We need more education."
Another SGA Presidential Candidate, Andrew Friedson, encouraged students to seek board in Greek Houses that chapters fill with students not involved in fraternities or sororities if they can't be filled otherwise.
"I'm just encouraging students to look at all the options they have," he said.
Contact reporter Ben Slivnick at slivnickdbk@gmail.com.
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