Football season.
Basketball season.
House-hunting season.
A growing number of parents and their academic offspring are finding that rental housing is not the only game in college town.
Take a real estate market where rents in college and university communities are growing by leaps and bounds and add the advantage of giving kids a head start in their careers with a good credit score, and the thought of buying housing for college-bound children becomes an enticing alternative.
For example, parents with kids at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, are quickly doing the math and finding buying can mean their sons and daughters can have housing very cheaply if they have a roommate or two, according to local realtor Paul Livingston.
In Cougar Country—Washington State University’s hometown of Pullman—realtor Keith Kincaid said animals are another reason buying is becoming popular.
Veterinary students are discovering purchasing a home is the only way they can keep their beloved pets, Kincaid said.
“That is why they get into buying,” he said.
For Brenda Rowinsky and her husband, buying was almost a moral imperative when looking for a place to live for their Texas A&M undergraduate daughter in College Station.
“I’ve never been one to throw away money on rent,” she said.
In the two years she and her husband have owned a home in College Station, the college mom said the appreciation has been “fantastic.”