Coming to NC State, I expected tuition to be the greatest expense, because after all, it is why we’re all here. To my astonishment, housing is a remarkably close second.
Often, the cost of tuition and fees is considered an investment towards a more promising and successful future. For this reason, it could be argued that tuition has some grounds for an exceptionally large price tag. The expense of housing, however, is not an investment. Yet dorms, apartments, houses and the whole nine yards have steep costs. On average, public four-year in-state students pay housing costs that exceed tuition, doing serious harm to student financial lives.
Construction is characteristic of Raleigh and other booming cities alike, and with every new apartment complex, hope for affordability is created only to ultimately disappoint.
That’s because although Raleigh — and noticeably Hillsborough — are seeing new apartments pop up frequently, most of these newly constructed apartments around college campuses are advertised as luxurious. The demand for student housing goes without being said, but the ever-growing supply of luxury student apartments doesn’t really match our desires or our needs. Instead, there are limited options and we have to settle, but instead of settling for something that doesn’t reach our expectations, we are left with such little choice but to settle for unnecessary luxuries that used to be uncharacteristic of college life if we want to be fully immersed and live away from home.
Of course, there are outlier apartments and homes with comparatively low costs, but aside from the rare gem, in these cases safety and distance from campus become concerns. More often, both the cost of dorms and off-campus housing are extremely high. Not to mention, many students have to pay for their college, at least in part. Whether this expense is partial or full, the implications are apparent.
Of course, high costs of housing are expected for colleges located in booming cities with higher costs of living, but rather than accommodating students, costs are amplified, oftentimes to be significantly higher than market rates, because of the convenience of the location. From an economic standpoint of supply and demand, this makes sense because clearly the market can bear these price points, given that they are being sustained. However, this is detrimental to students, who may carry loans and debt with them for years, as well as families.
With all of the initiatives that encourage college enrollment and advocate for students, such as financial aid, work-study programs and scholarships, it can be easy to lose sight of tribulations such as this until they are fully realized when we attend college ourselves. But there is no excuse to neglect the real problem of the cost of housing; the fact is that expensive student housing cannot be sustained and must be stopped.
