The scene at the Wellness Resource Center’s housing fair in February was similar to that of a busy street market. But instead of enticing passersby with food and clothes, eager vendors hawked granite counter tops, swimming pools, state-of-the-art fitness centers and tanning beds.
The student housing market in Columbia has grown gradually over the past decade, but the development of three new properties (Aspen Heights, The Domain, and The Lofts at 308 Ninth) this fall have turned a previously niche market into the norm.
Before the opening of Brookside Downtown in 2010, luxury student housing in Columbia consisted of large complexes miles from campus that compensated for the daily commute with these “extras” not previously associated with student housing.
This option was welcomed by those who could afford it. Since Gateway opened in 2006, the complex has been at nearly 100 percent occupancy, as have The Cottages since they opened in 2007. Gateway and The Cottages have all offered students high-end apartments for prices between $450 and $650.
But Brookside Downtown’s rent, which starts at $650 a month, reset the financial barometer for gauging just how much students were willing to pay for luxury and location. With greater potential for profit, competition for students’ attention has intensified. Increased advertising efforts have eclipsed more affordable student housing options.
At Aspen Heights, apartments are between $529 and $609, The Domain apartments are between $600 to $900, and The Lofts on 308 Ninth are between $749 and $1500.
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Heavy advertising is easy to afford with these rates. New complexes take out advertisements on buses and billboards, give away T-shirts and food, and host events and parties.
“For the most part, all it takes is one extra person signing up (to afford these advertisements),” Wellness Resource Center Director Kim Dude said.
A larger advertising budget ensures the opportunity for increased exposure at the Wellness Resource Center’s housing fair each November and February. In February, junior Sarah Fleming was stopped at the Lofts’ table perusing their presentation of luxury living. But she was at the housing fair to look for something else: affordable housing. Fleming said there were not enough of these affordable options displayed at the fair.
“(Luxury housing) is not an option, but I think it’s awesome,” she said. “I don’t know how college students can afford them. I would love to live there if I could.”
Junior Malcolm Hayden and a friend of his were also looking for affordable housing at the fair. Hayden, who currently lives at Grantwood Village, said luxury housing was not an option for him.
“They’re nice to look at and nice to shoot for, but as a realistic option, it’s not possible,” Hayden said.
While luxury housing is currently out of reach for many students, these options continue to pop up from the quad all the way to the highway.
“It seems to be the market responding very rapidly,” Residential Life Director Frankie Minor said. “The problem is that more students are willing to pay for it.”
Students’ demand for luxury housing is not merely a product of students’ ability to pay, though — it’s a product of students’ thinking. In the 1960s, students were bringing fans, hairdryers, radios and desk lamps to school, Minor said. Now, students are asking how to fit their 50-inch flat screen TVs into the residence halls.
“What’s happened is that as the family became more prosperous, expectations for what they think they need are much higher,” he said.
Dude said many of these amenities are beyond the basic needs of college students.
“I just hope students who sign up for those have the financial ability to afford those without going into significant debt,” Dude said.
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What average students can afford is becoming increasingly limited.
One of the cheaper options is the residence halls, where students are charged roughly the same amount that Residential Life pays to run and maintain the building.
“These off-campus developers have to make money to make a profit,” Minor said. “(Residential Life’s) goal is to break even.”
Residence hall availability decreases as students progress through college. Only 14 percent of students living in the residence halls are not freshmen, Minor said. This is because freshmen get priority, and with freshmen classes growing every year, Residential Life has had to restrict contracts for non-freshmen for the fifth year. This year, only 1,000 contracts were available for returning students.
Another cheaper option is living in a smaller apartment complex or house on East Campus, but these options are often less known to students. Dude said this is because many of these places do not have to advertise.
“They don’t have to have a full-page ad, and it wouldn’t make financial sense for them when they only have three to four apartments,” she said.
Dude added these options are also less advertised because students either hear about them via word of mouth, or they pass the house to friends from year to year.
Those who need a more affordable option but do not get a hand-me-down house often head to places miles off campus. These options may be more affordable, but they can cause commuter problems with unreliable and inconvenient shuttles and insufficient parking.
Freshman Heidi Denish was looking at a four-bedroom apartment between three and four miles off campus. She said this would bring some scheduling changes.
“I have to plan around the buses and be early,” she said. “You just don’t know how long the bus is going to take.”
Junior Alex Heck currently lives at The Grove and said commuting to campus is difficult when he can’t find a parking spot.
“I have a parking spot at Hillel, but I feel like they could easily have more spots for people,” Heck said.
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Luxury housing has posed problems for students at MU, and has also presented issues for the Columbia community.
In the spring of 2012, the residents of Columbia Regency Mobile Home Park had to vacate their homes because Aspen Heights purchased the land to build its luxury housing. Many residents spoke against the plan, [as did numerous MU student governments that opposed the plan.](https://www.themaneater.com/stories/2011/11/29/luxury-student-housing-set-replace-mobile-home-par/) Grace Haun, the Missouri Students Association Campus and Community Relations Committee chair at the time, was one of those. She presented City Council with a resolution that the MSA Senate passed in opposition to the building of Aspen Heights.
“This was something students didn’t want or need,” she said.
Aspen Heights, which opens in the fall of 2013, has also been [accused of not paying its workers, according to a previous Maneater article.](https://www.themaneater.com/stories/2013/2/5/aspen-heights-resolving-unpaid-worker-issues/)
Another luxury housing controversy began when the St. Louis-based Collegiate Housing Partners was negotiating to purchase and demolish the 175-year-old Niedermeyer Apartments building to create a 15-story housing complex in its place.
After a new buyer [saved the building from demolition](https://www.themaneater.com/stories/2013/3/15/niedermeyer-building-spared-demolition/), the company has decided to look elsewhere in Columbia to build “grade-A” housing for students, said Brandt Stiles, the company’s director of development.
Haun said the creation of luxury housing is still an issue.
“There is an abundance of overpriced, under quality housing,” she said.
Organizations within MU are taking notice of these issues.
MSA voted March 6 to create an ad hoc committee to evaluate the increase in expensive housing and the decrease in affordable housing, MSA President Nick Droege said.
“I think student luxury housing is for a socioeconomic class that can afford it,” Droege said. “It’s not a bad option for those people as long as we still have housing for those students of a different socioeconomic class.”
The Wellness Resource Center is also looking into the housing situation and will be adding a full-time off-campus housing employee.
The real deciding factor is the students, though.
“Students need to examine their role in this problem,” Minor said. “If the higher-end places don’t fill up, that segment of the market is going to dry up … Students need to ask themselves, ‘Do I really need that granite countertop as a college student?’”