Student housing complexes in Tallahassee have been raising their rents for the upcoming school year.
Many students have renewed their housing leases already. Now students are struggling to pay the remaining balance on their rental portal before their new leases start in August.
The survey was conducted from July 12 to March 17, with over 500 current and recent college graduates participating. Thirty-five percent said they cannot afford to rent an apartment in their college town, and 19% are relying on parental help to pay rent, something they didn’t need to do in the last couple of years.
Taylor Ford is a business administration major at Florida A&M from Jacksonville. She says she is struggling to pay her rent because her apartment’s utilities are on her account for the remaining lease she is locked into.
Christopher Turner, a manager at Seminole Grand on Tharpe Street, said, “Most students have already renewed their lease for the upcoming school year. But due to the prices going up, we have sent out emails to the residents that have renewed their leases to let them know that the rent has gone up by $100 for the upcoming year.”
Students are trying to figure out how they will be paying the remaining balance on their apartment portal.
About 31% of schools had rent growth from 2% to 4% in fall 2021, compared to 17% in fall 2020. More than 56% of the RealPage 175 achieved better than 2% rent growth in fall 2021. That was almost double the fall 2020 figure.
James Thomas is an economics major at Florida State University from Atlanta. He has been living in University Green Student Condos for the past two years, and his rent has decreased each time he renewed. But now the rent has increased for the upcoming year.
“I believe since we are college students, apartments should be affordable for most college students,” Thomas said. “Many students move off campus because of many reasons. But with the prices going back up for the upcoming year, it is making me rethink if I want to resign my lease for the new year if I may end up paying $700 a month, not including utilities.”
Many of the residents staying off-campus are starting to rethink if they really want to struggle or live from check to check to help them pay for their rent. They realize they also have to worry about their other finical issues.