Tough times for Real Estate

[Carey Beth Elder]

Auburn real estate is in a situation like no other city in the state of Alabama. With thousands of students renting each year, buying houses and constantly spending money in the city of Auburn the housing market hasn’t quite been affected like it has been in the rest of the country, until now.

On Tuesday, I walked into the office where my current apartment lease is held. There were a few groups of people in front of me in line so as I waited I listened to the groups of potential roommates discussing their living situation for next year. Each of the four groups that I listened to was discussing rent prices for their future apartments. I watched as they searched through a book listing apartments’ prices. With each page they discussed the prices, how they were getting more expensive by the page and how they weren’t going to be able to pay the same prices they paid this year.

After hearing students discuss their concerns about the market I decided to visit another real estate company to see if they were being affected the same way. According to Alice Henderson of Henderson Realty, housing trends in the market have been slow to hit the South, especially Auburn. People in the North have been dealing with problems in the economy for several months at this point and just lately has the Auburn real estate market taken a hit.

New housing is being built everywhere in Auburn, especially in areas around campus. Not only are new apartments and condos constantly being built, the new university dorms will be finished by fall 2009. With the real estate market down, filling this housing could be difficult especially if the market doesn’t improve.

In many parts of the country people aren’t being able to move due to loss of jobs, rising cost of everyday needs and many more economic hardships. Auburn stands apart from most of the nation because of the students that come in each year looking for a place to live. Along with incoming students, alumni support helps the Auburn real estate market as well. Henderson says alumni support helps the market, she said, “Alumni are always looking to go back to where they had those warm-fuzzy fond memories.”

In data collected by city-data.com, Auburn has grown far beyond the Alabama average. Since 1996 when the data was first collected Auburn has built more buildings and homes than the average city in Alabama. Auburn is distinct from any other city in Alabama because of its growth in the past years. So as economic hardships hit Auburn, expectations are questioned since Auburn constantly has new buyers in the market.

When I asked Henderson if students were cutting back on how much money they were willing to pay for an apartment she said they were marketing now for the current economic state. She also said that she predicts that students budgets will be cut because of their family budgets so overall it would affect all of their spending.

“Rent has gone up in all of the apartments this year,” I heard the realtor say in the first office I was in. Upset the student she was speaking to sulked as he left the office. With the hard times ahead and no end in sight everyone is making sacrifices. Economic troubles have hit home and the Auburn real estate market is trying to make the best of the current hard times. What students will have to decide now is whether living in a nice place is worth the inflated price or if they are going to have to simply cut back elsewhere.