High Rises and High Prices
EUGENE, Ore.— Oregon has become a hotspot for Californians. Local real estate broker Jim St. Clair has seen an influx in our neighbors to the south moving to the Pacific Northwest. It is not hard to see why, with its lush forests, towering mountains, beautiful deserts, and jaw-dropping coastline— the Pacific Northwest is a beautiful place.
The University of Oregon has seen these changes as well— and expensive new apartment buildings popping up on Franklin Boulevard prove it.
“Probably, if I had to guess, about 40% of the student body is from California,” said St. Clair, a local real estate broker for St. Clair Properties. St. Clair has noticed the shift in the student body since he obtained his real estate license in 2005. Back then, he estimated that about 70% of students at the University were from Oregon.
This shift in students has made a noticeable change in the housing market. High-rise apartment buildings are taking the popular student housing destination, Franklin Boulevard, by storm. Three have popped up within the past few years, and three more are rumored to be in development near Kincaid and 13th street, however only one has started development.
St. Clair explained that this uptick in high-rise student housing is likely due to the increase in wealthy (Californian) families pouring money into the market.
“They are not as price-sensitive as compared to Oregonians, so we have been able to build more expensive products,” St. Clair said. He explained that the University of Oregon student body used to mainly consist of middle-class families from Oregon, but as the years have gone on, the student population has filled up with more upper-middle-class families from California.
These expensive high-rises are the bane of some students’ existence, like fourth-year student Heidi Osaki. Heidi has lived in Eugene for a number of years now, and she strongly dislikes the new high-rises. “A lot of these properties are targeted towards students… I think that it’s gentrifying Eugene,” Osaki said. “They are not affordable.”
According to American Campus, the property management company for one of these high-rise buildings located at 2125 Franklin Boulevard, the rent can be up to $1,739 a month per person.
To find anything cheaper, students have to locate themselves further and further away from campus.
Oskai has had to live more than 20 blocks from campus just to find available and affordable housing.
Even with cheaper rent further away from campus, many students still require a cosigner, or a third party, in order to be approved to sign a lease. These third parties are needed because, at many places, prospective renters need to earn a large percentage of their rent in their yearly salary.
Since students typically do not make that much, a cosigner allows for the opportunity for a more financially stable individual to take on partial responsibility for the lease.
Rajeev Ravisankar, former president and current member of the Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation, stated at a city council meeting in February that many students spend 50-70% of their monthly income on rent.
On top of that, students’ income is minimal to begin with. Student employees who work for the University of Oregon are capped at 25 hours a week or 100 hours a month— with minimum wage in Eugene set at $13.50 an hour, this averages to just about $1,300 a month before taxes. RentCafe estimates that the average South University apartment costs $2,000 a month.
Jim St. Clair offered prospective renters a piece of advice. If they want a cheap place, they should seek out low-rated property managers with less-than-ideal living situations on the market. St. Clair says that although these places are often infested with rodents (alongside other issues), they will be the cheapest options out there. Students, he said, should rent there and then budget for things like pest control.
Many students, including Osaki, agree that this shouldn’t be the way that low-income students are forced to live.
St. Clair remains hopeful that these new high rises will contribute to Eugene's decrease in rent. After the construction of these new buildings concludes, St. Clair’s hopes will be put to the test.
Written June, 2022.