Where are you living next year?
Winter break might seem ages away and term paper due dates are creeping closer, but for many University of Wisconsin–Madison students, it seems the only topic of conversation during the last weeks before Thanksgiving is where they will be living next year.
While some students wait until the end of the first semester or later to sign a lease, there is pressure to sign early. According to several students, pressure comes from talking to friends, emails from property managers that start arriving as early as September and flyers around campus saying places are filling up quickly.
But Campus Area Housing staff member Emma Coenen said these factors can be misleading.
“We call it the ‘Fall Housing Rush Myth,’” Coenen said.
According to Coenen, “There truly is a surplus of housing,” but many students still feel pressured to sign early along with many of their peers. She said this is mainly a problem for first-year students who have not been through the apartment-hunting process before.
For UW-Madison freshman Hosanna Higemengiest, who lives in Sellery Hall this year, time was of the essence. She said she found roommates she did not know on Facebook and signed a lease at the Lucky apartment complex in mid-November because of its proximity to campus.
According to Higemengiest, she and her future roommates were so eager to secure a spot they did not even tour their apartment before signing. She said Lucky does not allow potential tenants to tour units until after Thanksgiving.
UW–Madison sophomore Jonah Grant had a similar experience his first year.
“I was doing a lot of looking into the ‘sophomore slum area’ and the JSM properties,” Grant said, referring to the south campus neighborhood surrounding College Court. “I gave up because my roommates were very set on Grand Central, so I just went with them,” he said.
According to Grant, he learned to be more thorough in his search, and this year he and his roommates did more research and touring before deciding on the Dayton House Apartments. But he said the apartment manager still put pressure on them to sign early, saying the apartments were filling up quickly.
Many apartment managers say the properties are filling up early, so students feel they need to sign right away in order to get their first choice, but according to Madison Property Management staff member Nicky Snarski, rentals may remain available for longer than people think.
“Many leases are signed the first day they are available to rent,” Snarski said, but “[there are] still housing options for prospects that are looking as the second semester starts.”
But inevitably as time goes on, housing options become more limited. Fortunately, the university provides several resources to help students find places to live.
Each fall, University Housing hosts a web chat to answer questions about returning to the dorms. This year, the web chat will be held Dec. 3 on University Housing’s website. Additionally, Campus Area Housing hosts a Student Housing Fair, which was held Nov. 12. At this event, property owners and managers from the campus area set up booths to talk to students about their specific units and renting processes.
“The University is really trying to put on more housing awareness events,” Coenen said. She said they want to encourage students to make an informed housing decision.
According to Coenen, there was a shortage of student housing about 20 years ago before high rise apartment buildings started replacing demolished five-bedroom houses, but campus has since seen an increase in student housing. She said apartment managers are aware of the increase in available student housing options but use the “myth” to encourage students to sign right away so their buildings fill for the next year.
As the end of the semester draws near, students will have to weigh their options and decide if waiting is worth the risk.
