Washington State University - Chinook Yearbook (Pullman, WA)

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Lured by the attractive bonuses of apartment living, Deven Buddrius is one of many students are enjoying the use of tan¬ ning beds, color televi¬ sion, video recorders, microwave cooking... Gary Foster photo as JB ‘It would be reasonable to say there was a housing surplus in Pullman in 1986. There were some vacancies last year, then we had the decreased enrollment and all those new units.’ - Richard Finch Rain, snow, sleet or hail will never keep stu¬ dents from their precious mail. Gary Foster photo Pullfnan’s NE comer has quickly transformed from rolling hills into a residential metropolis. Gary Foster photo Housing 21 Onttai Prawt

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tuppw Developers don’t always look at the rules of economics A mix of state-wide demographic trends and local business decisions combined to make a mess of long-term projections for off-campus housing in 1986. Enrollment declined steadily during the first half of the decade after reaching an all-time high of 17,468 in 1980, but the number of pri¬ vate-sector off-campus apart¬ ment units increased. The trend lead to a hous¬ ing surplus, said one Pull¬ man real estate agent. And with enrollment projections continuing to show declines for the rest of the ' 80s, it was expected that rental rates and real estate prices in Pull¬ man would drop, while the number of personal and business bankruptcies increased. Residence halls aren’t the only ones struggling to meet maximum occu¬ pancy. Campus Commons is one of many Pullman complexes with empty units. Gary Fos¬ ter photo Richard Finch, of Wheat- land Realty, said it would be reasonable to say there was a housing surplus in Pullman in 1986. There were some vacancies last year, then we had the decreased enrollment and all those new units. Kenneth Abbey, WSU assistant vice president for finance, told the Regents in January that Pullman was able to accommodate 17,100 students. Spring semester enrollment in 1986 was 15,290, down from 16,138 in the fall. A memo prepared in July 1985 by Glenn Petry, a WSU finance professor, stated the available housing in Pullman increased 4.5 percent, from 7,182 units to 7,508 units, between 1980 and 1985. Four hundred fifty-eight privately-owned housing units, with 1,029 bedrooms, opened in Pullman between September 1980 and Septem¬ ber 1985. Another 85 units opened in Januaiy 1986, making the total of new units in town 543. Of these, 498 opened in 1985, many of them on Mer¬ man and Terre View Drives, where the Cedar Ridge, Meadows and Campus Commons North apartment complexes accounted for 373 units. The 1979-80 academic year is important because it was the year the Pullman popula¬ tion came close to saturating the available housing mar¬ ket. Residence halls had a 100.5 percent occupancy rate during the fall semester of 1979, and Petry said the gen- f eral housing situation then was very tight. Enrollment dropped 7.6 percent between 1980 and 1985, and as the Baby-bust generation (the generation after the Baby-boomers) grew older and reached col¬ lege age, the available pool of college-age students con¬ tinued to shrink. As a result, WSU adminis¬ trators and others were antic¬ ipating continuing drops in enrollment. Academic vice president and provost Albert Yates told the Regents in Jan¬ uary the university was fac¬ ing a precipitous drop in students. Finch, basing his projections on these trends, estimated the univeristy ' s enrollment would drop another 7.9 percent, hitting bottom at 14,861 in 1994. (continued)

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C ombing the 15.5 percent decrease in enrollment from the full capacity level of 1980 and the 4 per¬ cent increase in available housing since then, Finch anticipated a 19.5 percent net drop in demand in 1994. As anyone who ' s ever had Econ 102 could tell you, when demand drops, so do prices. Enrollment was expected to go up again after 1994. William Bierbaum, director of housing and food at WSU, said enrollment would prob¬ ably reach full-capacity levels similar to 1980 around the year 2010, as the children of the Baby-boomers (the echo ) grow to college age. Students choosing to live off-campus were expected to benefit from the surplus. I think the student body is going to benefit as prices stabilize, Finch said, pre¬ dicting rent prices would come down. I think some people are getti ng away with more than they would in another market. However, the prices could not drop too much, he said, because landlords still had fixed costs, such as mort¬ gages and taxes, to recover. Petry, in his memo, said there is likely to be a depressed period during the 1990s, that may cause bankruptcies and or foreclo¬ sures of some of the rental properties. As the competition increased, newer and better- maintained untis were going to retain tenants, at the expense of run-down units and locations farther from campus. Finch said. We (landlords) are going to have to work harder, he said. The success of the Campus Commons North apartments was due to marketing, he said. The apartments were new (built during the sum¬ mer of 1985) and came with a variety of extras. But Campus Commons North was also an example of the increased competition for tenants, he said. Look at all the things they were giv¬ ing away. I think they had to work a little harder than they thought they would have to. At one point, the complex was offering different combi¬ nations of free use of a televi¬ sion and video cassette recorder and free use of the complex ' s tanning booth to lure people into signing leases for the spring semes¬ ter. The university ' s residence halls were unable to com¬ pete, and occupancy sank to a record-low 69.8 percent in the spring of 1986. To trim costs, the university moved to trim 1,000 beds from the system, which was accom¬ plished by closing Kruegel and McAllister halls, and designating Goldsworthy and Perham as temporary housing that would remain open as long as there was demand for space. □ Bryan Corliss Contributing Writer There is likely to be a depressed period during the 1990s, that may cause bankruptcies and or foreclosures of some of the rental properties. ' - Glenn Petry University operated apartments provide yet another option for stu¬ dents who want more independence. Mike Anderson photo 22 Housing