Baton Rouge rent on the rise

How high is too high?

[1 Comment(s)]

By Kelley Cox

According to a 2005 survey by LSU, 75 percent of students live off campus in apartments or houses. Recently, this could mean that 75 percent of LSU students are experiencing unexplained increases in the price of rent.

In the past three years, it is estimated that the price of rent for a two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment in Baton Rouge has increased almost $300. That is an average rent increase of about $100 each year.

College students are typically unable to hold full-time jobs due to their course loads and may find it difficult to afford the rising cost of rent. Some students said they are unhappy with the rent increases.

“I feel like pretty soon there’s not going to be affordable housing for the average college student,” said political science senior Jennifer Reboul. “They are forcing students to either live on campus or stay at home to live with their parents.”

Many students blame the rising price to rent on Hurricane Katrina.

“I know that rent went way up after the hurricane,” said kinesiology senior Brandy Fecke.

Some LSU-area apartment complex representatives attributed the rising prices to inflation.

“We raise rent based on market value and inflation. [The cost of] everything goes up every year,” one local representative explained.

Most apartment complexes that raise rent annually said they are “just keeping up with the market.”

When probed about the market, some LSU-area apartment complex representatives said they conduct market surveys to learn about their competitors’ prices.

“We ask the same things students would ask – how many bedrooms, if utilities are included in the rent, the square footage, et cetera,” one representative said.

She went on to say that the complex managers use the information gathered in these market surveys to make decisions about their own apartment complex.

“If we don’t keep up, we would be nothing,” she added.

Other representatives did not know why the apartment complex they represent increased rent.

“[The rent] just goes up every year. The company just does it. It’s just how they do things,” one representative explained.

Another representative from a local complex said, “It’s the market rate. It’s what all the other apartments are doing, too. I think our corporate office has some formula they use.”

A representative from a complex close to LSU responded, “That I am not sure of,” when asked why rent had increased. He offered to transfer the call to a manager’s voicemail box to receive an answer.

Just like the renters, many apartment complex employees don’t understand why the rent continues to increase. The most popular explanation offered was that “everyone else is doing it” and “we always do this.”

Until the apartment complexes are ready to break the status quo, students are forced to pay inflated rents while attending LSU.

Pre-nursing student Michael Matthews said, “The apartments aren’t getting any bigger when they raise the rent. They make you pay more for an apartment that’s just getting older. Half the time, you can’t even get the maintenance people to change a light bulb. They’re just lining their pockets. It’s a monopoly; it’s ridiculous.”

Not all LSU-area apartment complexes are raising rent. Two local apartment complexes said they did not raise rent this year.

“Nope, not this year,” said a representative when asked if rent had increased.

Another local complex manager boasted, “We haven’t raised rent in five years.”

With new apartment complexes and condominiums being built at seemingly every corner, some said it looks as though Baton Rouge is going to run out of people to put in the new buildings.

“The freshman residence requirement is taking a quarter of the people at LSU out of the renter pool. So maybe there is hope for the future. Maybe prices will go down when the apartments remain empty,” said Matthews.

Students can get some consolation in the fact that apartments all across Baton Rouge have expensive rents, not just near the LSU campus. An apartment complex on Millerville Road near I-12 charges more than $1,000 a month to rent a two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment.

Another complex on O’Neal Lane charges more than $800 to rent a two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment each month.

“Ever since the hurricane, Baton Rouge has doubled in size. I guess new apartments are being built and are charging more expensive rent,” Reboul said of why the rent is increasing. “These new complexes have all these recreational rooms and game rooms and fitness centers – all the amenities add up.”

“Baton Rouge is a growing city, and I think they’re trying to make it more affluent. Baton Rouge isn’t just a college town now; it’s becoming a bigger city. Building bigger, nicer, more expensive apartments is just a part of it, I guess. But it still sucks for the college students; we can’t afford the apartments that are being built here,” Reboul added.

“I think a lot of it has to do with LSU implementing the new freshman housing requirement. Now that the complexes can’t count on any freshman renters, they have to raise rent to compensate for the empty apartments that they’re going to have. They have to raise rent to make ends meet,” said psychology junior Terry Mickail.

“I understand that they’re trying to make Baton Rouge bigger and nicer, but they need to stop building apartments and condos right on top of the campus,” Mickail added.

Until apartment complexes in Baton Rouge choose to stop raising rent, students have few options: Pay the rent or transfer to a university with more affordable rent in its surrounding area.

Send your comments to editor@tigerweekly.com

Originally Published: Issue 601 - March 26, 2008

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