NEWS | HOUSING
(Almost) No Vacancy The recent apartment fire in Pullman is just the latest of the city’s housing challenges BY MEGAN PETERSEN
F
or her upcoming final semester of college, FEWER PLACES TO GO Washington State University music educaThe Whitman County vacancy rate, as measured each tion major Olivia Borges wanted to live September, has dropped in the past few years as WSU with her fiancé. He proposed to her at the site of enrolled more students. The ideal is around 5 percent. their first date. He gave her his grandmother’s 7% bracelet. She said yes. Then she dropped a lease so she could move in with him at The Grove. But last month, The Grove went up in 5% flames, causing $13 million in damage, landing a man in jail accused of arson, and leaving Borges and 500 other tenants without a place to live. 3% “We were at the point where we needed to jump on the ball,” Borges says of the days following the fire. “Our options were pretty slim.” In a college town where students make up a 1% majority of the renters, housing fills up quickly. With low vacancy and a high-demand market, ’00 ’04 ’08 ’12 finding decent housing and reasonable rent can Source: Washington Center for Real Estate Research be a struggle, often leaving students in substanLisa Waananen graphic dard accommodations. The July 14 fire at The Grove only put more pressure on the market. Pullman knows it has a housing problem, esnation, including complexes in Moscow, Idaho, pecially as WSU’s enrollment increases. Between and Cheney and Ellensburg, Wash. In Pullman, 2008 and 2012, fall semester enrollment jumped local developer Corporate Point has built nine by more than 12 percent. While 5 percent is apartment complexes (about 2,000 units) similar considered a healthy vacancy rate, Whitman to The Grove over the past 12 years as students County’s dipped below 1 percent last year. have looked for alternatives. The university has been building and reno“The supply-demand curve has gone more vating residence halls, but many students prefer toward demand,” says K. Duane Brelsford, the to move to independently owned, non-university president of Corporate Point. housing for more freedom. Many of the houses The Grove featured posh units that, while closest to campus are in substandard condition. 2½ miles from campus, included furnished apartCity inspector Gary Ruse says complaints ments, a clubhouse with a game room about mold and mildew buildup are and library and a resort-style swimming common. Tenants may have to deal pool, at $580 a month for a two-bedroom with leaky faucets and sidewalks upSend comments to apartment. turned by tree roots. Some students editor@inlander.com. Now those who thought they’d end up leasing bedrooms not up return to comfortable housing for the to city code to subsidize expensive school year are scrambling. leases. The Grove is offering options to drop leases Derrick Skaug, a 2013 WSU grad and or to relocate to WSU dorms or The Grove in Pullman city councilman at-large, says some Moscow. On The Grove’s Facebook page, Camlandlords lease two-bedroom houses with two ilpus Crest representatives promised to work with legal basement bedrooms at four-bedroom prices, tenants to help them relocate. But with less than leaving it to student renters to sublease or pay three weeks until classes start, frustrations are the full price themselves. high over the difficulties of finding a new place. With high demand, landlords and manage“The hassle [to find another apartment] ment companies can steadily raise rents, says would be too much,” says sophomore Amanuel Melinda Dutton, managing broker and owner of Getaneh, who is living in Seattle for the summer. RE/MAX Home and Land in Pullman. Single “I decided it wasn’t worth it, so I had to sign up bedrooms can go for up to $500. for a dorm.” “[Rental prices] are not outrageous, but they But moving back into a dorm will cost keep easing into it with $50 more and $50 more,” Getaneh $2,500 more than living at The Grove she says. would have. For some, privately developed apartment Borges, in the end, got lucky. She and her complexes provide a solution. While farther from fiancé went to another apartment complex in campus, they offer attractive extras and freedom Pullman and were able to find an available unit from university rules. the day after the fire. They signed the lease Campus Crest, developer of The Grove, earlier this month. n has built 44 other Grove complexes across the
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