Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, November 10, 1994 TAG: 9411100071
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CLAUDINE WILLIAMS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
While Roanokers could save money by renting, a new Census Bureau report shows that college communities like Blacksburg are apt to have among the highest apartment prices.
"The closer you live to the college, the more expensive it will be," said Don Barker, president of the Blacksburg and New River Valley Apartment Council. "Location makes all the difference."
In Roanoke, the median rent was $364 a month, putting the area at 230th out of the 335 metropolitan areas published in the Census Bureau's report, Housing in Metropolitan Areas - Renter Financial Characteristics.
But in Blacksburg, because of its proximity to Virginia Tech, the median apartment rent was 14 percent higher, or $414, the survey said.
The report released this week is based on information collected in the 1990 census and includes both apartment and house rentals.
Barker said students are willing to pay more for the convenience of living close to the college. And people who work in the area are willing to pay the price to be closer to their jobs.
"Rent is subject to supply and demand," said Rick Whitney, president of Fralin & Waldron Inc., a real-estate development and construction company in Roanoke. "If you have a college town where there is more expansion, yes, you will see the rents going up. Renting bedrooms out to multiple students also tends to force the rent up."
Gloria Wade, a longtime member of the Roanoke Apartment Association and manager of Camelot Village Apartments in Salem, said that high turnover and the cost to maintain apartments in Blacksburg contributes to the price.
But rent alone does not determine affordable housing, officials say. If rents are low but incomes also are low, that can be as bad as high rents in high-income areas.
An improved economy has raised the number of people who move into apartments, managers say.
"Just as fast as I could get an apartment available, it is filled," said Janice Chittum, manager of Frontier Apartments on Plantation Road. "And as soon as I advertise, people are calling" for units.
Frontier's 182 apartments have been fully leased since early this year, when employees from Transkirt Corp. began to look for housing after the company relocated its headquarters from Brewster, N.Y., to Roanoke, Chittum said. Frontier's two-bedroom apartments cost $338 to $368 a month.
In 1992, the market slumped because people could not afford to rent apartments, she said. People chose to rent in houses or they stayed in their parents' homes.
More of the newer apartments are geared toward people with lower incomes, said Monica Thompson of Brittany Apartments on Westside Boulevard.
Some of these apartments are part of a government housing-subsidy program that gives apartment owners and investors tax credit if they rent to people who fall in certain low- and moderate-income brackets.
Although construction has been slow for new apartments, Peters Creek Apartments opened last month. The complex, which rents two-bedroom units for about $410, is designed to satisfy a growing demand for apartments near Hollins College, said Wade.
"We have college girls looking for a place to live and there are businesses growing there," said Wade. "I am certain there is a demand for apartments or else they would not be building them."
by CNB