How many times have you been out shopping and found a pair of shoes you were absolutely in L-O-V-E with, only to check the price tag to see that your wallet wasn’t even in L-I-K-E? That’s probably happened to you more often than not, right? Now imagine that you found those same shoes, but this time as you hesitantly flip the price tag over you see that they are on super sale.  That’s what it’s like when you’re searching for your next apartment or house near Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.

When the rental prices almost seem too good to be true, you may wonder what’s wrong with the rentals in Carbondale. Are they haunted or something? Nope! The reason that rentals in Carbondale are so inexpensive has less to do with anything supernatural, and more to do with your college enrollment and tuition. 

But how does that affect your rent? Well, when The Great Recession hit back in 2007, colleges across the nation dropped the prices of tuition to influence people to become students at their universities. This worked to reel tons of people to enroll in college for years. The key takeaway here is that when tuition decreased, enrollment increased. When there were more students at these universities, area landlords had their rent prices set just a little bit higher as there were more people in need housing in the area surrounding that college.

As the economy began to recover, colleges started charging obscene amounts for tuition. Which you already know, since you’ve probably signed away your firstborn as a downpayment for your degree. Okay, that was a little dramatic, but not like that off base. Anyway, due to the increased cost of tuition and the diminishing value of a college degree (everyone has one these days), enrollment in colleges has fallen continuously over the last 8 years.

A ton of colleges have felt the sting low enrollment, and Southern Illinois University is no exception. Could it be because the cost of an in-state college education at SIU is more expensive to residents than an out of state college which ends up forcing Illinois residents to neighboring state colleges? Maybe. And by maybe, we mean possibly probably. (Cough, Welcome to Wisconsin)

While paying more for tuition isn’t working in any of the SIU students favor – the low enrollment definitely benefits you since local landlords are continuously underbidding each other to get you to sign with them over another landlord. This is great for you because you can rent a really nice house or apartment with great features and amenities in Carbondale at a price you couldn’t get anywhere else. Unfortunately, landlords in the Carbondale area will continue to go out of business if something doesn’t change with enrollment at SIU.