Brian,
I agree. The bloated property values in UC are going to come back
and haunt us when the Fed raises the prime rate. When the dollar doesn't
pick up the necessary value by the end of this fiscal year, etc. Now Upenn
has lowered the endowment to $7,500.00 instead of $15,000.00. They're
angling to lower the really fast price increase of UC properties caused by
their "free money." After I bought my house last summer, the price
automatically rose approximately - that's right, you guessed it -
$15,000.00. That's a fast increase and the appraisers don't care if that
money is actually getting put into the property the way that it's supposed
to.
Even the University of Pennsylvania has to admit that they are
helping create an inflated housing market in the area. They lowered the
endowment to start changing the trend and also added more potential real
estate to the "community" by expanding the borders to 52nd Street and
Haverford Ave. This also gives companies like Campus Apartments, New Age
Reality, O'Donnell Real Estate, etc. to slam their rents to the ceiling
because their property is now considered so much more valuable by an
appraiser. They make the students feel small and powerless by giving them
the ultimatum of either finding cheaper housing in Center City, which isn't
going to happen, or move further West toward 49th, 52nd, etc. I feel sorry
for the student renters, Penn's plan to give its employees the opportunity
of close housing has reciprically made rental housing more expensive and
harder to find.
enn needs to gain better control of the housing situation or it may
affect the decision of students and their parents to choose UC as an
acceptable community to come to for their sheepskin. Let's not forget the
brutal stabbing last weekend of a Upenn student in his house or the child
molestation that occurred earlier in February. The University likes to keep
its problems hush-hush and self-contained, but this is just adding to a pile
of problems that is starting to stack up. If I were a freshman thinking
about Upenn, I might have to do a second take on whether or not I'd want to
live here.
Okay I'm getting off of the soapbox now,
Mario Giorno
Communications Research Technician
Annenberg Public Policy Center
University of Pennsylvania
3620 Walnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
-----Original Message-----
From: Brian Siano [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Wednesday, March 31, 2004 11:56 AM
Cc: UC
Subject: Re: [UC] Presence of students drives up West Phila. real estate
values
John Ellingsworth wrote:
>http://www.dailypennsylvanian.com/vnews/display.v/ART/406a8b1508f12
>
>
It's kind of an odd headline, because the facts are otherwise. it's not
the students who drive up rents, but the increased home ownership that's
made rental units slightly scarcer. After all, there have been renters
in West Philly for decades, so the recent surge of rents can't be
attributed to their presence.
But this does illustrate a point Tony West has made every so often: the
rental market is a major part of our local economy, and it should be
taken into account when deciding upon policy.
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