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Buying a home for a college student at 23 of 121 universities it surveyed was cheaper than paying for room and board, according to the Mortgage Research Network.
The results don’t align perfectly with geography or population. Colleges in Chicago, Milwaukee and Cincinnati show modest gains for homeowners, along with southern colleges in Jonesboro, Arkansas, Hattiesburg, Mississippi and Columbia, South Carolina. But room and board win out in other urban environments, especially on the super-expensive West Coast.
For example, students at the University of Washington-Seattle would lose out when buying a home, paying about $83,000 more than room and board over three years. Sky-high home prices are to blame for the uneven calculations, matching similarly negative results at the University of Colorado-Boulder, University of California-San Diego and New York University.
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The report goes a step further, calculating additional cost savings in home ownership beyond a typical three- or four-year college education. For example, it says three-year savings at Temple is nearly $30,000 but the homeowner can reap up to a $70,000 profit buying and holding the property for at least 10 years.
Where is the cheapest place to buy your college kid a home? Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia wins the award with the lowest average home price of $137,909. Mom and dad could come out nearly $19,000 ahead over three years in this deal, according to the survey. Even better, the property could save over $33,000 if held for 10 or more years.
The University of Delaware, University of Alabama and University of Memphis in Tennessee round out the top five schools where it’s better to own a home than pay room and board. West Coast and Rocky Mountain cities listed above make the bottom five, along with California State University-Fullerton in Orange County and Montclair State University in New Jersey.
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Montclair State wins the booby prize in this report, coming in last place. Mortgage Research Network says parents could lose up to $163,000 over three years buying a home near the college, instead of paying room and board. It lists the average home price in the New York suburb at $1.1 million, along with a total cost to own of nearly $10,000 per month.