by Catherine Stansberry
The summer months in Gunnison present real estate opportunities and issues for Western State students spending their break in the valley. According to Bill Knowles, manager of Rocky Mountain Rentals in Gunnison, July and August remain the best times to look for rental properties in the area. “Starting in preparation for classes rentals start to pick up in July and August,” Knowles said. “And as kids leave for the summer places open up.” According to Knowles, Western students are a big client for the rental group.
“I think of our total rentals, probably three fourths are WSC students,” Knowles said.
Yet Knowles insists that the national real estate market’s downward spiral is definitely hitting the valley. “There is a lot more renting than selling right now. The real estate market is in the toilet, and we are not immune,” Knowles said.
While parents used to buy properties for their kids to live in while attending school, Knowles states that the economic crisis is preventing such buying of properties now. “Mom and Dad just don’t have any money,” Knowles said. Students who are looking to rent over the summer might not have any luck until early July according to Knowles. “If you mean to walk in and get an apartment today it would be very difficult,” Knowles said. “If you try on July first it would be very different.”
Real estate companies are not the only way to go about finding summer living. WSC senior Tiffany Mitchell just started driving around looking for rental signs in February when she needed a place to live. “It took me the whole month to find something. I didn’t get into a place until the first week of March, the same week I had to be out of my other lease,” Mitchell said. While rental sign scouting may be a preferred choice of looking for housing for college students, Mitchell advises against it after her experience. “A lot of real estate companies around here do sales and rentals and the signs on the property don’t indicate which,” Mitchell said. “The best thing to do is pop into any real estate office and ask if they have any rentals. I definitely feel that the rental properties are not their number one priority, so it’s better if you make an appearance.”
Western State Writers Spring 2009 