Covid-19 and Housing for Fall of 2020

[CatCrowDogRaccoon]

Does anyone think that school is likely to be online-only in the Fall of 2020? If so, when are you going to start looking for housing?I think it is a big risk to sign a rental agreement now without knowing how the pandemic will develop. If school school remains online-only in the Fall, I’d rather stay at home than schlep hours away to live near a closed campus.

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[couldhavebeenme]

I feel you. I just signed a lease near WSU for the fall. I asked the landlord about the possibility of being flexible with the lease if there are no in-person classes in the fall, and he was "willing to work with us." I hate the uncertainty but I also feel like I should plan for the best-case scenario.

 

[JaynaAli]

I am not in that kind of situation and definitely understand the anxiety and uncertainty. I would have preferred to be at home in that situation to. But having lived in college towns for 12 years, I would recommend that you still probably look and find a place. The rental market in college towns is so driven by the university and things lease much much earlier than in non-college towns. If you can find someone like the poster above mentions who will work with you, that would be great but get whatever arrangement in writing. I would just worry that if you didn’t make arrangements there may be few rentals left or they will only be the expensive ones or whatever. Of course with the economy like it is who knows what will actually happen, but if it were me I wouldn’t wait.

 

[HopefulVet89]

I am going to be attending an OOS school as well, and this too is a concern of mine. I don’t want to rent or buy a place without looking at it and the area in person first, but who knows when travel will be safe again? I’m scared to wait and miss out on finding a place if school will be in person, but I don’t want to spend more money if I don’t need to if school is going to be online and I can just stay home. I hate all of this uncertainty.

 

[Mountainhart]

I signed a lease already. I figured with all of the uncertainty in the world right now, finding a place to live is now one less thing to worry about. Even if I end up paying a couple months of rent for a place I am not physically living in yet, it's already factored into my budget so at the end of the day it doesn't impact me any more than I was already planning on. Also as mentioned above, housing in college towns can be pretty cutthroat and I wanted to make sure to find housing early in a house that hasn't been run-down from parties and is in a convenient area for me

 

[St3phni]

I signed a lease already. I figured with all of the uncertainty in the world right now, finding a place to live is now one less thing to worry about. Even if I end up paying a couple months of rent for a place I am not physically living in yet, it's already factored into my budget so at the end of the day it doesn't impact me any more than I was already planning on. Also as mentioned above, housing in college towns can be pretty cutthroat and I wanted to make sure to find housing early in a house that hasn't been run-down from parties and is in a convenient area for me

Same! I also wanted to plan on the hopeful scenario of this whole crisis being somewhat settled by the time my program starts. And, if not, I at least wanted to fully immerse myself in the college lifestyle again (I applied and got on-campus housing) and I'm also very excited to move to another state (I'm attending an OOS program).

 

[HopefulVet89]

If I were to wait until June/July to find housing, would I be too late?

 

[that redhead]

If I were to wait until June/July to find housing, would I be too late?

Depends on where you’re looking, but I would be concerned in any college type area that you’d be much more limited with options. Another thing to factor in is most vet students have some type of pet and finding pet friendly housing can be tricky sometimes.

 

[Cephal0pod]

If I were to wait until June/July to find housing, would I be too late?

^I'm with TRH. I'm sure you would be able to scrape together some kind of housing at that time, but I would strongly recommend starting to look earlier than that (I'd be looking around now, personally).

 

[Frozenshades]

^I'm with TRH. I'm sure you would be able to scrape together some kind of housing at that time, but I would strongly recommend starting to look earlier than that (I'd be looking around now, personally).

You also have to consider places already signed for. How many people planned for a pandemic? Many students may have resigned their leases already in preparation for the next academic year before it got to this point. Sure, maybe people will be looking to sublease if they don't come back to school right away, but that's a temporary fix. Like my apartment - lease ends in May and I'm moving regardless, but they wanted me to tell them back in December if I was renewing for another year or not. If I was a continuing student I would have had no reason not to.

 

[HopefulVet89]

Thanks for the advice everyone! I think I will go ahead and look for places online and prepare for best case scenario as to not lose out on good housing!

 

[CatCrowDogRaccoon]

I know that this story is just about universities making contingency plans but there is a very real possibility that schools will be online only until 2021.

Boston University Is First To Announce It May Postpone Opening Its Campus Until January 2021

If public health officials deem it unsafe for students to congregate, the campus could remain closed until the start of next year.

www.forbes.com