Welcome to the College Real Estate Page for the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida. Many parents ponder whether they should buy or rent while their students attend college. For some the answer is to buy and for others the answer is to rent. College Real Estate hopes to help you find which is the right answer for you. Another great tool in helping you decide is our College Real Estate guide book that walks you through the entire process of buying student property. We hope you find this site useful and welcome any and all feed back. If you would like to be connected with a College Real Estate's exclusive Realtor in Gainesville, Florida please visit our buying page. If you have decided that buying student housing is not the right answer for you and would like to be connected with a leasing specialist please visit our leasing page.
The University of Florida is the third-largest university in the United States, with more than 50,000 students and has one of the largest budgets in the United States (nearly 4.4 billion per year) Neighboring Santa Fe Community College in the city also adds an additional 20,000 to the student population of Gainesville.
Summertime heat can be brutal, but don’t let the Florida heat scare you off. Gainesville’s climate is somewhat atypical to the rest of Florida. Winters often see periods of extended freezes and cooler temperatures than found in the other regions. To stay cool, students often head east to the Atlantic or west to the Gulf of Mexico for a refreshing beach daytrip. Both are equidistant from Gainesville. Orlando and its many offerings are only an hour or so away from the University, leaving plenty of opportunity for big city fun.
U of F is the home to 16 colleges and more than 150 research centers and institutes, and in 2005, Florida was ranked second among all institutions in the number of National Merit Scholar students enrolled, second only to Harvard. Not to mention, these are the people who brought you Gatorade!
Tuition:
In-state: $3,370/yr
Out-of-state: $17,150/yr
Avg. room and board $6,260/yr
Our survey says: it’s a great time to buy a home in Gainesville. In just one year, from 2006 to 2007, homeowners in Gainesville saw a 5% appreciation on their investments. 2007 also showed a 94% occupancy on rental units. This is likely due to the thick student population’s need for housing, and definitely attributes to why this market has remained insulated from the recent real estate dips throughout the nation.
Perhaps you’ve heard of the Florida Gators? Well, so has the rest of the nation, and alum and fans of the Gators often purchase houses in the area to use as a place to retreat after the big games. As a result, the market here is also seeing strong resale trends and houses are going into the hands of the Gator fans.
The average 3 bedroom house on the market in Gainesville is listed as $250K. One and two bedroom condominiums are listed from $150K.
The early bird gets the worm. You should start your search no less than 60 days prior to your hopeful move-in date. June to August are the busiest times for renters, and with nearly 70,000 students in Gainesville looking for places to live, it can become a frenzy. Also, it might take your utilities a while to turn on if you wait too long. In the month of August, the electric company can sometimes have 15,000 hook-ups to make. You probably don’t want to be at the bottom of that list. Also, you can always get a better price when you beat the rush.
Expect to typically pay $500/bedroom in an apartment.
College Real Estate’s goal is to make the moving transition as worry and stress free as possible so we have created a moving center which provides you with helpful information from your utility providers to local grocery centers, restaurants, churches and much more.
College Real Estate also offers a How To database that will keep a new homeowner or those of you renting a house or an apartment from paying an arm and a leg for a service that can easily be done yourself. You can learn how to fix the garbage disposal, light the pilot light, the best way to get rid of rodents, and many other useful lessons. We invite you to take advantage of this knowledge or even post your own helpful article.