EAST LANSING – Finding a place to live in East Lansing has gotten easier since Fabian Yurana started at Michigan State University four years ago.
When he was allowed to move off campus his sophom*ore year, he was glad to find an apartment near campus, next door to the East Lansing IHOP.
But his junior year, he just barely got a room at the Landmarkdespite applying early forthe luxury apartment complex, which opened in 2019.
This year, getting an apartment was easy.
"When I lived there a year ago, it was full. But for this year...I applied two weeks before I came back," said Yurana, an international student from Indonesia.
"I think (vacancies) are always going up because of the competition. You've got Abbotnow...and then you've got the Hub," he said, ticking off high-end apartments that have opened near campus since 2019.
East Lansing is home to tens ofthousands of students who live on and off campus. More than30,000 students lived in East Lansing in 2019,accounting for over 60% of the city's population, according to university data.
As a result, developers have long seen East Lansing as a built-in market for student housing, and continue to propose new accommodations near campus.
But the city is reaching a tipping point.A recent housing study commissioned by the City of East Lansingshowed that student housing development is outpacing enrollment at MSU. During the past decade, nearly 1,000 units have been added in the city, but student enrollment has remained relatively static.
The change means that East Lansing is looking for ways to diversify its populationbeyond college students andopenthe door to a new phase of housing development.
"We've checked that student box,"said Peter Menser, East Lansing's planning and zoning administrator. "There's the capacity there for the current crop ofstudents at MSU, and it really allows us to step back and take a bigger, more holistic look at the city and what we can do to improve other areas."
Enrollment and student housing demand static
Student enrollment hasn't changed drastically at MSU in the last decade.
In 2010, there were just over 48,000 students enrolled at the university. That number peaked at51,000 in 2015, then fell by about 1% between 2015 and 2019.
Meanwhile, demand for off-campus housing has stayedflat, and it could be ready to dip.This fall, the universityreinstated arequirement that second-year students live on campus for the first time since 1980.Estimates from the housing market analysispredicta 3.6% decrease in students living off-campus by next year.
"There's not huge drops or gains in either category," Menser said. "We're meeting the market, so there's not this huge demand ... that means we can focus our time on long-term diversification of housing units and of building unit types."
Student developments swaythe market
Even as the city looks to diversify its housing stock, student developments haveshaped the market in East Lansing.
That's due to an increase inprivate companies proposing student-orienteddevelopments in East Lansing based on proximity to MSU and downtown amenities.
"What's been driving them wasn't necessarily some big gap (in student housing) that the city identified,"Menser said."It was these development companies that see this opportunity and want to capitalize on it."
In the last 10 years, seven apartment buildings targeting studentshave sprouted up in East Lansing, with acapacity to house1,766 people.
Those projects include:
- The Abbot, which can house 398 occupants
- The Landmark Apartments, which can house 464 occupants
- The Hub, which can house 585 occupants
- St. Anne Lofts, which can house 62 occupants
- The Residences, which can house 91 occupants
- 300 Grand, which can house 78 occupants
- 565 Building, which can house 88 occupants
Rent ranges from about $1,000 to $1,500permonth for a one-bedroom apartment at most of those buildings.
Although the apartmentsaren't limited to students — legally, they can't be —the cost of rent combined with limited amenities narrows the market, according to Sharon Wood,founding principal and CEO of LandUseUSA, the company East Lansing hired to prepareits residential target marketing analysis.
"There are a lot of students — not all students, but a lot of students — that are willing to pay a very high price per month for rental housing," Wood said."That causes a challenge to...developing lower-cost housing that would be attainable for singles, young professionals, families."
Realtors in East Lansing have noticed, too.
"Students are going to pay more," said Rob Buffington, an associate broker for Berkshire Hathawaywho specializes inreal estate near MSU.
"It's kind of a no-brainer for investors," he said. "These are small places. Let's call it a 24-by-24 room that they put a kitchenette in, and your bedroom and your living room is the same room, and then you have a bathroom, and they're renting for $1,000, $1,100, $1,200 a month."
Students arewilling to paymore for convenience,too,said Brock Fletcher, associate broker for the Lansing-based Selling Team with Keller-Williams.
"Alot of students, they have expectations that they're going to get more of a luxury experience with a lot of amenities, and you don't get those if you're renting a house in East Lansing," he said. "It's expensive for what it is...but they've got shuttles every 10 or 15 minutes that will take you to campus and they've got recreation areas...That's something you only get if you're going the route of an apartment."
Yurana, now a senior, said amenities were a top priorityin choosinga place to rent. That's why he and his sister, also an MSU student, are sharing a two-bedroom apartment at the Landmark this year.
"It's the location and the convenience," Yuranasaid. "It's one of the nicer apartments."
Perched above East Lansing's downtown Target, the Landmarkhas a 24-hour gym, a library for studying, a gamer oomand a rooftop deck with grills. Rent includes free wifiand in-unit laundry.
Those amenities aren't cheap, though. The monthly payment for the 750-square-foot apartmentis$1,150 plus$90 for parking and electricity.
"I don't really care about the pricing because my parents pay for it," he said. "My parents' priority is it's really close to the city."
Are vacancies out of control?
Vacant apartments haven't necessarily been a problem in East Lansing, but students like Yurana have noticed that there are more places available to rent this year.
"You can find vacancies all over the place,"said Chris Wolf, amember of the East Lansing Planning Commission, during a joint meeting with the Housing Commission last month."Apartments, houses that are looking for tenants right now ... Normally, in my experience, by now everything would be full."
Property management companies for multiple buildings, including DTN Management, American Campus and management for the Abbot and Landmark, did not return multiple requests foroccupancy data.However, all of the newer buildings have units advertisedon their websites.
Although East Lansing doesn't keep detailed data on residential vacancies,the rate is about 6%, according to the housing study. That includes bothfor-sale and for-lease units, and is on par with other municipalities in the tricounty area, Menser said.
"We have a healthy vacancy rate," he said. "It's good to have some availability ... We also don't have a deficit."
Rental prices out of reach
The proliferation of student apartmentshas not driven down prices in East Lansing, in Yurana's experience.
In some cases, it feels like they've gotten higher.
"It's much more expensive thanit was before," he said. “My second year, I wasn't as close as Landmark, but it was like $750, and I got a bigger room."
The steep pricesstudents will pay influence the rest of the rental market inEast Lansing, Wood said.
"The marketin East Lansing, it's $1,100, $1,200. And in a student market — where the rents are (often) per bed or per head — the rents are even higher," she said.
Newman Lofts, a newer luxury housing development in East Lansing for adults 55 and older, leases one-bedroom apartments starting at $1,445 per month, according to its website.
Those prices shut out many young professionals, seniors and singles of all ages who want to rent in East Lansing,Wood said.
"Half of the market potential among rental units is for units that would have rents of no more than $900 a month," Wood said."If your prices are attainable, then you're going to have more diversity and more equitable access."
Right now, the city is losing market share to neighboring municipalities likeMeridian Township, Lansing and Dewitt, which all had greater population growth than East Lansingaccording to the housing study.
"All different backgrounds of people at all income levels...are already living in the Greater Lansing area, but they're living in our neighboring municipalities," Menser said. "Neighboring municipalities have been able to attract those folks because they have a certain type of housing that, right now, the city is lacking."
How can East Lansing diversify its housing market?
To bring more people into East Lansing, the city should focuson developing smaller units in different formats rather than bighouses and luxury apartments, Wood said.
"We need to be providing laws that are designed not for students, but designed for other lifestyle clusters" like families, older singles and seniors,she said. "It's about building amenities and unit amenities and making sure that they're appealing to other lifestyle clusters."
That means incentivizingbuilding single-family homes and attached apartment units that aren't designed foruniversity students.
"The most important thingis to right-size the developments," Menser said. "They can be smaller units, and then we can increase density in certain areas, and that will allow us to reach attainable rents."
To get there, the city may need to adjust development policies and zoning that encouragespecific types of developments.
"It's not financial incentivizing, but incentivizing via policy," he said. "If I'm a developer, and I come to the community, we know that the city wants this, so in turn, it's easier for them to build and to do the project."
East Lansing also will look at its zoning policy to encourage density and development downtown and in commercial districts while still protecting neighborhoods with single-family residential homes, Menser said.
"One of the keys to that is ensuring that our downtown and maybe the area adjacent to the downtown is as flexible as possible, and that may mean stepping up density as you go."
East Lansing is in the process of developing a housingaction plan. During a council meeting Tuesday night, city staff sought guidance on what the next steps for itsnear-term action planshould be.
"We don't want this to sit on a shelf," Menser said of the study. "We want it to be a part of our active efforts."
As East Lansing evolves its housing market over the next several years, there will be plenty of opportunities for residents to get involved, Menser said.
"We want as much input as possible," he said. "This is just the beginning."
Contact reporter Elena Durnbaugh at (517) 231-9501 or edurnbaugh@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter at @ElenaDurnbaugh.
