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MichaelMeckler.com: Blog: Are junior faculty stuck as renters?

Are junior faculty stuck as renters?

27 JULY 2016

At one time, it was not unusual for colleges and universities to assist junior faculty with the purchase of a home, both in smaller communities where housing options were limited, and in larger cities where housing near campus was either unaffordable or undesirable.

Generally there were two types of schemes. In smaller communities, the college often controlled a significant number of houses, having the right to be first to repurchase the properties when the owners wanted to sell. The college then offered these houses for sale to junior faculty with the same restriction on resale.

In larger cities, colleges offered junior faculty an amount of money (generally a couple thousand dollars) to be used to purchase a home within a designated area near campus. This scheme served to make campus-area homes both more affordable and more desirable as livable neighborhoods for academics.

I don't have any hard statistics, but I'm getting the sense that fewer colleges are providing assistance to junior faculty seeking to buy homes. Why this may be, I don't know, but I am hearing that junior faculty — like many other young professionals — are finding themselves stuck as renters well into their late 30s.

If folks are hearing otherwise, I’d love to know.

 

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