I am constantly inundated with ads to move to one of the flashy student high-rises. For someone who had to scour for a lease in an ordinary apartment, the surplus feels surreal. These PBSAs somehow orbit outside Eugene’s strained rental market.
While our city limps at a vacancy rate of 3.45%, well below the “healthy” 5%, PBSAs have swelled to 8.25%.
This is the direct legacy of a decades-long construction blitz fueled by real estate investment trusts (REITs) and private equity chasing predictable revenue streams. While the student population only represents 10% of Eugene’s housing market area, PBSAs accounted for nearly 33% of all new rental construction since 2010…