Why rent when you can own?
I love owning real estate, but it is not a universal good. There are many situations when one should rent and being in College (or having a child in college) is 98% of the time one of them. Never underestimate the fact that as listed parents of a student at VBU* All of the listed "plusses" either aren't necessarily true, are patently false, or require such a cosmic alignment of the tumblers of chance as to be so rare that you would be foolish to rely upon them.
Save money versus renting? Only if you never have pay for repairs, and the market does not plummet in the short three years (remember the Cherub typically must stay in the dorm year one).
Properties from $95,000.00? In an established University Town where VBU resides these "bargain" houses must be forty miles away, and the scenes of meth labs.
You are in Control of the living environment? Assuming you can check in!
Can you find renters? What will you do when they can't pay? Or Leave? Or damage the house? Who will you call when the water heater fails and floods the place?
All of these factor in reason not to buy, but to look upon the expense of rent as a fair price for the flexibility that renting gives you and your student.
When does the 2% of the time occur?
I would consider buying when the following exists:
(1) You have two or more students likely to go to the same school - stretching out your time period from three years to five or more.
(2) You are not more than two hours away from the location.
(3) The town has a good history of maintaining value (even after 2008).
(4) You can pay cash.
(5) You rental income (even taking into account that you are at least paying yourself the rent) brings you a return of 10% or greater.
(6) You buy a two or three bedroom house (but not more) that your two children can share plus a rent paying roommate-friend.
* VBU stands for The Very Big University whose name I have changed in order to focus on the general experience of paying for college as opposed to trashing (or lamenting) one particular university.
