As UW-Madison students await this Thursday on a premiere showing date for many of Madison’s downtown apartments, a university program is dispelling the myth that students have to rush to sign next year’s lease.

The Campus Area Housing Listing Service website, managed by UW-Madison’s Visitor & Information Services, gives the most comprehensive look at available apartments and houses, according to Nancy Sandhu, assistant director of Visitor & Information Services.

“There is this misperception out there that you have to sign a lease right away in November in order to get a decent place to live for next fall and that is really a myth,” Sandhu said, adding the greatest selection of fall housing is December through February, based on the service’s website listings.

She said she thought students are circulating the idea that earlier is better and said property owners frequently ask why students continue to push an earlier rent date.

Dan Seeley, community manager at Steve Brown Apartments, said prospective residents have called before the end of August already looking to sign leases for units they may have never seen.

“Students hurry to sign leases for the same reason property owners all open on or before the 15th of November,” Seeley said via e-mail. “In the same way there is a limited supply of renters whom property owners are attempting to capture, there is a limited supply of the best units in the best locations.” Michael Greiber, corporate counsel for Madison Property Management, said the company gets calls in September from prospective residents.

“I think the market pressures people … people feel they are going to miss out if they don’t get the place that they want,” he said.

“Some people hear their friends talking that they’re signing leases and feel that if they don’t get on the ball they’re going to miss out.”

Matt McGrady of Tallard Apartments said there is “absolutely” a rush for students to sign for housing and agreed the competition creates a potentially problematic situation.

“The demand just seems to get more competitive each year,” he said.

“[The push] creates a problem for people that don’t have a long relationship of knowing each other, getting involved in a serious contract and then something happens and all of a sudden the group wants to disband and you have a very complicated situation.”

Heidi Hansfield, a UW-Madison freshman, said she felt the pressure when signing for an apartment next year at the new Steve Brown high-rise Lucky.

“We’d only been in school for six weeks and it’s like you’re already making your friends for the next two years,” she said. “It was really stressful … we [signed] right away because we didn’t know if it was going to fill.”

Sandhu said freshmen are especially susceptible to make poor housing decisions based on feelings of being rushed.

Sandhu said the housing website offers students a free database to enter their desired Madison living area, amenities and price to get a listing of matching criteria from multiple property owners. For more information, log on to http://campusareahousing.wisc.edu.