Every student knows about the November Rush. All of a sudden, your inbox is flooded with offers from companies like Steve Brown Apartments, CHT Apartments and Madison Property Management. Ads in local papers advertise apartments and houses that will be available in the fall. If you already have an apartment, people start touring your home looking to make it theirs for the next school year.
While students across the country spend their time focusing on classes, with the thought of where to live the next fall far in the back of their minds, UW-Madison students start to worry about finding an apartment nine months before they will move in. Although most students realize they do not necessarily need to sign before winter break, too many rush into the decision, signing leases with roommates they might not like come August, or agreeing to pay higher rent than they would have if they had waited.
Sure, they hear from places like the Tenant Resource Center that there are plenty of apartments in Madison and that they shouldn't even think about signing until the spring semester at the earliest—which is true. But when landlords across Madison tell them they need to sign early or wind up in a crappy place, many students disregard that advice and decide to sign anyway.
To make sure tenants do not sign a lease too early, Madison is one of the only cities in the country that has ordinances about when landlords can show apartments and when renters can sign leases. Currently that law prevents rental companies from showing or selling apartments until one-fourth of the way through the lease, which for students is generally Nov. 15. Under a new ordinance proposed by Ald. Bridget Maniaci, District 2, that restriction would extend to one-half of the way through a lease.
The Madison Common Council should pass Maniaci's ordinance because it can improve the city housing markets, especially for the neighborhoods near campus. If students could not sign leases until the spring, there would almost certainly be fewer instances of renters having to break contracts, and they would generally be happier with the people they wound up living with.
Think back to November of your freshman year—did you really know Madison well enough to find a good place to live, much less know your friends well enough to commit to living with them for a year?
Rental companies have protested the proposal, saying it will create an even more intense rush and that students would end up making hasty decisions as apartments are snatched up later in the year. But if Maniaci's proposal is approved, students will benefit from the delayed rental season because they will have more time to find out where they want to live and who they want to live with.
And, hopefully, the November Rush will become a thing of the past.
