Creating a downtown housing market based almost solely on luxury apartments, in the eyes of this Editorial Board, does not provide sufficient means for stunting student housing prices. Moreover, it puts the needs of students, who, for what it’s worth, have in recent history been the backbone of Madison’s downtown economy, behind those of young professionals—a group the city is clearly working to attract with new development.
By flooding the market with more units, these new high rises might have some effect in stabilizing rental prices. However, since many of the new high rises—such as The Hub Madison and the recently proposed The Hub Madison 2—are largely intended for those with steady income, not students, there will not necessarily be any burden taken off current renters.
The fact of the matter is that new developments in the downtown area are not affordable for the overwhelming majority of students. Since there will be no immediate decrease in demand for more conservative housing options, it’s dangerous to assume rent prices outside of the soon overabundant luxury high rises will stabilize or relax in the near future.
“One thing that’s sort of different for the student market is how concentrated it is in a very small area, because most students want to live [within] a short walk to the campus buildings,” said Stephen Malpezzi, professor of Real Estate & Urban Land Economics in the Wisconsin School of Business. “That concentrates the market in comparison to other Midwestern cities of a couple hundred thousand people.”
The housing price influx in the area surrounding campus, we feel, fosters an environment in which only students whose parents can afford to help them pay for rising rents will be able to live in the campus area. Even if the quality of housing goes up in a relatively efficient manner in terms of cost versus actual product, many students or potential students might find themselves with simply nowhere to go.
“When you see a lot of new development in a place like Madison, a lot of the newer apartments are higher rent than older places, but much, much better quality,” Malpezzi said. “Of course, if you’re a student of limited means, you may not be that happy, because you don’t have choices. You wanted to live in the dump because you wanted to save money.”
Should housing costs continue increasing, in conjunction with possible tuition hikes in 2017 (pending the proposed $300 million cuts to the UW system) UW-Madison may become an impossible expense for many qualified students. The university may struggle to maintain its reputation as one of the top public institutions in the country as the student body continues to more closely resemble that of a private school, buoyed by exorbitant tuition and higher caps on out-of-state enrollees. This does not serve the people of Wisconsin—who truly built the UW System with their continued support.
The university has been a part of Madison since 1848. To more or less gloss over the needs of its students seems counterintuitive, as UW-Madison has a much greater social, cultural and economic influence on the Madison area than almost any one agency or business.
There’s nothing wrong with inviting more commerce into the city or trying to make Madison a place where more people want to stay after graduation. Likewise, high-rise structures are not fundamentally bad for Madison. It certainly makes sense to build upwards from both environmental and practical standpoints. But by allowing an influx of luxury high-rises in the downtown area, particularly on State Street, the long-standing culture of Madison’s core (which has already significantly shifted away from a local focus to being a haven for corporate chains), will be permanently depleted.
Even in its skeleton form, The Hub Madison looms above the modestly sized structures along State Street—visually indicating that something differentiates it from the rest of the mall. It stands as a symbol for the future: decadently ignorant to the communal fabric that once made Madison stand out from other cities of its size.
Without some measure requiring all new high rises intended for students to have a substantial amount of units comparable in price to more affordable housing in the area—incentivizing a drop in all rental prices—we believe the growing burden of living near campus will deter students from attending Wisconsin’s flagship university.
What is your take on Madison’s new high-rises? Please send all feedback to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
