Are college towns by nature more economically stable...?

[skooooo]

Do you live in a college town that seems less affected by the economic downturn than other communities? I'm wondering because I traveled from the west coast to the midwest and south this year, and saw a very different world than what I do in my cozy college town. Do local businesses in college towns do better because even with hiring slow downs, universities do not puke up large numbers of people to lay off? out-of-town students who can afford to be here at all still have to buy a certain amount of products from the local community.

Just wondering if anyone had made similar or other observations.

[DebJ]

1. Don't expect that to last. One high school senior I know just saw

his entire college fund go down the tubes on the market. Will people be able to work their way through college when the part-time jobs are being held by adults who want
full-time work but can't get it?

[skooooo]

4. Last or not...

...I still think there are some valid questions that are more substantive than to be dismissed by your anecdote. (no offense, don't mean to sound snarky)

:hi:

Who says the adults that are working the part time jobs aren't the students??? All ages attend college, and in economic downturns, that's even more true.

[w4rma]

2. Sounds like a great reason for cities and towns to build universities.

Economic stability for their locality.

[skooooo]

6. Just a theory..

:shrug:

[sandnsea]

3. It has much less to do with college

than it does with the basic belief in government and taxes. Towns that refuse to pay taxes don't have functioning governments and consequently don't attract business or tourists. They just stagnate. And usually are Republican. IMHO.

[skooooo]

5. But what does paying taxes..

..have to do with college towns? You mean the employment for a fair number of decent paying jobs maintains the local property tax?

[sandnsea]

8. Smarter people

educated liberal people - who believe in government. So they pay for it and it in turn, creates the communities that attract business and people.

You can almost put a poverty map and a republican map right on top of each other and have it match. Except for some reservations and pockets of minorities. Otherwise, rural and poor tends to equal Republicans.

[sniffa]

7. This makes me think of Amherst, MA

The town is basically supported by the 3 Universities located there and they seem to usually do well.

Boston has a shitload of colleges which also infuse cash but I'm not sure about their financial situation as a whole.

[skooooo]

9. Yeah..

..some "university towns" are so big, and have so many other industries and businesses, that maybe the effect of the university economically is more defused.

Wonder how Bloomington Indiana is doing?

[Ex Lurker]

18. Harvard's endowment lost a third of its value this year n/t

[sniffa]

21. I wonder how that's affecting Cambridge, MA?

[Cleita]

10. I always noticed that they had better stores and restaurants so maybe

the colleges do boost the local economy. I live near a college town right now and there is an economic downturn but not as severe as in neighboring communities that don't have a college contributing to the economy.

[jedr]

11. I grew up in a college town, PSU,

The majority of the town worked for the state university. The pay was low compared to industry, but the retirement and benefits were great, as too the working hours. Local business makes good money from students, restaurants, motels, sandwich shops,apartments and the local towing guy all do well. To me it seems that it is more stable , not having a bubble to burst and the state being the main employer.

[democrat in Tallahassee]

12. We have a hiring freeze at Florida State; no money;

few raises and state government is teetering on the brink. And there have already been lay offs on the university and there will be more. It's hitting academia hard, too.

[skooooo]

15. That's true..

...there are always cuts, it seems like. And they are getting worse. Hopefully Obama will at least give some cushion to higher ed.

[ThomWV]

13. Morgantown, WV, home of WVU is about 15 miles from here

I live in a county that owes much of its income to strip job coal mining, truck driving, and farming. The college town in in the adjoining county has about the same background economy with the addition of the University. The University is easily the largest employer in that county. My numbers may be way off but I seem to recall seeing that the University employed something on the order of 7,000 people, and that was some years ago.

Having a large number of people employed, particularly in an area that is funded by an annual state budget and multi-year federal financial assistnace certaily gives the college community a more stable base than many large institutions. They aren't hobbled by quartly budgets but of course in the long run both are limited to tax revnue and whatever tax base is available. So they shrink with everything else but they trail everything else - going up and going down.

[ogneopasno]

14. Not always. I'm looking at you, Duluth Minnesota!

[rainbow4321]

16. My daughter has spent the last 4 years in Austin

The last 2 years living off campus in rent houses with one or more roommates. For comparison of how much she has paid for housing: On campus in a small room with a roommate, community bathroom for the whole floor came to about $1000/month. Off campus, her rent has never been more than $500, electric bill split with 1 (or more) roomie has never exceeded $25/month...and that is the "expensive" utility. The houses have ranged from 1000 sq ft to (I think) just over 2000 sq ft.
She has always been able to find a job year round, whether it be a daycares or a cafe.
No doubt the businesses/restaurants do well when the kids are all in town. I know I've contributed a LOT of money to them over the years, especially when it came to her living off campus. You don't realize how much it takes to start a household from scratch til you help your college kid live off campus!!

[Ex Lurker]

17. you also have to consider that now you can attend college over the internet

and rarely if ever set foot on campus.

[bbgrunt]

19. because historically during recessions, people tended to use

universities to upgrade their skills and training, university towns tended to have a countercyclical influence. This made the employment base a lot more stable. That being said, it is not clear that these days it pays to increase your training. With white collar jobs being outsourced and many highly trained being unemployed, a college degree certainly doesn't guarantee employability, but when the jobs get scarce, it's better to have a degree than not have one.

As for Bloomington, IN, things have slowed, but the housing market is definitely stronger there than in some neighboring communities.

[BR_Parkway]

20. Not here - the college, community college and local school district

just got told by the state to return 14% of their budgets due to the statewide shortfall (wish we'd gone Blue much sooner). We've got a wineshop and even the online sales are way down, hoping we'll make it through the winter right now, we're cutting a lot of staff next week after exams - through graduations thankfully, but we're not replacing most of the positions.