College town real estate remains robust

Everyday the newspapers are covered with stories about how weak housing is: subprime woes, plummeting housing starts and home sales, etc. But there's at least one area that seems to be staying pretty robust: college town residential.

Towns like Ithaca, NY and State College, PA have very low foreclosure rates: the academics who were buying homes there weren't going for toxic loans. From a New York Times piece discussing this trend:

"We're like what middle-class America used to be," said Barbara Alexander, a real estate agent in Morgantown, home of West Virginia University. "We're insulated from what happens in other places, and the lenders and buyers are more conservative. I can't remember the last time we had a recession in Morgantown."

I've been mulling an investment in real estate in the New England college town where I live right now -- the stream of students and grad students and professors should provide a strong long-term demand for rental housing. And remember folks, that's what real estate investment is about: income. Buying a house and hoping capital gains is speculation, and perhaps religion.

I recently read an interesting book on the idea of investing in student housing for income. It isn't great but, as far as I can tell, it's the only book of its kind.