Little darlings who have to go off to college will now be able to live just like they did in their bedrooms and Mom and Dad's:
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Banking on profiting from high-end tastes of some college students, developers are opening upscale apartments near large Indiana universities.They're offering indoor swimming pools, basketball courts and fully equipped exercise rooms.They also offer free tanning, stainless-steel appliances and attached garages -- all to feed students' appetite for luxury."These kids grew up in big homes with private bedrooms and private baths, and their parents are willing to pay for the same level of accommodations when they send their kids off to school," said Steve LaMotte Jr., first vice president at CB Richard Ellis, a commercial real estate services firm."The parents of these students are wealthier than any other prior generation of students," he said.Upscale rental housing is being marketed to undergraduate and graduate students and to faculty nationwide. It is just beginning its march into Indiana.Prices vary depending on the area, but in Indiana rents range up to $1,700 per month.
Whoa, $1,7000 a month. Guess these kids won't be sweating out their student loan repayments 20 years into their careers. At this point, I would wax nostalgic about the character-building aspects of sharing a small dorm room with Norm, the manic-depressive farmer's kid from Idaho, and Eddie, the drug-dealing pimp from New York ("Hey, Norm, you're gonna be late for yor Beethoven class!"), but I missed that experience. The first half of my college adventure was at IPFW, and I lived at home, in an upstairs apartment, with my mother, father, sister and brother -- with whom I shared a bedrrom. The second half, I lived with my wife's family in Marion and commuted to Ball State, an hour and a half on the road each day. No swimming pool or exercise room, but Uncle Warren served a mean martini.
