Will Foreign Parents Follow their Kids to School?
It’s been a while now that parents have been investing in small condos for children attending a local university in lieu of paying ever-higher dorm costs. But last week, The New York Times noted another phenomenon: more parents are buying second homes in towns where their kids are attending college. And this time, they are doing it for themselves.
According to the Times, “many want front-row seats to watch their family athletes perform. Some seek a gathering place for football games or family holidays. Others long for a retreat that is also a possible place to retire with the amenities of a college town — and why not the one where they have children attending?”
“Our brokers told us story after story about this happening,” said David Siroty, a corporate spokesman for Coldwell Banker Real Estate in the Times article. “Parents buy a place to visit when their son or daughter is in school, and then they become a part of the town, they have friends there, they love the vibe of a college town — the culture, arts, sports.”
An interesting question for Boston — where a record number of international students will be attending Boston University this fall — is whether this phenomenon might also include the parents of foreign students attending area colleges.
According to realtors, parents are more likely to invest in real estate in a town with very high hotel room rates, or where it is notoriously difficult to find rooms during certain times of the years. On the other hand, it is unlikely that the parents of foreign students would consider a second home for retirement purposes, or as a place to gather during family holidays. It is more likely that such buyers would buy a second home to serve as a city pied-a-terre, or as an investment property once their kids are out of school.
Keeping that in mind, it’s a fair guess that parents of foreign students might also be considering doing the same thing. Stay tuned for updates.
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