I’ve asked myself the same questions. The fundamental problem is that the well-located student friendly condos are all old.

The condo conversions offer the best price tag value but come with real maintenance issues.

Do some research on foreclosure rolls and you will see there is a steady pipeline of foreclosures to come in the area. There is a lot of interest in buying these as investments though.

Walk the neighborhood; talk to some random grad students. Get a feel for what they look for when renting.