| NEWS | Matt Hennie District on Apache, an apartment complex in Tempe that houses mostly students, is part of a marketing partnership with ASU. Cost Crunch ASU students struggling under weight of soaring rents in Tempe. BY JONATHAN HAYNES tability: intractable surges in rent. While Tempe remains cheaper than A trend. Ganesh Betha, a 2020 graduate of ASU’s master’s program in computer science, saw his Tempe rent go up nearly $400 over three years — with one price hike kicking in during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. “They increased rent during the pandemic,” Betha recalled. “People don’t have money during the pandemic, but these people are making money.” During the first half of 2019, Betha paid 10 other suburban enclaves such as Gilbert and Chandler, the city is becoming less afford- able for many residents, especially students. Monthly rent for one-bedroom apartments start at $1,527 — well over the average in nearby Phoenix — and the upswing is likely to continue, according to Rent. “We do have a certain time of the year when we will raise the rent,” said Parker Stewart, manager at District on Apache, a six-story apartment complex with a modernist facade. “We are just off campus; 99 percent of our tenants are ASU students.” Demand and growth are key factors in rent reappraisal, Stewart said. He noted that all 279 units available for the 2022- 2023 school year were leased by March. Rent for a one-bedroom, one-bathroom unit had increased by $45 over the previous year, up to $1,695 per month. District on Apache is just part of a larger s Arizona State University students returned for the start of fall classes last week, they arrived in Tempe to what seems like a new inevi- $620 per month for a room in a two- bedroom, two-bathroom apartment at 12Fifty5 on University, currently known as Paseo, according to documents he shared with Phoenix New Times. He stayed in the complex until June 2020, when renewing his lease would raise total monthly payments to more than $800. After staying with his brother for a few months while looking for work, Betha lived in two other apartments. From November 2020 to March 2021, docu- ments show that Betha paid at least $700 per month for a room in a two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment in Villas on Apache. From August 2021 to July 2022, his final year in Tempe, he paid $1,000 for a room in a two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment in Gateway at Tempe. (The two complexes currently charge similar starting rates — one bedrooms start at $1,019 at Villas and $1,065 at Gateway — and offer a similar suite of amenities, including fitness centers, barbecue grills, and hot tubs.) Affordable rent has become a casualty of Tempe’s booming housing market. According to Redfin, an online real estate brokerage, median property values in the city have climbed nearly 40 percent over the past two years — from slightly more than $300,000 in spring 2020 to half-a- million dollars in June 2022. ASU also plays a large role in rental pricing. With just one in five of the 55,000 ASU students who attend classes on the Tempe campus living in dorms, the univer- sity is pushing tens of thousands of people into the local housing market and increasing the pressure on its limited housing supply. The school also has compounded >> p 12 AUG 25TH–AUG 31ST, 2022 PHOENIX NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | FILM | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | FEATURE | NEWS | OPINION | FEEDBACK | CONTENTS | phoenixnewtimes.com
