A new report from Trulia shows it’s more affordable to live in on-campus housing at Cal Poly University than it is to live in a similar-sized apartment in San Luis Obispo.
The report measured 48 of the biggest college towns in the U.S. and found that the cost difference between campus housing and living in San Luis Obispo was bigger than any other college city.
Researchers said students pay a premium for on-campus living in most cities. In 28 of 48 cities surveyed, it was either the same price or cheaper to be off campus, with average savings of $219 per month.
Of the colleges that were cheaper than the cities they were located in, the average monthly difference was $221, which is much less than the difference in San Luis Obispo.
Trulia found that students pay an average of $917 to live in an on-campus apartment. For the same sized space in San Luis Obispo, they would have to pay $1,553. The difference adds up to students saving more than $600 a month by skipping living in San Luis Obispo.
Trulia selected the colleges for the study by looking for cities with at least 45,000 people and at least 20% enrolled in a college or graduate school.
