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Beau Burris is the owner of Burris Real Estate in Boulder. For the past 13 years he has been buying and managing properties on The Hill. His business is a personal investment and he takes pride in offering students comfortable, luxurious living.

Burris grew up in Boulder and went to CU himself. During his time as a student, there were no options for higher-end living on The Hill. After graduation, Burris remained in Boulder and eventually began to dabble in real estate on The Hill. Throughout his years in real estate, Burris has made a conscious effort to offer students with a positive living experience. He bought his first property in 2006 and since then has been buying and managing properties for CU students to live in.

As a former CU student, Burris understands why students have concern over rent but provided concrete information to explain the pricing system. “I currently own a handful of properties on The Hill and the average price of rent is around $1,200. In 2004, a bedroom on The Hill cost around $600 a month for a student. Now, this price has nearly doubled but not without reason. When I went to college in Boulder, there were no options for high quality housing like there is now. As quality of the product increases, so does the price. My properties are newly furnished and have high quality appliances like LG washers and dryers as well as stainless steel kitchen appliances. This is something Hill housing did not have when I first started buying properties.”

Burris explained that this change in living environment is something that students desire. Students do not want to live in run-down houses for high prices. He explained that his more expensive properties are in high demand and get the most requests for showings during rental season.

In comparison to when Burris first started buying property in Boulder, “properties cost twice as much as they did 10 years ago.”

Clearly, if the price to buy a property has doubled, it makes sense that rent itself would nearly double. Boulder has become a more expensive place to live over the years, and students have had to adapt to this just as much as permanent residents.

 Burris furthered explained Boulder’s changing environment, “Boulder used to be a town of hippies and now it has become a very expensive place to live in with beautiful properties. The Hill had to adapt to this just like everyone else in town did. It is a completely different city than it once was.” 

And while Boulder’s rents aren’t necessarily unusual at other universities, the increases in cost for students are real and clear. Driving the rise, however, appears to have as much to do with student demand for high-end living and blame shouldn’t be solely placed on landlords.

The University of Illinois located in Champaign-Urbana has a student population of around 44,000. The average rent for off-campus housing is $1,200. With a similar average rent, the quality of living is drastic.

Dario Kikas, a student at the University of Illinois explained, “There are limited options for off-campus housing so students end up paying more for low-quality living because they do not have much of a choice.”

Kikas went on to say, “I live in a small space with appliances from the 80s but I am stuck paying the average price because I don’t have an option to do anything else.”

This is where CU stands out and is different than many other universities. Boulder has made significant changes in housing and is pushing to offer students with more options.

In 2009, the student population in Boulder was around 25,000 according to CU’s education demographic site. In just 10 years, this number has risen to 35,000. With this drastic rise in student population, student housing experienced a high increase in demand.

The university itself has had to adapt to this hefty increase in population. In 2018, the university built a residential hall on Williams Village to accommodate to the large number of students. The Bear Creek Apartments and Williams Village itself account for a large amount of the student population and a residence hall was necessary.

Along with this development, East Campus housing became available for students within the last five years. Students are offered 169 different apartment options at this location. The issue is that the apartments are over a quarter mile away from the main campus.

The rents of properties located east of campus are significantly lower than rent on The Hill. A four-bedroom apartment costs students around $800 a semester at the Bear Creek Apartments.

Nonetheless, because of the locations of the Bear Creek Apartments and other East Campus housing, The Hill remains the most popular and the most expensive place for student living. Living on The Hill provides students with a short walk from campus, various restaurant options, and no need for public transit to get to class. This multi-element appeal is why students are choosing to pay more rather than settling for less.

Although East Campus housing may have not helped decrease the demand for housing on The Hill like developers were hoping, it pushed real-estate companies to remodel Hill houses.

According to Aaron Mumford, a manager at FourStar real estate that manages Hill properties, “Around five years ago, properties on East Campus became available. These properties offered a new standard for living that The Hill did not have. It was a great development because it pushed owners of houses on The Hill to remodel and refurnish properties to keep in line with new competition. Instead of charging unreasonable prices because they could without competition, they were forced to keep up with trends and offer higher-end living.”

The manager has seen the company grow tremendously in recent years. While FourStar does not own properties on The Hill, it manages many in the area, where it has seen its stock quadruple from 300 to 1,200 since he’s been with the company.

“Since 2009, owners have invested into their homes tremendously to refurnish and re-do them so that they can fairly charge rent in the upper end of the market,” Mumford said.

Owners of houses want to be able to charge rent in the upper end of the market but doing so forces them to keep up with high-end living competition.

FourStar manages a large amount of properties that are considered higher-end real estate for students. Some of these include D-House on University Avenue and The Lofts which are located off of Broadway and 16^th Street. These properties offer tenants with appliances that are up to date and aesthetically pleasing, costing students around $1,500 a month. Despite this high price, these are the properties that are rented first and have a large interest for showings.

“Each year, our pre-leasing season moves up. Students try to secure their housing sooner each year. Our higher priced properties are always in demand” Mumford said.

Clearly, because there is demand for higher-end housing it is in the best interest for owners to keep their properties up-to-date.

Landlords and real-estate companies are constantly attacked for unfair pricing but clearly the student population is just as responsible for the shift in the market. It is a combination of the two and blame cannot be placed upon one party. Many students want a higher living standard in an ideal location and are willing to pay the price. The university has tried to push housing that is further away from campus but has had little success with this tactic.

Boulder’s University Hill remains a hot-spot for students despite a spike in prices and change in price isn’t foreseeable. That being said, The Hill’s environment is changing and as more students prefer high-end living, companies are pushing to offer students with this option.