Competing agencies in the Athens rental world are unified in one respect this year: filling vacancies in next year's housing lineup.
Students and residents looking for housing for the fall seem to have more choices than usual, said Maxine Young, property manager at University Commons, 15 S. Shafer St., who said she has seen more for rent signs.
Code Enforcement Director Steve Pierson said that for rent signs must come down two weeks after the lease for the advertised unit is signed.
The Commons has more properties available for the fall than it did at this time last year, some of which Young expects will be rented by graduate students who were recently accepted to study here.
Riverpark Towers, 36 N. McKinley Ave., has fewer leases signed for next year than expected, said manager Tina Schall. At this point last year, 80 percent of units were rented; 77 percent are taken for next fall.
Despite recent special pricing and promotions, we just haven't grabbed anybody
she said.
Most of their remaining units are one-, two-and three-bedroom apartments, many of which soon will be rented by graduate students, she said.
Schall attributes this drop in business to an unpredictable economy and an overall lack of job stability.
Though HousingHotLink.com, a residential and commercial property management company in Athens, prefers to have all of their larger houses rented by the fall before the lease begins, property manager Andrew Kessler said there are a few units still available, which is unusual.
HousingHotLink owns 100 houses and apartments, which house more than 200 renters, Kessler said.
A smaller sophomore population set to live off-campus in the fall is the only explanation Kessler attributes to this decrease because younger students are typically interested in houses though older students look for one-or two-bedroom apartments.
Most of the inquiries he is getting right now are from graduate students recently accepted to study here and from a few undergraduate students whose plans with a roommate have fallen through since signing an original lease in the fall.
While Hines Rentals' owner Pat Hines has noticed more and more students waiting until later in the year to look for housing, most of her properties are rented by November for the following fall.
Hines owns 40 units -mostly houses -of which four are available for next fall. She has rented properties in Athens for 25 years.
Right now I don't have a problem with (vacant rentals); that's why I keep buying properties.
Rental signs for properties available for the 2006-07 school year are already being posted at this point because this is landlords' last chance to actually advertise before students leave Athens for the summer.
Hines finds many of her properties rented even before she has to think about advertising, which she attributes to their popular location and size.
Some properties are in so much demand that students are signing leases for two or three years in advance, Pierson said.
Many such units have had signs up all year because owners claim they are perpetually available, City Planning Commission chair Joanne Prisley pointed out.
That loophole around the code enforcement limitations should somehow be regulated because the proliferation of signs makes Athens look like a rental slum, she said.
In conversations with rental owners and in looking through newspaper listings, Mayor Ric Abel said he has noticed a number of listings, with many offering discounts.
Are these the most desirable (properties)? I don't know Abel said.
-Jen Monroe contributed to this article.
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Brittany Kress
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Many rental signs on houses and apartments, including this one at 32 N. Congress, still are advertising for potential renters for next year or the year after. A smaller sophomore class might explain why more off-campus housing locations still are availabl
