Rent-Filled Skylines
Ann Arbor’s rent prices rise, with no clear stop
—By Charleson Shuart
It was late October when Thomas Garrett, a U-M Junior in Aerospace Engineering, was preparing to renew his lease with his other Michigan Marching Band roommates. His house had been rented by the University of Michigan Trombones for over a decade, a tradition he expected to continue—until U-M decided to step in.
His house stood where U-M planned to build another student dormitory complex, a future-facing solution to curb rising—record breaking as The University Record puts it—student population. Though U-M is constantly “expanding educational access and opportunity,” there is no ability to quickly rework and construct the current dorms. Future U-M students may be secure in housing with these movements, but current students’ ability to choose housing is severely limited.
U-M’s future plans outweighed Garrett’s own situation, forcing him to scrounge for housing elsewhere whilst re-experiencing the dreadful student scramble—leases had already been signed early that year. As the general overload of student housing needs rise, how might U-M deal with the logistical issues of harboring those new students?
Though there have been several developing apartment projects, stress has been rising within the student population to attain and maintain some semblance of good housing. ”Landlords have no incentive to be kind to you,” said Garrett, “and if you can’t live here, they expect you to move further out [and] become a commuter student.” The myth of affordable localized housing had been lost on his jaded experiences, and it doesn’t seem to be an isolated incident.
Sentiment and (potential) solution
Though there are an abundance of apartments being built, price trends have not reflected this. According to graphs by RentCafe from 2022 to 2025, the national average for renting is $1,718 per month, whereas the current price of rent in Ann Arbor is $2,093, illustrating a non-existent price cap.
As prices continue to trend upwards, there are questions as to what can be done to curb these prices, while still giving incentive to landlords. One proposed solution is to limit rentability of houses, mitigating bad-actor renting companies and homeowners. This article from Michigan Capitol Confidential mentions the potential ability to increase tenant liveability in some of these spaces.
This act of red-taping—marking spaces for further investigation—and removing rentable spaces that lack necessary living conditions, would cut any houses and apartments that don’t fulfill a specific “Asset Rating.” This could cause greater scrutiny for junk apartments that don’t service the populace in a satisfactory manner, and also apply pressure on errant landlords who are there for a paycheck.
Though the idea proposed is quite tenant friendly, it could have potential unforeseen repercussions in the near-term. As availability would diverge, and scarcity increases, rent prices could keep climbing, leading to compounding lacking availability—a band-aid solution. Ethan Casler, a U-M Senior in the Urban Planning program at Taubman with a minor in Public Policy, stated that with this increase in focus for construction of luxury housing, creates new supply that is at a higher cost. Despite this higher perceived cost, people “will naturally fill in that housing.” Casler also noted that if students are indecisive, they may choose to live in luxury housing as long as they feel they can afford it.
This M-Live article acknowledges how one-bedroom apartments priced at $1,700 are “now considered affordable” despite being at a significantly higher price compared to national average and having a shorter timeframe for renting. As this precedent is growing, we find that there are higher issues and problems throughout the city of Ann Arbor. “There is a greater perceived value in safety, if you can even afford it,” said Casler.
The university pressures
Through their agreement with the City of Ann Arbor, U-M as a government entity has the right of “eminent domain,”. Eminent domain allows them to force the sale of property, through a few means; they can offer a “fair market price” for the property and land as dictated by current valuation. If the owner refuses to take this offer, they still can force the sale, at a significantly lower price as mentioned in this article by M-Live: James Chen was offered $600,000 for his property, a price that was significantly less versus his neighbor whose house sold for $1.3 million. Though it was too low, “if you don’t take it, [U-M]’ll go to eminent domain,” Chen said, later selling both of his properties after months of negotiation as he didn’t want to put his “energy into fighting this.”
It’s considered a lose-lose situation for current students looking for housing, and property owners renting out their houses; “they get the land either way,” said Garrett, “it doesn’t matter what you do.” This was the choice the owner of the house Garrett was renting faced, an acquisition considered necessary for the future mission of U-M. This ability was used in 2013, and threatened to be used in 2023 for the Munger residences and Central Campus domain.
The City of Ann Arbor still is hopeful that the housing issues will be solved with more availability. In this article from The Mich, John Fournier, Deputy City Administrator, said that new apartment projects should create a “cascading effect” for the student and populace, filling in holes on all portions of the economic spectrum—now a year later, nothing has lowered in cost.
This has also been reflected through the local experience; “When I go to Ann Arbor, I see three things: construction, students, and more construction,” stated an Ann Arbor worker who wished to remain unnamed. They commute from Ypsilanti to Ann Arbor to work at the Panera Bread on North University Avenue due to the higher price of rent here. “I would’ve liked to live closer, but there’s simply not enough reasonably priced housing—most [of it] gets filled by the students, and U-M keeps removing houses.”
History in the breaking
Another worry is found through the irreversible damage being done to the storied history of Ann Arbor. Edward Rice, current Chair of the Kempf House Board, is worried about the potential ruination of Ann Arbor’s historic district; “Around 20 years ago the City bowed their heads to the developers and then the economic crash happened, and those two historical houses,” 307 and 311 Second, “acted as a buffer” with just a chainlink fence haunting where the two buildings once stood.
Rice also worries about the precedent that is being set by these larger contractor companies, as they often build with no regard for the surrounding area. It creates this “impeding wall” that blocks the soul of Ann Arbor, creating this “awful facade”. This, along with U-M continuing to acquire more land—-removing it from tax status—puts “strain on the populace, without adding any benefit to Ann Arbor homeowners,” causing higher tax adjustments to make up for lost revenue.
A silver lining
Though these price trends have not fallen, the expectation is that supply will eventually catch up with demand. With each apartment complex and student housing project, hundreds more students and residents can be housed, giving some tentative hope. Casler stated, “When the construction of all these places are done, they’ll have to get competitive eventually. Prices will fall, and demand will decrease, leaving better places to live, with much smaller turnovers,” and maybe U-M will quash the competition to some extent, as “[U-M has] promised to give [students] a fair price, and [the students will] have to deal with less housing stress.”
Feature Photo by Jakub Żerdzicki on Unsplash.