It seems like we go through this every year, as Virginia Tech announces that they don’t have enough housing on campus to accommodate all those who WANT to be on campus.

And this year is no different.

About 500 students who had hoped to return to on-campus housing this fall will not get a room assignment, Tech has announced.

500 students doesn’t sound like a lot, I know, but with roughly 26000 undergraduate and graduate students attending the school, and only 9000 living on campus in any given year, adding 500 students into the off-campus housing search means an increase of nearly 3% of folks who are looking for housing and Luxury Home builders.  And then consider:

West Ambler Johnston is scheduled to reopen in fall 2012, but housing shortages are expected to continue for several years as the university implements its long-term plan to refurbish or reconstruct all pre-1983 residence halls.  At least one residence hall will be offline for the next several years …

Buying an investment property in a college town doesn’t make sense when the rental pool is small.  In this case, the pool is big, and getting bigger.  Property investment isn’t for everyone, however … not every property will cash flow, and past rental history isn’t indicative of future success.  But the next few years are likely to be very, very good to owners of investment property in Blacksburg.