Home prices in college towns

3/17/2010:

Eugene housing prices are 140% of the median college town.  The 98th highest out of 117.
UO pays senior faculty 83% of the national median salary.  The lowest of all AAU schools, by a big margin.

One of Lariviere’s first statements to the OUS board after he was hired was that raising UO faculty salaries to the AAU public median was his job number one. It will cost ~ $10 million per year to get us out of last place and another ~$10 million to get us to median.

Since that statement he and Bean have piled on a lot of new administrative hiring, while faculty pay is frozen. Why? Some people think it’s because Brad Shelton’s long-delayed budget model will reduce administrative growth, and they are trying to grandfather in everything they can first.

We hear rumors that a program to raise faculty salaries is now in the works. It would be more credible if we didn’t see the money going out the door for so many new administrators.

From ColdwellBanker:

… an apples-to-apples comparison of similarly sized 2,200 square foot, four-bedroom, two-and-a-half bathroom homes in college markets

TABLE 3 The following is a complete list of all of the 120 schools ranked: