Student housing performance for the nation overall may be lackluster, but as usual in the student housing world, there are some distinct winners and losers. 

As of February, 40.5% of beds at the 175 core universities tracked by RealPage had been pre-leased for the Fall 2021 academic year, and total annual effective rent growth for Fall 2021 stood at a mere 0.1%. However, the 10 schools leading for both pre-lease rates and rent change as of February are vastly outperforming, and they tend to share several key characteristics. 

Four of these outperforming schools recorded pre-lease rates of 70% or higher: University of Wisconsin – Madison (80.8%), Virginia Tech (79.1%), Clemson (79%) and Appalachian State (70.4%). Four others saw rates around 60%: University of Maryland (62.1%), University of Tennessee (61.2%), Purdue (61.2%) and University of Georgia (61%). The remaining outperformers – University of South Carolina and Georgia Southern – were more than 50% pre-leased for the Fall 2021 semester as of February.