[legerdemain]

I think the claim, as it's typically presented, is that college students don't pay their own rent, so they are not sensitive to the expense. Affluent parents driving the demand for dilapidated student housing leads to local inflation.

Taken to extremes, this is an absurd claim. Lots of college students pay for their own expenses and are obviously very sensitive to cost. But you generally do see higher rents and worse housing in college towns.

[megameter]

It's an aggregate of parents, scholarships and loans, not just any one of those things. Plenty of students spend an unwise chunk of their loan money on consumer goods and housing, since they want those experiences now. At the same time there are also thrifty students and homeless students who are just barely getting by. A lot of different types of people go through large universities, and I think the appeal and the cost is much like big cities in that respect.