Kent has been declared the No. 8 most affordable college town to live in according to a national study conducted by a New Jersey-based real estate company.

Kent is among five Ohio college towns that made the top 15 list published by Forbes.com.

“I can see how we could be eighth,” said Karlien Sluman, a junior middle childhood education major. “I feel like a lot of my friends who go to different schools pay a lot more for rent and had a lot harder time finding decent places to live than I did.”

The study, conducted by Coldwell Banker Real Estate, focused on the 120 schools in the Football Bowl Subdivision and looked at the average listing prices of four-bedroom, two-bath houses for sale between April and September 2010.

“We all know that Kent offers a good quality of life as well as great value, but it is terrific to get the recognition from Forbes,” said Iris Harvey, vice president of university relations. “It means students will want to stay in Kent after graduation and faculty and staff can be recruited to the city.”

The idea behind the study is the growing trend of parents buying college-town real estate and then renting the property out to their own children and to other college students.

Commuters who travel to Kent State daily could benefit from the accessibility of housing near campus. Kelly Eggleston, a library and information sciences graduate student, and Jessica Foote, a junior English major, both agreed that having a house in Kent would make their lives easier.

Despite Kent’s high rating on the 15-town list, the criteria of the study leave some students still unconvinced that Kent really is an affordable place to live.

“Yeah, there’s a lot of affordable houses to buy, but if you’re just a student without a way to buy those houses, there’s really not much opportunity,” said Douglass Elliott, a junior exploratory major. “I know they’re redeveloping the downtown area, but I wish there were more one-bedroom apartments or lofts close to downtown.”

Because eight of the 15 most affordable towns are in the Midwest, Forbes said that region is the most affordable region in the U.S. College towns along the coasts, however, are least affordable, particularly in California and Hawaii.

Contact Julie Sickel at [email protected].