'Shocking': College Towns Feel The Pain Of Fewer International Students

Miami University sits within the 7-square-mile city of Oxford, Ohio, a small college town near the Indiana border.

During the school year, roughly 19,000 students are enrolled on campus in a town with a total population of roughly 22,000. The school's international student base has planted roots in the community, many staying year-round and some even starting businesses there. 

At its peak in 2018, the school enrolled over 3,000 international students. Since then, those numbers have sharply declined. This academic year, there were roughly 860 international students enrolled, a 22% decrease even from the previous year, according to Ohio Capital Journal.

"The loss of international students, particularly students from China, is shocking," City of Oxford Economic Development Specialist Seth Cropenbaker said.

The dwindling number of international students in recent years has stressed local economies and small businesses in some U.S. college towns, according to economists, CRE analysts and municipal development officers. These communities likely will feel more economic pain as the international enrollment numbers decline further, they warn — and that will hit commercial real estate demand across sectors.

In September, the Trump administration hiked the fee for the H-1B specialized work visa from a few thousand dollars to as high as $100K. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce sued on Oct. 16 to block the new rule.

Global research firm Oxford Economics said it will sharply cut its forecast for net legal migration to the U.S. because of the new fee. The specialized work visa has been a selling point for U.S schools to attract international students looking to pursue high-paying jobs after graduation, Oxford Economics Deputy Chief U.S. Economist Michael Pearce told Bisnow.

"By making it more difficult to get an H-1B visa in the first place, I think you are going to see a lot fewer students enrolling," Pearce said.

In addition, the State Department issued 22% fewer F-1 visas and 13% fewer J-1 visas in May than in 2024 for students and researchers to study, teach and do research at U.S. universities.

Overall net legal migration is on pace for 400,000 immigrants per year, a drop of some 700,000 from the previous year, according to Oxford Economics.

"The students here, you can imagine, will start to look closer to home, maybe in English-speaking countries that have more permitted immigration structures for skilled migrants,” Pearce said.

That means fewer people renting U.S. apartments, spending money at retailers, receiving goods from warehouses or putting guests up in hotels.

International students contributed $44B to the U.S. economy overall in 2024, according to Association of American Universities research.

In Oxford, a prepandemic surge in international students helped boost local businesses, some of which were opened by Miami University international students looking to bring cultural foods and shopping to the city. Now, Cropenbaker said, some of those businesses have closed.

"A significant portion of our client base were international students," Cropenbaker said. "Now that we don't have that same base here, we're shutting our doors."

JLL Head of Nonprofit, Education & Government Practice (Tri-State Area) David Carlos said that the institutions feeling the most pain are smaller, liberal arts colleges that can't compete with larger public and private schools. To adapt, these schools have changed curriculum, cut staff and reassessed their real estate footprints, he said.

"If something were to happen to a lot of these colleges and universities, and they really struggle, that's going to have an impact on the overall economy,” Carlos said.

Carlos was part of the team that helped Albany Pine Hills Land Authority, backed by Albany County, acquire the former College of Saint Rose campus in its downtown for $35M in March. The 950K SF campus in New York consists of 71 buildings across 27 acres. The authority seeks to redevelop the campus.

Larger schools are also feeling pressures from the enrollment decline.

Ivy League and private research universities are some of the largest recipients of international students with New York University, Northeastern University and Columbia University taking the top spots in terms of enrollment, according to Open Doors.

In Boston, the absence of international students is being felt by property managers in the communities that surround the city’s universities.

Northeastern University, a top private research institution in the area, attracted 18,508 international students in the fall of 2024 — nearly 38% of its student body. Most study at Northeastern's Boston campus and reside in nearby neighborhoods, including Mission Hill and Roxbury.

With students moving in on Sept. 1, apartment availability across the city stood at 2%, up 25% from last year, according to data from BostonPads. In the Mission Hill neighborhood, which houses thousands of off-campus students, availability stood at 3.3% as of Oct. 16. That’s a 79.8% increase from 2024.

Demetrios Salpoglou, BostonPads CEO, told the Boston Globe he was surprised how many units were still available in Mission Hill in September. Other landlords told Salpoglou they also were concerned by the high level of vacancies.

However, investors who hold some of the largest student housing portfolios in the country said they remain confident in the sector. Those interviewed by Bisnow said their portfolios are concentrated on housing at large, public institutions. These institutions have a smaller percentage of international students when measured against the total study body.

Harrison Street Head of Asset Management Ben Mohns said the company — which has invested in 419 student housing properties consisting of 228,000 beds — continues to target high-enrollment public universities. He said the portfolio only has a roughly 5% exposure to international students.

American Campus Communities, Blackstone's student housing arm, has over $2.5B in development underway through 2028 consisting of 11 projects and 12,400 beds, according to the firm's chief development officer, Jamie Wilhelm.

Wilhelm said colleges and universities are beginning to evolve their recruitment to address the issue of dropping numbers of international students.

"There’s no question that international enrollment shifts will have localized effects, especially in markets that serve large populations of international or graduate students," Wilhelm said in a statement to Bisnow. "Many universities are doubling down on domestic recruitment and student retention."