Fall 2026 Pre-Lease Season Gets a Boost in November

After recording the slowest October in over a decade, the Fall 2026 U.S. student housing pre-lease season got a boost in November.

As of November, just 17.3% of student housing beds across the U.S. were leased for the Fall 2026 semester. That was a sizable boost over the October showing, which was the slowest start to a pre-lease season since 2015. While November’s boost was notable, taking it ahead of Fall 2025’s pre-lease rate for the month, it was still behind the showings above 20% seen in Fall 2024 and Fall 2023. It should be noted, however, that while Fall 2025 started out slowly, it did end up being the strongest season in recent history. A slow start doesn’t always mean a weak season, as evidenced by the strong showing in November.

The same performance was seen among the core 175 universities tracked and forecasted by RealPage, where 18.4% were leased as of November, quite a boost from the 3.3% leased in October.

Rates were tightly clustered across distances from campus. Properties within a half mile to one mile of campus were 18.4% pre-leased as of November, while communities within a half mile of campus reported 17.2% pre-lease occupancy. Those units furthest from campus were 16.4% pre-leased as of November.

For more information on the state of the student housing industry, read previous posts on Student Housing.