Rick Lopez was helping his son, a student at the Pennsylvania Culinary Institute, move into an $800-a-month Downtown studio apartment last winter when he rummaged through some real estate ads.
"When I went to Pittsburgh and started seeing the prices, I was just amazed at the affordability of the houses," said Lopez, 51, of Bakersfield, Calif.
He and his son Kris looked around at houses. On the plane ride home, Lopez made an offer on a house in Brookline. He bought it for $56,500.
Real estate agents here say that this year in particular they saw more parents choosing to buy houses or condos for their children in college -- wooed by relatively low interest rates and the city's affordable housing stock. Instead of paying dorm fees or rent with nothing to show for it, parents pay mortgages on property they can sell after their child's college years are over.
"From conversations with agents, it's more common this year than in the past," said Cliff Schultz, manager of the condominium division at Howard Hanna. "(Parents) see the cost of housing go up at universities, and they say, 'I can make an investment and turn it around in four years and make a profit.'"
Ted Knowlton, an agent for Coldwell Banker, sold a one-bedroom house on Dithridge Street in Oakland six years ago to a family whose daughter was attending the University of Pittsburgh. They bought it for $38,500 and sold it last fall for $110,000.
Allegheny County and real estate agencies don't keep numbers of parent-bought homes. However, Knowlton estimates he's handled about 10 real estate deals in 18 years involving parents buying properties for students. He's noticed an upturn in such transactions in the past six years as more professionals and parents with two incomes take advantage of relatively low mortgage rates.
Lopez is still kicking himself about his older son Paul, who went six years ago to Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara.
"I made a mistake that time of not buying a condo up there for $170,000," he said. "Now they're $400,000."
Agents say that many parents buy to give students more space, comfort and security of a house or condo.
"It's just like being at home," said Bernadette Tengowski, a Howard Hanna agent who specializes in university and medical center clients. She has handled three houses near Carnegie Mellon and two condos for college parents.
Angela Huang, a sophomore at Carnegie Mellon University, lived last year in a dorm. Her new condo at The Market Place in Shadyside has two bedrooms, two bathrooms, walnut cabinets and a balcony commanding a view of the city. Her father in Taiwan paid $325,000 for it.
"He thought it was more comfortable for me, and it makes me more independent," Huang, 19, said. "Basically, I have to manage everything."
She has a roommate to share expenses, yet Huang prefers an apartment. She prefers calling a landlord with a problem rather than dealing with it herself. Her father saw owning a condo as a way to teach her how to handle adult responsibilities.
"He said it's not a big deal," she said. "It's a way to learn when I get my own house. I just learn it earlier."
Purchasing a home or dorm room can be a good deal for families with more than one student. Surprised by the smallness of his son's dorm room at Carnegie Mellon, Herculano Hersan, 49, of Upper St. Clair, bought him a house nearly five years ago. The house, in Squirrel Hill a half mile from campus, has two bedrooms, one-and-a-half bathrooms and a one-car garage. It cost $153,000.
His son, Thiago, 24, still lives there. He finished his bachelor's degree and is working on a master's degree in electrical and computer engineering from Carnegie Mellon.
Another son, Pedro, 22, lived there for a year while a student at Duquesne University before he transferred. Even Herculano crashed at the house about once a week while he was working on a master's degree in information technology at Carnegie Mellon. He graduated in 2002.
He hopes his youngest son, Andre, 17, will get to use it, too. A senior at Upper St. Clair High School, he has applied to Carnegie Mellon.
"If you have two kids going to school," Herculano Hersan said, "it makes sense you buy a house."
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