On campus housing has been growing again in popularity the last few years at Northwest College.

The college saw an increase in occupancy of residence halls for the fall semester, with approximately 315 residents, an increase in 15 students compared to prior years.

So in February, the college board approved residence hall rate hikes that take into account the market and the other fees students have to pay to attend. Even with a roughly 4% increase, NWC’s residence hall single room rent remains the lowest of any state community college and double room rent lower than all but Western Wyoming and about the same as Central.

“We needed to make up a little bit of ground with inflationary increases,” President Lisa Watson said. “We've been very conservative … We're thoughtful about what students pay, what they could pay in the community with a similar living experience.”

For fiscal year 2023 the board agreed to a reduction in most residence hall rates up to 5% and a similar increase in the non-traditional housing of roughly 4%. Last year rates were kept in check to make them competitive with the market.

Vice President Dee Havig and Finance Director Mark Grant wrote in their report that the reduction in residence hall rates was for small single and super single rooms due to changing the residence hall model to be focused on occupancy in single rooms. It was also noted that Generation Z students are price-conscious and used to their own private living spaces.

Student housing rates are reviewed annually as part of Northwest College’s ongoing operational assessment and budget work. Several factors are evaluated in preparing the annual proposal, including inflation, peer institutional pricing, debt service needs, operating and maintenance costs, financial solvency, occupancy levels, and student affordability.

In the residence halls, semester rates rose from a standard double room at Ashley/Lewis and Clark halls to $1,555 from $1,495 at the low cost end, to suite style rooms at Simpson Hall rising from $2,395 to $2,485.

Trapper Village Main one bed and two bed apartments went up at some of the highest amounts at roughly 4.5%, with one bedrooms going from $575-$600 per month and two bedrooms (with two student occupancy) $475-$495 per month.

Trapper Village West apartments are treated slightly different as they are priced more by the market, Watson said. Most of the properties also come with garages. Still, the average rate increase was in the same range, from a 3.85% to a 4.33% hike.

At the low cost end, studios rose from $485-$505 per month and at the top end, a four bedroom house from $1,450-$1,510 per month.