The Wall Street Journal ran a story late last month headlined “Nobody’s Buying Homes, Nobody’s Switching Jobs—and America’s Mobility Is Stalling.” The article highlights some stagnation playing out right now in the housing and job market. 

A quick recap: The housing market is frozen for many would-be sellers and thus would-be buyers right now. Those lucky enough to buy or refinance when mortgage interest rates plummeted below 3% in 2020 now aren’t budging, as rates have since climbed. And those higher rates mean many are staying put in too-small houses or rentals.

That’s affecting the job market, too, the piece argues. 

While none of this is exactly new news, Robert Kelchen — professor and head of University of Tennessee, Knoxville’s Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies — had an interesting observation. Tight housing and job markets affect higher ed, at a time when things are already tense.

Faculty and administrators could be just as constrained by the golden handcuffs of a 2% interest rate as everybody else. That makes them less likely to move for a new job, Kelchen said, especially since they’re unlikely to get the type of salary increase they’d need to offset more pricey mortgage payments. Plus, even finding an affordable house in the first place could be a challenge right now. 

All of this contributes to what Kelchen called a “hunker-down mindset” in higher ed. 

“Even if the institutions are giving out pay raises, the pay raises aren't matching  housing costs,” Kelchen said. “And then that creates a pressure to stay.” 

While that might seem like a “first-world problem,” it also affects college and university staff members, Kelchen told me. Often the only way for staff members to make more money is to move universities — there aren’t the same in-house growth opportunities as there are for faculty. But that’s easier said than done. Rents have increased also, and perks like employee tuition remission is one of the first things to go when budgets get tight, Kelchen said. 

The job market has slowed, too. Hiring is weak and there is less turnover overall, which affects new college grads in particular, according to The Journal story. Those who start out underemployed are more than three times as likely to still be underemployed a decade after graduation than those who quickly found a good job, according to a 2024 Burning Glass Institute study.

Grace Ahn, 25, was featured in the Journal story. She had hoped to go into marketing after graduating two years ago from California State University, Long Beach. She’s applied for dozens of roles, without any luck. She now makes $22 an hour as a social worker at a government contractor in Orange County. 

“At first I was so naive, so excited. I was like, the whole world is my oyster,” Ahn told The Journal. “The oyster has now expired.”

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The future of higher ed in San Antonio

Our partner the San Antonio Report convened the leaders of the city’s seven colleges and universities for a panel discussion yesterday. I got to travel for the event and visited the newsroom and Danya Pérez, our reporter there.

It was great to see the San Antonio Report convene this group:

• Hector Ochoa of Texas A&M San Antonio

• Taylor Eighmy of the University of Texas at San Antonio

• Abel Antonio Chávez of Our Lady of the Lake University

• Vanessa Beasley of Trinity University

• Winston Erevelles of St. Mary’s University

• Tom Evans of University of the Incarnate Word

• Mike Flores, chancellor of Alamo Colleges District

We know that most people go to college within 50 miles of home, and people who go to college have higher earnings potential over their lifetime than those who don’t. That means institutions like these play a critical role in who moves up the economic ladder, where good jobs develop, and how San Antonio grows.

I was struck during the conversation by how clearly the group articulated their role in this — and in particular, how clear-eyed they are about the fact that working together, rather than just competing, will help the city and students succeed.

“We all stand for more access,” said Vanessa Beasley, president of Trinity University. “More education for more people is good, full stop, wherever you go to school.”

Read Danya’s writeup of the panel. 

Elsewhere on Open Campus

From El Paso: The Justice Department has decided not to defend the constitutionality of Hispanic-serving institutions, such as the University of Texas at El Paso, putting at risk the extra federal funding they receive.

A university is considered Hispanic-serving if its student body is at least 25% Hispanic. HSis educate two-thirds of all Hispanic undergraduates in the country. The loss of those funds would worsen access to opportunity for all students, Deborah A. Santiago, co-founder and CEO of Excelencia In Education, a national nonprofit dedicated to Latino success in higher education, told Danny Perez at our partner El Paso Matters.

“I think institutions across this country that are already feeling challenges of economic issues and funding are going to be further challenged, and it could mean decreased access to many people across this country, and that goes beyond Hispanics,” Santiago said.

From Chicago: The Trump administration has limited the amount of federal debt students can take on to get graduate degrees, a change that could imperil the already fragile pipeline into social work, Lisa Kurian Philip at our partner WBEZ reports.

From North Carolina: More than $12 million has gone into repairs and restoration for Warren Wilson College in Western North Carolina following the damage of Hurricane Helene a year ago. Brianna Atkinson, our reporter who works in partnership with WUNC and NC Local, followed up with the president of the college to hear how recovery is going.

“We have made impressive progress, great accomplishments, but the devastation that Helene brought on us was so significant that we still have issues that we are grappling with,” said President Damian Fernández.

Keep in touch

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