NIU students should wait to rent off-campus housing, according to a Student Association adviser.

A projected decrease in the number of students living off-campus during the fall semester could lower rents, said Brian Subatich, SA community affairs adviser.

The number of commuting students has increased, while amount of students renting apartments have decreased, leaving a number of vacancies, Subatich said. “Landlords know they have to lower rents if students wait.”

Nick Noe, NIU institutional research director, said he could not predict a decrease in off-campus students or an increase in commuter students. “I really don’t know what it will be,” he said.

owever, according to NIU statistics, the number of commuter students for the fall of 1989 was 29.8 percent compared to 28 percent for the fall of 1988.

Also, the number of off-campus students living in apartments, sororities and fraternities for fall 1989 was 27 percent compared to 28 percent for the fall of 1988.

Subatich said there is a renting myth that convinces students to begin leasing in February, but it stems from “deceptive” apartment advertising.

NIU junior Sharon Walenda said she leased her apartment in January because there is a “rumor that says the best apartments go quickly.”

Kathy Laing, a Laing management agent, said the reason students rent early is because “that’s the way the market has been.”

Subatich said students should not put off renting, but attend the housing bazaar sponsored by the SA Community Affairs Committee. It is an “excellent example of how the SA can benefit students,” he said.

The March 6 bazaar will give students a chance to talk to various attorneys, representatives from DeKalb apartments, fire departments, insurance, telephone, electric and gas companies, he said.

Students could “make an educated choice, so they can stay in the apartment for two or three years,” Subatich said. The bazaar is from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Holmes Student Center’s Capitol Room.

The bazaar “helps to compare,” said Bromley Apartments Manager Susan Schraeder-Cassens.