Housing crisis enables students to rent mansions

For homeowners in California's Central Valley hit hardest by the housing crisis, it is the worst of times. But for students at a nearby college campus, it's the best of times. They now get live to live in luxurious mansions inexpensively.

On "The Early Show," CBS News correspondent John Blackstone reported University of California, Merced, students Heather Alarab and Jill Foster are college students who have given up their dorms for mansions.

Alarab shares a five-bedroom suburban house in Merced, Calif. It has a Jacuzzi, swimming pool and other amenities. She told Blackstone, "It's definitely a plus that a lot of students don't have."

For UC Merced students, living off-campus can mean living large at a reasonable price.

Alarab said her parents were really happy she found the residence.

Blackstone remarked, "I'm thinking your parents might also come here and say, 'You're living in a bigger house than we are!"'

Alarab replied with a laugh, "Yeah, I definitely am."

And for all this, the students can thank the housing meltdown.

Foster said, "We're just fortunate that the housing market isn't doing so well in Merced."

The students provide a bright spot there. One abandoned area Blackstone visited sports sidewalks and other services, but no houses where a subdivision was once slated to stand. After the bubble burst, the houses were never built.

Many houses that were built are empty. Merced has one of the highest foreclosure rates in the country. But for students, that means a big choice of low-cost rentals.

The five girls sharing the house, including Jill Foster, each gets her own room for about $400 a month. On campus, dorm rooms cost $500 a month -- and you have to share.

In Foster's room, Blackstone asked, "In a room like this on campus, it could be three people living in this?"

"Yeah," Foster said. " ... I'm very fortunate that I have my own space and I really enjoy the privacy. That's definitely lacking in the dorms."

Jaron Brandon shares a 4,500 square foot ranch house with a half dozen other undergrads.

Chris Chin's room is so big he projects movies on the wall.

There's one room for music, another for table tennis, and outside, a football field the size of a football field. They pity their classmates in the dorms.

Chin said, "Comparatively, we live like kings and they live like trash."