Tracing the Effects of Studentification in a Mid-Sized City: Lubbock, Texas Tech University, and the Five Surrounding Neighborhoods

Studentification leads to significant socioeconomic and demographic changes in urban neighborhoods. Yet the phenomenon is understudied in midsized U.S. college towns. Using census data from 1990 to 2020, resident interviews, and archival materials, this study examines five neighborhoods surrounding Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. The study explores demographic shifts, off-campus housing dynamics, and socioeconomic transformations in the five study neighborhoods. We identify the acquisition of residential property by parents of college-aged students, which we term student-parent homeownership, as a central mechanism of neighborhood transformation in Lubbock. By examining this process in a midsized U.S. college city, the study extends the studentification scholarship and contributes to ongoing debates about how parent-led housing acquisition reshapes urban neighborhoods. These findings contribute to the broader discourse on urban change and to the long-term study of how competition for urban space evolves across generations and national contexts.