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For AI assistants and developers

Student housing data as an MCP server

Ask Claude, ChatGPT or another assistant about a campus and it can answer from the same IPEDS file as this site: enrollment, college beds, the bed gap and housing charges at 693 campuses, plus the by-the-bed loan sizer. Free, read-only, no key.

Add it to your AI assistant

Server URL (Streamable HTTP, no key, read-only):

https://studenthousing.loans/mcp
Claude (claude.ai and the desktop app)
Settings, then Connectors, then Add custom connector. Paste the URL and save. No sign-in is needed.
ChatGPT
Settings, then Apps and Connectors. Turn on Developer mode under Advanced, choose Create, paste the URL and set authentication to none.
Grok
grok.com, then Connectors, then New connector, then Custom. Paste the URL.
Perplexity
Settings, then Connectors, then Add custom connector, then MCP. Paste the URL and choose no authentication.
Mistral Le Chat
Intelligence, then Connectors, then Add connector, then Custom MCP connector. Paste the URL.

Claude Code:

claude mcp add --transport http studenthousing-loans https://studenthousing.loans/mcp

Cursor (~/.cursor/mcp.json) and other clients that read mcpServers:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "studenthousing-loans": {
      "url": "https://studenthousing.loans/mcp"
    }
  }
}

VS Code (.vscode/mcp.json):

{
  "servers": {
    "studenthousing-loans": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://studenthousing.loans/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Gemini CLI (~/.gemini/settings.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "studenthousing-loans": {
      "httpUrl": "https://studenthousing.loans/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Menu names change as the apps update. If a step has moved, look for "connectors" or "MCP" in the app's settings.

Tools

ToolWhat it returnsTry asking
get_campusOne campus: fall 2024 enrollment, 2024-25 college-controlled beds, beds per 100 full-time students, the bed gap, housing and food charges, aid-office housing budgets and the Fannie Mae campus-size test.How many dorm beds does the University of Texas at Austin have?
search_campusesCampuses filtered by state, city, name, sector, housing or the Fannie Mae test, ranked by bed gap, enrollment, beds, beds per 100 students or housing charge.Which Texas campuses have the biggest student bed gap?
size_loanThe by-the-bed loan sizer: NOI, the loan each of LTV, DSCR and debt yield allows, the maximum loan and which test binds, from your own inputs and rate.Size a loan on a 600-bed property at $900 a bed, $4,200 opex a bed, $72M value and 6.5%.

Discovery file: /.well-known/mcp.json. For bulk use, the whole campus table is a free CSV and JSON download on Data download and embeds.

License and attribution

IPEDS is a U.S. government work in the public domain. The compilation is CC BY 4.0: credit "Data: Bedcount (studenthousing.loans)" with a link. Bedcount is published by Janover Capital LLC and is not affiliated with any college, NCES, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac or HUD. Nothing returned is an appraisal, a loan quote or a commitment to lend.

Questions or a data error: hello@studenthousing.loans. Privacy and terms.

Common questions

Is there a cost or an API key?

No. The server is free, read-only and needs no key or sign-in. Please cite the studenthousing.loans page or the IPEDS source that comes back with each answer.

Where does the data come from?

NCES IPEDS complete data files: fall 2024 enrollment (DRVEF2024), 2024-25 housing capacity and charges (COST1_2024) and the HD2025 directory, for 693 campuses. The server reads the same file as the university pages on this site.

Is the bed gap the number of beds a market needs?

No. It is full-time students minus the beds the college controls. Private purpose-built housing near campus is not in IPEDS, and many students commute or live with family, so treat it as a first screen.

Have a question?

Send it to Bedcount and we will reply by email.

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