Public · Des Moines, WA

Highline College

3,211 full-time students in fall 2024 and college-controlled housing for 160: about 5 beds for every 100 full-time students. The other 3,051 live somewhere the college doesn't control. That is the outer edge of the private market, before you take out commuters and students living with family.

160 college-controlled beds (5 per 100 full-time) 3,051 full-time students beyond them
5,592total students, fall 2024
3,211full-time
$9,900typical housing charge, 2024-25 academic year
$17,310aid office off-campus food and housing budget

Enrollment

Of 5,592 students enrolled in fall 2024, 5,592 were undergraduates and 0 graduate students. 37% studied exclusively online, students who don't need a bed near campus. Headcount rose by 466 from fall 2023 (+9.1%).

Housing the college controls

IPEDS counts 160 beds of institutionally controlled housing for 2024-25. That figure is the school's own capacity, on or off campus, so it includes halls the college leases or manages but not private buildings that simply market to students. Capacity was the same in 2023-24.

What students pay

The typical 2024-25 housing charge for a student sharing a room was $9,900 for the academic year, roughly $1,100 a month spread over nine months. For aid purposes the school budgets $15,228 for food and housing on campus and $17,310 for a student living off campus away from family, $2,082 more.

Those are the college's own figures. Private by-the-bed rents near campus can sit well above or below them, so check current asking rents before you underwrite a project.

How lenders read a campus like this

At 5,592 students the campus is below the 10,000-student minimum in Fannie Mae's Multifamily Guide for Dedicated Student Housing (Part III, Chapter 1, section 103.01). Freddie Mac has no stated enrollment floor, but its own product summary says most of its student housing loans are at schools with 15,000 or more students. Banks, debt funds and conventional multifamily programs are the likelier lenders here.

To size a specific property, use the student housing loan sizer. It works by the bed and shows which constraint sets the loan.

Among the 20 Washington campuses on this site, Highline College ranks number 19 by full-time students beyond college housing. See the Washington table.

Source: Fall 2024 enrollment, IPEDS DRVEF2024 (provisional release, December 2025); 2024-25 housing capacity and charges, IPEDS COST1_2024 (December 2025); IPEDS HD2025 directory (July 2026). Beds per 100 and the gap are arithmetic on those figures.
MeasureValue
Total enrollment, fall 20245,592
Total enrollment, fall 20235,126
Full-time students3,211
Undergraduates (full-time)5,592 (3,211)
Graduate students0
Exclusively online37%
College-controlled housing capacity, 2024-25160
Capacity, 2023-24160
Beds per 100 full-time students5
Typical housing charge, academic year$9,900
Typical food charge, academic yearnot reported
Aid budget, food and housing on campus$15,228
Aid budget, food and housing off campus$17,310
All first-time, full-time students required to live in college housingNo
Combined food and housing charge (if not split)not reported

IPEDS unit ID 235431. King County. School website. Figures are as the institution reported them to the National Center for Education Statistics. The live-on question asks whether every first-time, full-time student must live in college housing; a school with exemptions or a later-year requirement can answer no. How this data is built.