If traffic cooperates, the drive from Cape Canaveral to Gainesville takes about three hours. Eli Stewart made that trip every few weeks this Summer, squeezing in a shift at a campus molecular lab before turning around and driving back home.
The lab is one of two paid jobs he works year-round, on top of a full course load and freelance web design.
Such is the schedule of Stewart, a 20-year-old microbiology sophomore who said he works largely because he has to. He fully supports himself, covering all his living and university-related expenses.
"I spend insane hours working," Stewart said.
He lives about 2 miles from campus, splitting a lease with a friend to cut costs. Living in a closer spot alone, he said, would barely be within reach.
The numbers say Stewart’s not alone.
Fair Market Rent is a federal benchmark the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development uses to track rent prices annually. For a two-bedroom apartment in the Gainesville metropolitan area, fair market rent climbed from $971 in 2020 to $1,493 in 2026, increasing by more than 50%.
UF's on-campus housing rates also rose sharply as part of a multi-year increase approved by the Board of Trustees. The cheapest traditional double rooms climbed from $3,556 per semester in 2025 to $3,929 this year, according to the university's published room rates.
Tuition tells a different story, at least for in-state students at UF.
From 2017 to 2025, Florida's in-state rate held steady at $212.71 per credit hour for undergraduate students. It’s increased by only a couple dollars per credit hour this 2026-27 school year, according to UF's Office of the Chief Financial Officer.
Out-of-state tuition increased more significantly over the same time period.
For eight straight years, it maintained a rate of $955.28 per credit hour. It rose to $1,029.53 last Fall and has jumped by over $100 this semester.
UF estimates a full academic year for an in-state undergraduate student costs $25,830 when tuition, housing and other expenses are combined, according to the Office of Student Financial Aid and Scholarships.
Out-of-state undergraduate students can expect to pay around $54,000 annually, more than double the in-state rate.
Federal loan rules changed, too. Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, new borrowing limits cap student borrowing at $257,500 for life.
Students who don't qualify for enough aid and would have previously applied for additional student loans now have to find that extra money somewhere else.
What do the next five years look like?
When it comes to on-campus housing, dorm prices are only expected to climb.
UF rental rates are reviewed and subject to change every year, according to the university's Student Housing Agreement.
UF's trustees approved a standing 4.5% annual increase to on-campus housing rates through fiscal year 2030 and added another 2% starting in fiscal year 2025 for a combined 6.5% a year, according to board meeting records.
If that board-approved 6.5% pace holds, the cheapest traditional double could reach roughly $4,340 a semester by next school year.
While that’s just a projection based on the board's approved rate, it shows how quickly a steady percentage increase can compound over a few years.
Not every student is closing that gap with a second job.
Henry Canapp, a 20-year-old UF computer engineering junior, has watched his own housing costs climb in step with UF's official numbers.
His on-campus single suite at Cypress Hall went from about $4,800 a semester last year to $5,304 a semester this year, he said.
Similar suites in Honors Village now run at $6,176 a semester.
"Every year they're just kind of making it worse," Canapp said.
He still prefers a dorm over an apartment because of the convenience of its on-campus location, he said.
Canapp also pointed out that the seemingly small change has had big impacts on the wallets of students reliant on meal plans. UF changed its meal plan policy last year, no longer allowing students to use retail equivalency at campus markets.
That change and the sheer price of meal plans factored into his decision to forgo campus dining this year. He’s chosen to keep food costs down by cooking for himself, he said.
He now spends about $100 a week, or $1,500 per semester, on food, he said. Compared to the cheapest option of $2,300 per semester for a campus meal plan, which only covers meals on weekdays, he’s saving at least $800.
Lakshmi Kataru, an 18-year-old electrical engineering freshman, made a similar choice to save money on food.
He shops at Walmart and Trader Joe's near his off-campus apartment and cooks his own meals, but he still struggles with generally rising food costs, he said.
"Groceries are really expensive, especially if you're trying to eat healthy,” Kataru said. “Organic stuff is very expensive."
He picked the cheapest one-bedroom apartment he could find near campus, he said, which charges $1,600 a month. Pricier options like The Standard see single-person units run for about $2,000 per month. But he’d still prefer living alone over sharing a place with strangers, he added.
"I didn't want to take the gamble with messy roommates," Kataru said.
Brian Gendreau, a UF professor emeritus of finance, said tariffs and this year's spike in oil prices tied to the war in Iran have pushed prices higher. Whether that turns into sustained inflation is still unclear, he added.
It’s even less certain whether Gainesville rent prices will continue to climb at the same roughly 10% annual pace it has over the past five years, he said.
Rent prices “always seem to go one direction, which is up,” Gendreau said.
But he pointed to the wave of new apartment construction underway around the city, particularly along Williston Road, as a reason to expect that pace to slow in the coming years.
"At some point, that’s got to lead to downward pressure on rents," Gendreau said. "As an economist, I just think when you get more supply like that, the price has to go down."
He doubts rents will fall citywide, but he expects the increase to first ease in older, less desirable units, he said.
Oil is the bigger worry, he said, because it feeds into the cost of nearly everything.
"Just about everything we consume here in Gainesville was transported here by truck, and that takes diesel fuel," Gendreau said. "So, there is an upward push."
UF's rising dorm rates follow a similar logic, he said. Today's residence halls come with amenities that didn't exist a generation ago, like updated recreation facilities and Wi-Fi, and those upgrades are built into the price. It’s all part of a larger trend, he added.
"Tuition just keeps going up and up and up faster than the rate of inflation," Gendreau said. "That’s been true for 30 years now, at least. And when colleges raise their tuition, they raise their other fees as well, just as a matter of course."
He expects UF's out-of-state tuition to keep climbing, too, because the rate tends to be based on sticker prices at elite private universities around the country.
In-state tuition has stayed comparatively low, he said, partly because so many Florida students receive financial aid from scholarships and grants like the Bright Futures Scholarship program.
Working through school to cover the expense gap isn’t new, Gendreau said, though he suspects more students are doing so now than in the past.
"I think that’s always been the case," he said. "The catalyst is the higher prices. Simple as that."
But when sophomore Eli Stewart’s working two jobs to pay tuition, he doesn’t need to hear the economist's logic or see the data to know prices are rising. He’s already living the reality of those numbers.
"It's gonna continuously get exponentially more expensive," he said.
Contact Jessica Yang at jyang@alligator.org. Follow her on X @jessie_yang_08.
