What Happens to the Lourdes University Campus? What the Closure Means for Sylvania Home Values
A car show and a craft market were running on the Lourdes campus Saturday morning, and the woman who told the Blade she got chills walking in also said she had no idea why the school closed. That is where Sylvania is on this. The university has been gone since May, the sisters who own the ground have said "dreaming big" and not much else, and 218 apartments' worth of student housing on Brint and McCord went to market four months ago without a buyer anyone has named. I sell houses a few minutes from that campus, so I pulled every Sylvania closing this year, and every one on the streets that touch the property, to see what the closure has actually done. The answer so far is nothing. The reasons it might change are the rest of this post.
What actually closed, and what didn't?
Lourdes University announced on February 13 that it would close at the end of the academic year. The numbers behind it, from the university's own statement and its financials: 964 students in fall 2024, down about a third from 2018 and nearly two-thirds from 2011. A $2.8 million operating deficit in fiscal 2024. Net tuition revenue down more than 7 percent in a year. Liabilities of $18.1 million, $13.9 million of it long-term debt. The Sisters of St. Francis, who founded the school in 1958 and have owned the land on Convent Boulevard since 1916, said they could no longer subsidize it at the level it needed. The last commencement was in May.
What did not close is the campus. The sisters still own it. Jenifer Belt, their chief operating officer and general counsel, told the Blade on Saturday that they are looking for ways to use it and are in a discernment process about its long-term future, one that started two or three years ago. Sister Sharon Derivan, the congregational minister, said there is a certain urgency to using the buildings appropriately and that leadership is not rushing into anything. Mercy College of Ohio is occupying some of the buildings right now because Mercy had an electrical fire on its own campus. The Franciscan Center is still hosting weddings, the Car-Nival car show, a maker market. Rosary Care Center, the nursing home, is still running.
So the property is in use, owned by a religious order that has been on it for 110 years, and has no announced plan. That is a very different situation from a vacant campus with a for-sale sign, and it is why the streets around it have not blinked.
What about the student housing on Brint and McCord?
This is the parcel with a clock on it. The former student housing complex is 218 one- and two-bedroom units, 540 to 924 square feet, in 10 buildings on about 13 acres at Brint and North McCord, with a basketball court and sand volleyball, in the Sylvania school district. Lourdes listed it through SVN Ascension Commercial Realty in May, the offering memorandum went out May 6, and offers closed May 22. No asking price was published. As of this weekend nobody has announced a buyer, and I could not find a transfer on the parcel.
Two hundred eighteen units is a big number in Sylvania. For scale, Sylvania closed 297 houses all year. Whoever buys that complex is buying an apartment community that already exists, next to a hospital campus, in a district people move here for, and the obvious play is to lease it as regular apartments. That is not a threat to the houses on Brint and McCord. It is 218 renters instead of 218 students, which for a neighbor is quieter, not louder. The version that would change the streets is a teardown and something denser, and nothing on the record says that is what is coming.
What do Sylvania homes sell for right now?
Every closing in the NORIS MLS for the city of Sylvania and Sylvania Township, January 1 through September 6, 2026. Speed is listing contract to purchase contract, never the builder's number.
| Sylvania, 2026 through Sept 6 | Resale | New construction |
|---|---|---|
| Closings | 297 | 19 |
| Median sale price | $354,000 | $549,990 |
| Middle half of sales | $285,000 to $432,900 | $504,900 to $666,800 |
| Median price per square foot | $169 | $220 |
| Median days, listing to contract | 35 | 68 |
| Closed above original asking | 46% | 16% |
| Sold at $500,000 or more | 43 | 15 |
| Median year built | 1987 | 2026 |
| For sale now | 89 resale, 33 new, $437,400 median ask across both |
Read it plainly. Sylvania is one of the tighter markets on the west side. Nearly half of resales close over the original ask, a house is under contract in five weeks, and 43 houses cleared half a million this year. Lincoln Woods, Farmbrook, Quarry Ridge, Bridgecreek, Centennial Farms and Cobblestone are the subdivisions that closed the most. The new-build column is the township growing outward at $220 a foot while the older city sells at $169. That gap is the Sylvania story every year, and it has nothing to do with a university.
What about the streets that touch the campus?
Now the numbers nobody at the car show had. Seventeen resale homes closed this year on the streets that border or feed the campus and the housing parcel: Convent, Brint and Brint Crossing, McCord, Erie, Monroe, Corey, Brinthaven.
| Streets bordering the Lourdes property, 2026 resale | |
|---|---|
| Closings | 17 |
| Median sale price | $260,000 |
| Range | $125,000 (Monroe) to $455,000 (Erie) |
| Median price per square foot | $139 |
| Median days, listing to contract | 34 |
| Closed above original asking | 47% |
| Median year built | 1970 |
Cheaper and older than Sylvania as a whole, and they were before the closure too. Monroe Street frontage sells like Monroe Street frontage. The three Brint Crossing and Erie sales in the $336,000 to $455,000 range are the newer stock. Forty-seven percent over ask on 34 days is the same competitive pattern as the rest of the city. If buyers were pricing in a dead campus next door, this is where it would show, and it does not.
If you own on one of those streets, my read is this. The campus is not going to sit empty. A religious order with 110 years on the ground and a nursing home on it does not walk away, and Mercy College is already in the buildings. The question is whether the eventual use brings people during the day, which a school or a health campus does, or brings traffic and lights at night, which a dense redevelopment would. The first one holds your value. The second is a public hearing you should be at. And the housing parcel is the one to watch, because it changes hands first.
What should you do if you own or are buying near Lourdes?
If you own on Convent, Brint, McCord or Erie and you are thinking about selling in the next year, the closure is not a reason to hurry and not a reason to wait. Your market is 34 days and 47 percent over ask. What a buyer's agent will do is ask about the campus, and the answer is on the record: still owned by the sisters, still in use, no plan filed. Have that answer ready and it is a non-issue at the table.
If you are buying near there, price the two parcels as an open question, not a discount. Ask the seller what they know, check the county for any transfer on the Brint and McCord parcel, and know that a 218-unit complex going back to market as apartments is the most likely outcome, and the least disruptive one.
Send me the address and I will send back every 2026 closing on your street, how far you sit from the campus and from the Brint-McCord parcel, and what each of the likely outcomes would do to your block. Start with a home value estimate if you are weighing a sale, or set up a home search if Sylvania is where you want to be, and I will run it myself.
Related reading: the Sylvania submarket page, the Sylvania housing market guide, and is new construction worth it in Sylvania.
Adam Geuy, Realtor - Blacktree Realty. ABR, PSA, SRS. Greater Toledo, Ohio. 419.540.8659.
Sources
- Campus status, sisters' ownership since 1916, Mercy College occupancy, Belt and Derivan quotes, events, founding in 1958: The Blade, September 12, 2026.
- Closure announcement, enrollment, deficit, liabilities, debt, the sisters' statement: Higher Ed Dive, February 13, 2026.
- Student housing listing, 218 units, 10 buildings, 13 acres, unit sizes, SVN Ascension, offer deadline: WTOL, May 2026, via Yahoo News.
- All sale prices, counts, price per square foot, days to contract, over-ask shares, year built and active listings: NORIS MLS closed and active residential listings, City of Sylvania and Sylvania Township, January 1 through September 6, 2026, computed by Adam Geuy from MLS exports. Bordering-street set: Convent, Brint, Brint Crossing, Brinthaven, McCord, Erie, Monroe, Corey. Builder days on market is intentionally not reported.
Common questions
Why did Lourdes University close?
The university announced on February 13, 2026 that it would close at the end of the 2025-26 academic year, citing mounting financial pressure from declining enrollment, rising costs and a funding model it called increasingly unsustainable. Fall 2024 enrollment was 964 students, down about a third from 2018 and nearly two-thirds from 2011. Fiscal 2024 showed a $2.8 million operating deficit and $18.1 million in liabilities, including $13.9 million of long-term debt. The Sisters of St. Francis said they could no longer subsidize it at the level required.
Who owns the Lourdes campus now?
The Sisters of St. Francis of Sylvania, who founded the school in 1958 and have owned the property on Convent Boulevard since 1916. Their chief operating officer told the Blade on September 12, 2026 that the sisters still own the campus, are looking for ways to use it, and are in a discernment process about its long-term future. Mercy College of Ohio is occupying some of the buildings after an electrical fire on Mercy's own campus, and the Franciscan Center continues to host events.
What happened to the Lourdes student housing?
The former student housing complex, 218 one- and two-bedroom units of 540 to 924 square feet in 10 buildings on about 13 acres at Brint and North McCord roads, was listed for sale through SVN Ascension Commercial Realty in May 2026. Offers closed May 22. No price was published and no buyer has been announced as of September 13, 2026. The parcel sits in the Sylvania school district.
What do homes in Sylvania sell for in 2026?
Through September 6, 2026, Sylvania closed 297 resale homes at a median $354,000 and $169 a square foot, with a median 35 days from listing to contract and 46 percent closing above the original asking price. Forty-three resales closed at $500,000 or more. Nineteen new-construction homes closed at a median $549,990. There were 122 active listings, 33 of them new builds, at a median asking price of $437,400.
Will the Lourdes closure hurt home values near the campus?
There is no evidence of it yet. The 17 resale closings this year on Convent, Brint, McCord, Erie, Monroe, Corey and the Brint Crossing streets ran a median $260,000, from $125,000 on Monroe to $455,000 on Erie, with 47 percent closing over the original ask. That is a cheaper, older set of streets than Sylvania as a whole, and it was before the closure too. What the two parcels become, a reused campus or a redeveloped one, and 218 apartments in someone else's hands, is what will move those streets, and neither has a decision yet.