How Does the Notre Dame Football Schedule Affect Home Values in South Bend?

By Tim Vicsik | Trueblood Real Estate | Specializing in Homes & Condos Near Notre Dame
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Every August, Notre Dame fans across the country do the same thing: they pull up the Fighting Irish football schedule and start counting home games. For most fans, this is about planning tailgates and booking hotel rooms. But for a growing number of alumni buyers, real estate investors, and South Bend homeowners, the football schedule is something closer to a financial calendar.

If you've ever wondered whether living near Notre Dame Stadium is actually worth a premium — or whether buying a condo near campus is a smart investment move — this is the article you need to read before you make any decisions.

The Anchor Effect: Why Notre Dame's Presence Matters More Than the Schedule Itself

Let's start with the big picture before we get into the game-by-game details. Notre Dame Stadium seats over 80,000 fans and hosts approximately seven home games per season. That's a lot of people descending on a city of about 100,000 residents for a dozen-plus weekends from September through November. But the football schedule's influence on home values isn't really about those individual Saturdays — it's about the permanent infrastructure of demand that a world-class football program creates around it year-round.

Research from moveBuddha examining home values near college football stadiums across the country found a strong pattern: proximity to a storied college program tends to create a buyer demographic that doesn't exist in other markets — alumni who want a "second home" close to their alma mater, investors seeking short-term rental income, and fans willing to pay a premium just to be able to walk to a game. (moveBuddha, College Football Stadiums vs. Home Value)

Notre Dame is one of the most nationally recognized programs in college football. Coming off a 14-2 season in 2024 that ended in a College Football Playoff National Championship appearance, the Fighting Irish are not just a local obsession — they're a national brand. That brand recognition pulls buyer demand from Boston to Los Angeles into a mid-size Indiana city. That's genuinely unusual, and it does something unusual to local real estate.

The Short-Term Rental Math: What Game Day Weekends Actually Pay

The 2025 Notre Dame home schedule features some of the most attractive matchups in recent memory: Texas A&M, Boise State, NC State, USC, Navy, Syracuse, and UCLA are all slated to visit Notre Dame Stadium. (Notre Dame Athletics official 2025 schedule) That's not a quiet slate. Games against Power 4 opponents draw national television audiences and bring fans from across the country — fans who need somewhere to stay and are willing to pay for the privilege of being close to the action.

Condos and homes in developments like The Residences on Notre Dame Ave — positioned just one block from Eddy Street Commons with explicit no-restriction short-term rental policies — are specifically designed to capture this income. The math isn't hard: if even four of your seven home games yield a two-night booking at premium rates, you're looking at a meaningful secondary income stream that pure suburban homeowners can't replicate.

Does a Winning Season Push Prices Up? The Momentum Effect

Here's where it gets interesting. While the mere presence of Notre Dame Stadium creates a baseline demand premium for nearby properties, the team's performance can amplify or dampen that effect in the short term.

When Notre Dame is in the national conversation — ranked, bowl-bound, or playoff-contending — alumni engagement spikes. That means more eyeballs on South Bend real estate listings, more out-of-market buyers inquiring about investment properties, and more people wanting a piece of the Notre Dame lifestyle. The 2024 playoff run was a perfect example: national attention on the program translated into heightened interest in properties near campus, as alumni who might not have pulled the trigger on a purchase started seriously considering it.

Conversely, a down season with fewer marquee home opponents might mean lighter rental demand for a specific fall — but it doesn't meaningfully erode long-term values. Notre Dame's brand is too deep and too institutional for a bad year to undo the structural demand that exists around it. The stadium has been there since 1930. It's not going anywhere.

The Research: What Studies Say About Stadiums and Property Values

There's a large body of academic and market research on the relationship between sports facilities and nearby home values, and the findings are nuanced but generally favorable for established programs. A comprehensive review of multiple urban real estate studies found that the majority of homes near long-established stadiums carry a value premium over the broader metro average. (multiplecities.org, The Housing Impacts of Sports Stadiums) The key word is "established" — newer stadiums in growing cities haven't always moved the needle yet, but venues that have anchored their communities for decades tend to support stronger surrounding values.

Notre Dame Stadium has been a fixture in South Bend for nearly a century, which puts it squarely in the category of a stabilizing real estate influence rather than a speculative one. A separate Georgia State University study found that game day homes in small college towns — properties purchased specifically for weekend rentals — have driven up housing prices in surrounding neighborhoods, in some cases accounting for five to ten percent of total housing stock in some blocks. (Georgia State University / StudyFinds, 2021) That's a double-edged sword: great news for sellers and current owners, but important context for first-time buyers trying to understand what drives pricing near campus.

Frequently Asked Questions About Notre Dame Football and South Bend Real Estate

The Bottom Line for Buyers and Sellers

If you're a buyer considering a property near Notre Dame, understand that you're purchasing into a market with an unusually stable demand floor. Alumni buyers, investors, and football fans create year-round competition for quality inventory near campus. That's excellent news for resale value, but it means you should move decisively when the right property comes up — this is not a market where waiting around typically rewards patience.

If you're a seller near Notre Dame, your timing window can matter. Listing in late summer as football season ramps up — when alumni are actively thinking about South Bend and game day buyers are exploring options — can put your property in front of an especially motivated audience. And if your home has short-term rental history or the potential for it, that's a genuine selling point worth highlighting.

If you're an investor, the conversation comes down to your goals. Game-day rental income is real and repeatable, but it's seasonal and dependent on maintaining a high-quality property that competes with other premium short-term rentals near campus. Long-term appreciation is the steadier value driver here — Notre Dame isn't going anywhere, and neither is the demand it creates.