Redfin took a look at homes on
Multiple Listing Services (MLS),
databases used by real estate brokers, that sold between May 1 and July
31, 2013 to calculate median sale price and price per square foot of
homes within school zones. School zone boundaries were provided by
Maponics. School data and school test scores were provided by Onboard
Informatics and GreatSchools. School service boundaries are intended to
be used as reference only. To verify enrollment eligibility for a
property, contact the school directly. The percentile rankings are based
on test scores for each of the schools in this report. School and home
coverage consisted of 10,811 elementary school zones across 57 metro
areas and included 407,509 home sales.
The High Cost for Schools With Top Test Scores
In the age of Tiger Moms and raising the Smartest Kids in the World,
getting the best education for their kids has become a borderline
obsession for American parents. Problem is; it’s not cheap. And we’re
not just talking about private schools. In the United States, housing
prices in the zones of highly ranked public schools are remarkably
higher than those served by lower ranked schools. Although we were
somewhat floored by the higher prices in many zones, the good news for
parents is that there are several neighborhoods left where homes are
relatively affordable in highly ranked school zones. Redfin was able to
uncover these steals by analyzing home prices and test scores of
elementary schools across the country.
For this study, we analyzed home prices compared to the test scores
of elementary schools across the country. While we expected to see
higher prices for homes in highly-ranked school zones, we didn’t expect
the difference to be so large. In certain markets, the difference
amounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars for similar homes in the
same neighborhood.
Chicken or the Egg: Are Higher Ranked Schools a Result of Better Homes?
Everyone assumes that better school districts tend to have bigger
homes, higher quality homes, larger lots, or a more prime location
(views, quiet streets, etc). We’ve debunked that assumption. When
accounting for size, on average, people pay $50 more per square foot for
homes in top-ranked school zones compared with homes served by
average-ranked schools. This means that the price differences for
similar homes located near each other but served by different schools
can range from tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Homes just a short distance apart with nearly identical attributes
are selling for drastically different prices. We’ve looked across the
country at homes that have sold in the last three months and found five
examples where the prices vary on identical homes by as much as
$130,000.
 |
| Location |
Alexandria, VA |
High rated
school zone |
Waynewood (90) |
Low rated
school zone |
Belle View (50) |
Home
attributes |
4 bed, 3 bath, 3000 sqft |
Distance
b/n homes: |
0.75 miles |
Price
difference |
$130,000 |
|
 |
| Location |
Beaverton, OR |
High rated
school zone |
Cooper Mountain (99) |
Low rated
school zone |
Errol Hassell (50) |
Home
attributes |
4 bed, 2.5 bath, 2100 sqft |
Distance
b/n homes: |
0.5 miles |
Price
difference |
$43,000 |
|
 |
| Location |
San Diego, CA |
High rated
school zone |
Curie (99) |
Low rated
school zone |
Hawthorne (30) |
Home
attributes |
4 bed, 3 bath, 1800 sqft |
Distance
b/n homes: |
0.75 miles |
Price
difference |
$83,000 |
|
 |
| Location |
Seattle, WA |
High rated
school zone |
Wedgwood (99) |
Low rated
school zone |
John Rogers (40) |
Home
attributes |
3 bed, 1 bath, 1500 sqft |
Distance
b/n homes: |
0.5 miles |
Price
difference |
$44,000 |
|
 |
| Location |
Gilbert, AZ |
High rated
school zone |
Sonoma Ranch (99) |
Low rated
school zone |
Patterson (10) |
Home
attributes |
4 bed, 2 bath, 2000 sqft |
Distance
b/n homes: |
0.75 miles |
Price
difference |
$51,000 |
|
How Much More for a Top-ranked vs. Average-ranked School Zone?
Every metro area in this report has higher prices for homes served by
top-ranked public elementary schools. Coastal California leads the way
in terms of cost, with homes in the highest-ranking school zones running
from $300,000 more in Los Angeles to nearly $500,000 more in San Jose.
Although the dollar cost differences in Miami and Phoenix were not as
great, homes in the top-ranked school zones were still more than twice
the price of homes in the average-ranked school zones, going from about
$150,000 to $300,000 in median home sale price.
At the other end of the spectrum, Queens, NY, Raleigh, NC, and
Eugene, OR offer smaller price differentials when going from an
average-ranked school to a top-ranked school. For the chart below,
average schools have test scores between the 40th and 60th percentiles
in their state, while a top tier school is defined as the 90th
percentile and above within its respective state.
Pockets of Affordability in Each Metro
So, what’s an ambitious parent to do with these rather daunting home
prices? Fortunately, Redfin crunched the numbers and found numerous
highly-ranked schools across the country where homes were significantly
more affordable compared to homes within the boundaries of the
top-ranked local schools. Click on any of the schools below to drop into
Redfin and find homes currently for sale served by these more
affordable school zones.
| Metro Area |
School |
Median
Sale Price |
Discount from
Median Sale
Price for
Top-ranked
School |
| Atlanta |
Due West Elementary School (Marietta, GA) |
$ 180,000 |
32% |
| Austin |
Sims Elementary School (Austin, TX) |
$ 136,000 |
57% |
| Baltimore |
Charlesmont Elementary School (Dundalk, MD) |
$ 135,000 |
59% |
| Boston |
Fox Hill Elementary School (Burlington, MA) |
$ 415,000 |
26% |
| Charlotte |
Highland Creek Elementary School (Charlotte, NC) |
$ 173,000 |
37% |
| Chicago |
Troy Crossroads Elementary School (Shorewood, IL) |
$ 151,000 |
45% |
| Denver |
Mortensen Elementary School (Littleton, CO) |
$ 155,000 |
58% |
| Houston |
Lomax Elementary School (La Porte, TX) |
$ 138,000 |
51% |
| Las Vegas |
Fay Galloway Elementary School (Henderson, NV) |
$ 145,000 |
29% |
| Long Island |
John Pearl Elementary School (Bohemia, NY) |
$ 331,000 |
46% |
| Los Angeles |
Dysinger Elementary School (Buena Park, CA) |
$ 423,000 |
43% |
| Miami |
Del Prado Elementary School (Boca Raton, FL) |
$ 190,000 |
42% |
| Philadelphia |
Manoa Elementary School (Havertown, PA) |
$ 241,000 |
24% |
| Phoenix |
Brinton Elementary School (Mesa, AZ) |
$ 147,000 |
57% |
| Portland |
McKay Elementary School (Beaverton, OR) |
$ 230,000 |
39% |
| Queens |
P.S. 242 – Stavsky Elementary School (Flushing, NY) |
$ 164,000 |
54% |
| Riverside |
Bear Gulch Elementary School (Rancho Cucamonga, CA) |
$ 235,000 |
38% |
| Sacramento |
Trajan Elementary School (Orangevale, CA) |
$ 250,000 |
30% |
| San Diego |
Los Penasquitos Elementary School (San Diego, CA) |
$ 223,000 |
66% |
| San Francisco |
Redding Elementary School (San Francisco, CA) |
$ 635,000 |
28% |
| San Jose |
Meyerholz Elementary School (San Jose, CA) |
$ 640,000 |
44% |
| Seattle |
Westhill Elementary School (Bothell, WA) |
$ 350,000 |
29% |
| Ventura |
Sycamore Elementary School (Simi Valley, CA) |
$ 431,000 |
38% |
| Washington |
Potomac Landing Elementary School (Fort Washington, MD) |
$ 300,000 |
46% |
No comments:
Post a Comment