I dont have kids YET, but looking to buy... (Massapequa: real estate, high crime)

[anthonylongisland]

I dont have kids yet, but I am looking to buy a home. I cant afford too too much... I know there are some "no brainer" type of places to live on long island. Let me ask you all this:

How much do you think it matters for me (I am 31, currently with no kids) to worry about school districts? I obviously wouldnt want to live in some of the worst districts, just because I probably wouldnt want to live there to begin with. But, figure kids go to school around 5 years of age? Im not sure if school systems really begin to "count" until the kids get a little older? (Introduction of sex and drugs and such...?)

I am looking for opinions, would you agree, disagree or somethign inbetween? (I think my above statement made sense, it is actually a little harder to type out then i thought, but you all probably get the idea).

[Mjeacoma]

lol - I thought this was spam...

We don't sell kids!!!!

lol

I will post a productive post in a few

[raiser]

A house with a better district will be easier to sell, think resale not your needs.

[StephM]

A house with a better district will be easier to sell.

What is your budget?

[KellyFG]

I think you are totally on target with your thinking. I would be more concerned about high crime areas than school districts. I live in Longwood which most people say is "bad", its a huge district with a racially & economically diverse population. The kids here have great school pride, our sport teams are awesome, we have a planetarium in our middle school, tons of clubs & programs, our budget always passes, our library is amazing, but yet people will say Longwood is bad. I've lived here for 5 years & I'm still trying to figure out what they are basing that on. I live in the most Northeastern part of the district, Ridge/Lake Panamoka. Houses in my neighborhood do not take longer to sell than in "better" neighborhoods like Port Jefferson Station or Ronkonkoma. That whole theory is a myth, in slow economic times lower priced houses sell faster than $500,000 houses with 16k property taxes-ask any of the realtors on this board. You can get a great house on a big piece of property for around 300k in Ridge. The home prices here never inflated to the crazy levels of some other areas so its a good value.
We have amazing wildlife, kids in my neighborhood all learn to swim, sail, fish & kayak in our freshwater lake. Its a great life that a typical subdivion cannot provide. Depending on where you work & if you use the train to commute this may not be the best area for you.
What I'm trying to say is, you should not always go by the school district "reputation". Make a choice that is wise for your family, don't worry about everyone else.
Good luck!

[KENNY GUIDO]

massapequa has a fantastic school district, great resale for your home and is SAFE.

[KellyFG]

Originally Posted by KENNY GUIDO

massapequa has a fantastic school district, great resale for your home and is SAFE.

very true to an extent I've worked there for ten years & 90% of my patients are Massapequa natives.
But here is a perfect example of how a school/town reputation doesn't tell the whole story. A few weeks ago two girls from Massapequa were arrested for prostituting in NYC to support their heroin habit. It never even made the news or the paper.
My point is NO DISTRICT OR TOWN IS PERFECT!!!!

[Jrprofess]

Originally Posted by anthonylongisland

I dont have kids yet, but I am looking to buy a home. I cant afford too too much... I know there are some "no brainer" type of places to live on long island. Let me ask you all this:

How much do you think it matters for me (I am 31, currently with no kids) to worry about school districts? I obviously wouldnt want to live in some of the worst districts, just because I probably wouldnt want to live there to begin with. But, figure kids go to school around 5 years of age? Im not sure if school systems really begin to "count" until the kids get a little older? (Introduction of sex and drugs and such...?)

I am looking for opinions, would you agree, disagree or somethign inbetween? (I think my above statement made sense, it is actually a little harder to type out then i thought, but you all probably get the idea).

Although KellyFG has a very refreshing and open-minded perspective on areas and school districts, and is right in many ways, most buyers on Long Island tend to not be like her...unfortunate but true. So you can look past an areas school district because it does not impact you at present, but it does impact your homes resale (especially in this part of the country). You might want to think about your potential buyers perception to a degree.

A home in Longwood district will sell cheaper than a home in Three Village based on the schools. Of course this limits whether or not you can enter into the community at your price point as well. If you are faced with a coin flip on homes and areas, my recommendation is to go with the stronger district, perceived or otherwise. There is less risk that way. Just my two cents.

[I_Love_LI_but]

Originally Posted by KellyFG

A few weeks ago two girls from Massapequa were arrested for prostituting in NYC to support their heroin habit. It never even made the news or the paper.
My point is NO DISTRICT OR TOWN IS PERFECT!!!!

Nope, it certainly didn't! I hope these girls get help! Where I grew up a lot of bad things the high school kids did was not in the papers either. (We had some real doozies from residential burglary to gambling rings!)

[LilTownBlues]

Originally Posted by Jrprofess

So you can look past an areas school district because it does not impact you at present, but it does impact your homes resale (especially in this part of the country). You might want to think about your potential buyers perception to a degree.

A home in Longwood district will sell cheaper than a home in Three Village based on the schools. Of course this limits whether or not you can enter into the community at your price point as well. If you are faced with a coin flip on homes and areas, my recommendation is to go with the stronger district, perceived or otherwise. There is less risk that way. Just my two cents.

I'm curious to know if there are any hard figures or charts that could really explain this resale thing more clearly?

I understand that, generally speaking, a perceived "better" school district will tend to generate a higher selling price for homes. However, the resale benefit is directly related to the original purchase price which was likely higher in the first place. Therefore, once one factors cost and other impacts to value, the actual gain on resale from "better" school district may be negligible or non existent based on an equal initial investment. In other words:

I buy a house for $100,000 in "regular" school district. I also buy an equivalent one in "fancy pants" school district for $125,000 (obviously worth more because of the district). For sake of argument, let's say the market turns good and housing is growing at 5% per year in regular district and 7% in "fancy pants" (because of the obvious superiority of it). This means if I sell in 5 years I recognize profit of $25,000 in "regular" district compared with $43,750 in "fancy pants". Clearly my profit was better in "fancy pants", but at the end of the day I should have $50k in my pocket instead of $43k since I spent $25k less in the first place. I could have also used the $25k to turn the "regular" district house into a clearly superior house and ended up with a much higher valued home and potentially seen a higher profit from that.

I recognize that in the real world things are not that simple, nor are most homes bought on a cash basis. I guess my point is simply that to base a decision to make a real estate investment (that is usually one of the largest investments a person would ever make) strictly on a narrow focus is probably not the way to go. It's also that since there are so many factors that influence resale values, and since none of us can really predict the future, then leaving all of one's eggs in one basket (in this case the school district basket) is generally not the best approach.