Quote:
Originally Posted by Sant
It will have a bearing when you try to buy or sell a house. Perceived quality of the schools that are zoned for a given house is one of-- if not the-- driving factors for price.
|
I don't think anyone will disagree with that statement.
As it pertains to this particular thread I think there's a couple of points I'd mention:
1) I believe USN&WR is pretty far down the list of sources that contribute to the perceived quality of specific schools/school zones behind items like feedback from students and their families, test score raw data, NC report card data and even websites like greatschools, schooldigger and others. The first point is why I said the USN&WR ranking has no bearing on my life (for the record, I didn't say perceived school quality in general has no bearing on my life). To me, the USN&WR ranking just isn't very useful when compared to other sources of information.
2) School quality (both perceived and real) is much more static than these annual rankings would care to admit (after all, USN&WR has to sell magazines every year regardless of whether or not much has actually changed). With respect to home prices in a given school zone, I think the second point is important to remember. Because school quality is relatively static, it is unlikely to have changed a whole lot over the course of the average length one's home ownership. If you live in a school zone of poor quality today, you'll have to sell your house for less $/sf. However, the school zone was probably of poor quality when you bought the house, too, so you paid less $/sf to begin with. In the end, it's probably a wash (the caveat being appreciation rate in one place over the over).
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
