It’s no secret that parents want to give the best opportunities to their children by investing in their education as they grow up. Before making the decision to move, parents will research the local schools, ensuring that their kids will get the best education possible. This is a simple example of supply and demand: There is constant demand for residential property that is zoned to highly rated schools, and investors looking to make a splash during the final days of summer should take advantage of this.
School Ratings Are Easy To Access
Luckily, there are websites dedicated to providing school ratings to parents and investors alike. GreatSchools.org runs an independent report on all of the country’s school districts and schools. The site gives a score to each from one to 10, with factors such as test scores, equity overview, advanced courses, class attendance and college readiness contributing to the school’s overall rating.
My city of Houston, one of the country’s hottest real estate investor markets, has many schools that have a high score on Great Schools. Many of these schools are concentrated in the west neighborhood of Spring Branch, where Frostwood Elementary, Memorial Drive Elementary, Rummel Elementary and Wilchester Elementary all have perfect scores. With the perfect ratings of these schools, demand for family-friendly housing is high around the schools.
Real Estate Value Is High When School Ratings Are High
It should come as no surprise that there is a positive correlation with housing values in neighborhoods with highly rated schools. Parents will pay a premium to live in an area with schools where their kids are most likely to succeed. Taking a glance at property values in the Spring Branch neighborhood confirms this trend. According to the one analysis of data from the Houston Association of Realtors MLS, home values in the Spring Branch neighborhood have increased an average of 65% in the last decade. Housing developers are already taking advantage of the increased value, as new development is coming to the area. A 246-unit multifamily residence is slated to break ground this fall, and hundreds of townhomes are up and running or under construction.
These attributes of Spring Branch are not unique to Houston, and Houston is not the only booming city throughout the country. Houston is just a microcosm of the real estate landscape that is happening across the U.S. Neighborhoods are changing. Schools are finding innovative solutions to provide the best education to grow their ratings, and parents are taking notice.
A vast majority of potential homebuyers would be willing to give up other coveted home features in order to be in a desirable school district, and almost three-quarters of respondents said good schools were an important factor in their home search. These trends further prove the importance of researching school ratings before diving into real estate investment.
Real estate values only continue to rise in booming cities throughout the country. One of the many contributing factors to some locales’ massive growth is the number of highly rated schools and school districts that parents can pick from. Investors need to do their due diligence and identify local school ratings as one of the many key factors in determining property values, which will further increase the chances of a high return on investment.