Curious why some families did not think of school zones before purchasing home

[Anonymous]

Schools change more rapidly than people are able to buy new houses. Also many people plan on private from the start and thus dont care about the school zones. In recent years covid has played a role. We thought we would use our neighborhood school but oldest was hitting K in 2020 so we pivoted to private and really liked it.

Most public schools, even those in good areas, are lacking.

[Anonymous]

We didn't plan on living in the area this long.

[Anonymous]

Our friends bought a house zoned for great schools. Right after they moved in the lines were redrawn and they ended up at schools that were much weaker. They were livid.

[Anonymous]

My house was in a good school district when I bought 9 years ago. A new apartment complex was built and flooded my school. We're now a title 1 school and ranked 3/10. The problem isn't academics, it's more that most of the school doesn't speak English yet. School admin haven't been able to successfully figure out how to reach these kids effectively.

Luckily our middle and high school are highly ranked.

We have short commutes, a lovely 1.25m house, great neighbors. Poor scores aren't the end of the world. I'm mostly jealous of all the extras that friends' kids get that are in better ranked schools. They get to spend money on other things like play equipment and field trips.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is the last few months of preschool before all little kids will go to kindergarten in the fall. Almost every families are local, so they go to their home elementary schools. I have talked to a few, and they are looking at private school because their home elementary school is not that great. Well, I don't know how much private school a year cost, but I know that we have been paying $28k a year for current preschool. It is going to cost a lot of money down the road if families decide to go private. Isn't cheaper to buy a home zoned to better school zone to begin with? Do you look at school zoning before having first kid?

Schools should be decent, not necessarily top schools. Parents overestimate value of top schools and underestimate advantages of confidence and opportunities which comes with being top student in your cohort over one of many many.

[Anonymous]

*and how you stand out for colleges in your backdrop

[Anonymous]

We were undecided about kids when we bought, so bought in a "cool" area in the middle of the city. Interest rates went up after we had our kid. I think it will be cheaper to send them private high school than to buy somewhere with better schools at this rate.

[Anonymous]

Our schools are great for elementary and average for middle and high. We had planned for this to be a "starter house" that we weren't in for more than 10 years, which would give us time to decide whether we would stick with these schools, but then the 2021-2023 run up in housing costs happened, so I hope average is good enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our schools are great for elementary and average for middle and high. We had planned for this to be a "starter house" that we weren't in for more than 10 years, which would give us time to decide whether we would stick with these schools, but then the 2021-2023 run up in housing costs happened, so I hope average is good enough.

But yes, we did look at school zoning before we moved here. There was very little overlap between houses we could afford and great school rankings (and no, we don't live in a big new SFH, we live in a 1500 sq foot townhouse). It was the best we could do at the time. I suspect many people are in a similar boat.

[Anonymous]

We didn't pay attention to schools because we assumed we'd choose Catholic school. We ended up choosing the public school anyway, which was really good.

[Anonymous]

Yes but only for elementary. Did not realize how quickly middle school would arrive, and how difficult it would be to move. Also did not anticipate having a child with SN who could not go private.

[Anonymous]

We chose location over school district. We love where we live, but the schools aren't great. We knew that going in and would prefer to do private than to buy further out for better schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Schools can change so quickly. If the principal chances at an elementary, the entire tone/atmosphere and performance of the school can change within a school year, for better or worse. So people can buy a house for a school thinking the school is great, but if there's an administration change it can essentially become a different school.

This happened to us. We bought our home shortly after we got married. At the time, we were zoned for a good school. But my spouse is handicapped due to a genetic disorder and one of the things we prioritized was public transportation so they could get to work even when I was not available to drive them. Then my spouse had health issues due to the genetic disorder that took 8 years to stabilize. Then we had fertility issues and it was 13 between when we bought the house and when our children were ready to go to elementary school.

In that time, the good principal left and after she left, about 40% of the teachers changed. By the time our kids were ready for ES, I spoke with neighbors who told me that the school was no longer very good. The entire school student body had cycled and the newer parents did not participate in the PTA, there was little support and poor communication between the parents and the school and the school had dropped in quality significantly. It was a completely different school from the one that we were zoned for when we bought the house.

So, we made arrangements for private until we could find an alternative for our kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our schools are great for elementary and average for middle and high. We had planned for this to be a "starter house" that we weren't in for more than 10 years, which would give us time to decide whether we would stick with these schools, but then the 2021-2023 run up in housing costs happened, so I hope average is good enough.

But yes, we did look at school zoning before we moved here. There was very little overlap between houses we could afford and great school rankings (and no, we don't live in a big new SFH, we live in a 1500 sq foot townhouse). It was the best we could do at the time. I suspect many people are in a similar boat.

Same situation here. We also had to consider commuting distance, at the time we were both going in daily to different locations in the metro area. I work hybrid now but DH still goes in daily and his commute is long enough as it is.

[Anonymous]

Plenty of people in the best school districts choose private anyway. We moved to the neighborhood we liked most and (not too fare from work) because we knew we would send kids to private anyway.