Is it really worth it to pay a premium for a house in a top school pyramid?

[Anonymous]

the best neighborhoods and investments follow the best public schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Buying in a good school district is overrated. Generally FCPS is a good schooling system. More important than schools is that you work with your kid. You will find some higher rated schools are clustered in areas where there is high Asian population. You miss on diversity in these schools. I am sure you are just not looking for academic scores.

Asian kids add to diversity as well. If buying in a good school district were overrated, you'd think the market would largely correct for it.

Bingo!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, buy in the best district you can afford that makes sense for your commute. The rest of it is just noise.

We bought as close to our commute midpoints as we could within our budget. The neighborhood has a well regarded elementary and middle school within walking distance. The high school (also walking distance) is middle of the pack for FCPS, but that is still pretty darn good. McLean and some of the other places with the better reputations made no sense for us commute-wise, and we couldn't have had a house with a yard there, anyway.

People get way too wrapped up in the "best of the best" here. A good student can do well at any FCPS school. The socioeconomics of the surrounding student body is the biggest difference among the schools, and in most cases, there is a high achieving, motivated group somewhere there. Just have your son involved in activities, get to know the other parents, etc. I grew up in a less affluent area, and still managed to do quite well in school as my parents were involved in my life. I never got in trouble and had a good group of friends.

The high-scoring schools have problems, too - just a different variety.

Another one who agrees with this. Plus, if you have a good student at a not-so-perfect school, that helps in the college application process. The ones who shine at the not top 5 high schools often get into colleges where they would not had they been in the middle of the pack at the top 5 HS.

There are a couple of issues here. One is based on perception, the other is reality.

The reality is oftentimes "middle of the pack" schools are, indeed, perfectly fine (although this notion that you'll stand out in the college application process if you succeed despite the school is just silly)

But equally too is the importance of perception. That affects current and future home values. Just as people ask themselves whether an updated kitchen or bathroom will help resale value, so too will the school pyramid. In fact, schools are MORE important from a real estate perspective than the perfect kitchen or bathroom -- the evidence is in the people who pay a premium to live in older, non-updated homes just to buy into the schools.

So, if you're asking from the perspective "can my kid get a good education if I choose a middle tier school district" the answer is, yes, probably.

If you're asking is it "worth it" to pay a "premium" in terms of your home holding its value, the answer there, too, is absolutely yes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Buying in a good school district is overrated. Generally FCPS is a good schooling system. More important than schools is that you work with your kid. You will find some higher rated schools are clustered in areas where there is high Asian population. You miss on diversity in these schools. I am sure you are just not looking for academic scores.

Your premise here is that "diversity is a good thing." But, really, that's not inherently true.

[Anonymous]

OP, having lived in one of the areas you mention, I have to tell you that the most important factor (realistically) is commute.

If you don't work near McLean (for example) then you will be regretting your decision. Certain groups do tend to keep to themselves. I will leave it at that. And certain types of moms can be a nightmare to be stuck with. I would go for someplace more "middle of the road" where most would have a better tendency to fit in. If you reach "up" too much, it shows, as does the opposite. Make sense?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
OP, having lived in one of the areas you mention, I have to tell you that the most important factor (realistically) is commute.

If you don't work near McLean (for example) then you will be regretting your decision. Certain groups do tend to keep to themselves. I will leave it at that. And certain types of moms can be a nightmare to be stuck with. I would go for someplace more "middle of the road" where most would have a better tendency to fit in. If you reach "up" too much, it shows, as does the opposite. Make sense?

Too cryptic, I'm afraid. The only part I got was that you didn't feel like you felt in.

[Anonymous]

As long as you are not amongst people with too much time on their hands, you should have no problem.

Commute is the first consideration.

[Anonymous]

We moved from the Belle View pyramid to a "better" school district and paid a premium for our home. We had a lot of the same questions you do, and while I really miss Alexandria and our old neighborhood, I think we made the right decision.

As far as the education goes, I notice a huge difference, especially in terms of DS's peer group. At his old school, we were always being told how smart he was and how far ahead of everyone he was. Now, he is distinctly average. Everyone here is smart. I feel like it's pushing him to work harder. I don't know how this will play out as he gets older--will the competition be too much?--but right now, I appreciate that he's with kids who are pushing him. That said, I do think there is something to be said for being the smartest kid at a more average school instead of being an average kid at the best school.

It's a tough decision, but I think that you really can't go wrong with a home in a great school district. We also factored in commute, and DH's commute is exactly the same as it was from our old home.

[Anonymous]

Obviously all the people who did this will say "Of course!" in order to justify their investment. And those who didn't will say, "Nah!" to validate their own choice. You are not going to get unbiased responses.

We went middle of the road. Well regarded public schools, neighborhood we loved and great commute. Were there "better" public schools we could have moved to? Yes, but we would have sacrificed on the other two things. We do not in any way feel that we did our children a disservice. People in our area are very happy with the schools, but its not a pyramid that is often mentioned on DCUM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Obviously all the people who did this will say "Of course!" in order to justify their investment. And those who didn't will say, "Nah!" to validate their own choice. You are not going to get unbiased responses.
We went middle of the road. Well regarded public schools, neighborhood we loved and great commute. Were there "better" public schools we could have moved to? Yes, but we would have sacrificed on the other two things. We do not in any way feel that we did our children a disservice. People in our area are very happy with the schools, but its not a pyramid that is often mentioned on DCUM.

I think this about sums it up. Also, on the one hand, it's pretty hard for me to believe a good or not-as-good school district really makes or breaks a kid's success in life. There are just too many other factors in play and it's hard to untangle them. On the other hand, there's no doubt that many people prefer the "insurance" factor a higher-achieving school environment provides and are willing to pay out the nose for it, so financially, the premium for the house in a top school pyramid likely will be worth it if you plan to live there for some time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Obviously all the people who did this will say "Of course!" in order to justify their investment. And those who didn't will say, "Nah!" to validate their own choice. You are not going to get unbiased responses.
We went middle of the road. Well regarded public schools, neighborhood we loved and great commute. Were there "better" public schools we could have moved to? Yes, but we would have sacrificed on the other two things. We do not in any way feel that we did our children a disservice. People in our area are very happy with the schools, but its not a pyramid that is often mentioned on DCUM.

I think this about sums it up. Also, on the one hand, it's pretty hard for me to believe a good or not-as-good school district really makes or breaks a kid's success in life. There are just too many other factors in play and it's hard to untangle them. On the other hand, there's no doubt that many people prefer the "insurance" factor a higher-achieving school environment provides and are willing to pay out the nose for it, so financially, the premium for the house in a top school pyramid likely will be worth it if you plan to live there for some time.

[Anonymous]

When a house is appraised and there is not enough recent sales they will make monetary adjustments to a house not in the same school district.

The answer is yet it does matter.

[Anonymous]

We bought into the Langley pyramid. Kids were fine until high school. Have two in private now and will NOT send my youngest to that Godforsaken place!

We bought to get more land so I don't feel disappointed. I would, however, if I had bought for the schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We bought into the Langley pyramid. Kids were fine until high school. Have two in private now and will NOT send my youngest to that Godforsaken place!

We bought to get more land so I don't feel disappointed. I would, however, if I had bought for the schools.

Will you share why you don't like Langley? I don't know much about it other. Any insight you can provide will be helpful. TIA.

[Anonymous]

We have had kids at both Marshall and McLean and have been pretty happy with both. Neither was perfect; each had pros and cons. We have friends at Madison and they are generally happy as well.

Langley seems to evoke stronger feelings among some parents. Maybe it's due to the unique environment at that school (no other HS in NoVa has such a uniformly affluent student body) or maybe it's due to parents having higher expectations because "it's Langley." I know that when one Langley parent complained a while back on DCUM that the guidance counselors there were pressuring her daughter to take virtually all AP or pre-AP courses as a sophomore, and telling her to be prepared to spend at least five hours on homework every night, it wasn't anything we'd experienced at either Marshall or McLean.