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

[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?

We started looking for a new house around the time that Kindergarten private school process started so we didn't pay too much attention to our home school/district ratings. DC is Sophomore now, has been in private all the way through.

In regards to to the parents you've talked to, maybe they bought their homes long before they knew when they would have kids so it didn't occur to them as a priority vs. other things (lot, square footage, bedrooms, bathrooms, needed repairs or newly renovated, how far their money could stretch... if you don't have kids, school district is not part of the priority mix at the time of purchase).