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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Some of the people who'd bought in the Madison district and got rezoned to South Lakes had a lot of their net worths tied up in their homes, and then suddenlyblost $100-200K in equity with the redistricting.  That's life in the suburbs, too, but it's something you try to avoid, if possible.  People can pontificate about their own enlightened approach to raising children, but the market reflects the consensus view that children are more likely to succeed when surrounded by high-achieving peers.  [/quote]

And god knows, your child will be far better off surrounded by 105 high-achieving peers at Madison vs. "only" 95 high-achieving peers at South Lakes.  Her future hangs in the balance, as indicated by that drop in home value. :roll: [/quote]

Well, it was exactly to counter a milder version of that perception that South Lakes parents were rather vocal when they learned one year that admissions rates of South Lakes students to U.Va. were higher than those at Langley.  But it didn't eliminate the discount for homes in the South Lakes district relative to those in adjacent districts, because there were too many other metrics that South Lakes students under-performed relative to their peers at other schools.  The W-L district in Arlington has some of the same attributes, although some people minimize them because the area offers a good commute to DC.  Others do not, and anecdotes about W-L college admissions to a few schools in one year are unlikely to significantly change their views.  They will want to see, for example, a GreatSchools rating higher than a 5.[/quote]

I don't know about South Lakes, but in Arlington W-L has always had a great reputation, and housing prices correlate with that. Could it be that Yorktown's relatively low Greatschools ratings for years kept housing prices at an even level with W-L, but now that Yorktown is a 9 will home values suddenly go up in its neighborhoods? I highly doubt it and I doubt that homes in the South Lakes district are much lower than those in the Madison district. In Arlington there really is no price difference between homes in the W-L district and those in the Yorktown district, even for homes far away from Metro. Yet it seems that Greatschools has become the de facto barometer for school and neighborhood quality over the past couple of years. I just hope it doesn't end up "redlining" certain neighborhoods that already have great schools. A color coded number rating doesn't explain much. How about posting the actual passing rates? In Arlington Greatschools doesn't seem to matter much anyway. Both Wakefield and W-L have the same Greatschools score, but the perception among many in Arlington is that Wakefield is the school to avoid while W-L gets the kudos. [/quote]

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