When you buy real estate the first thing you hear is location is everything. Or there are three things in real estate to consider, “location, location, location”. So when choosing a home everyone considers the location. The question is what should you consider?
I mean do you consider safety? Is it important that the home you buy is in a safe neighborhood? Or are you just starting out and willing to risk buying in an “up and coming” neighborhood that might be less safe because of price? When my DH and I bought both times, the number one consideration for us was safety. We decided to not try and buy in up and coming neighborhoods because we wanted know what we were getting ourselves into. Yes there is risk the neighborhood we buy goes to hell, but at least when we moved in it was “safe”.
Now the first time we bought we were very young, 21 and 22. So we knew we weren’t having children anytime soon. Thus we bought a condo in a neighborhood with a crappy school district. It wasn’t important to us. The second time around we were more unsure about when we would have kids and decide we might have children so we bought in a better school district.
Was this the right move? I’m not sure. Why? Because I’ve talked with coworkers, and we bought in an expensive neighborhood, when again we could have bought in a safe but bad school district. Now if you live in a bad school district, a coworker made the argument that you can pay for private school with the difference in housing price. This was a valid argument. Especially when the coworker argued you can pick the private school and get the best. So is the school district worth it?
So is location important and did you consider it heavily when buying your home?
7 responses so far ↓
1 Fit Wallet // Mar 11, 2009 at 11:28 am
My partner and I bought in an “up and coming” neighborhood, basically on the rough edges of a desirable area in the city. Walk two blocks north and you can buy crack; two blocks south and houses are upwards of $300k. It’s a very odd area. We have one set of bad neighbors, but for the most part, we enjoy living where we do. My hope is that the block will improve a lot over the next ten years. We’re getting trees planted this spring, so that’s a start!
2 Angie // Mar 11, 2009 at 12:28 pm
If you can find a relatively cheap private school, or a really cheap neighborhood, yes, you can pay for private school with the price difference in homes, but you also have to consider that most of the areas with good schools are going to be safer neighborhoods where your kids can have more freedom to roam. Also by going to a neighborhood school, your kids friends will default to kids in your area, so you as a parent will spend less time shuttling them around town to take them to little Johnny’s house for a play date. In addition, if most of their friends come from the same neighborhood as you, there is a higher likelihood of coming from similar economic status, thus reducing the comparisons as they start to get older and wonder why Billy has an i-phone and Bobby gets free lunches. Ultimately, there is a lot more to look at then just doing a strict cost-basis analysis.
We looked at school district first, and housing prices second. We came in from out of state, and learned that within 45 minutes of DH’s work were the 1st and 2nd best school districts in the state. The best had 3 bed houses for 400k , and the other had 4 bed houses for 300k. We went with the second best because it was affordable and closer to work but would still provide great educational opportunities for our kids (in preschool at the time) and allow us to really “fit in” with the neighbors instead of being the house poor people on the street.
3 JoeP // Mar 11, 2009 at 3:50 pm
For us, the location factor boiled down to proximity to family, nice neighborhood, not a busy road, good schools.
Our next house will be our last one, so we will need to consider location that is fitting for a couple in their 50’s up until their 70’s or so. The location would likely put safety and proximity to recreation higher on the list. We’d be willing to entertain a gated community on a golf course.
4 Meg // Mar 11, 2009 at 11:31 pm
I don’t think school district is as big a deal as it used to be. It used to be that most people buying homes had kids or were about to have kids. Nowadays lots more people who are buying homes are a) not having kids, b) delaying having kids, c) homeschooling, and/or d) planning to send their kids to private school anyway.
Of course it depends on what state and county and city you live in. If you’re in the suburbs and near some great school districts, it may be worth paying a bit more to be over the line in the good district. But if you’re in an area where many families use private schools (upper middle class, urban areas) then it probably doesn’t matter as much.
And if you’re like me and you’re young and buying in a trendy upscale urban area where few have kids and you don’t plan to have kids while living there and even if/when you do move you plan to rent it out (to other single young professionals), then who cares about the school district?
5 LivingAlmostLarge // Mar 12, 2009 at 9:39 pm
I wonder though Meg, if people with today’s economy will look for better public schools versus private education?
6 Retired Syd // Mar 16, 2009 at 5:59 pm
I don’t have kids, but one of my friends that does said something that made perfect sense to me. He said buy the house in the good school district: yes, it will cost you more, but someday, someone will pay that back to you (plus appreciation) when you sell it.
If you move to the not as good school district and pay for private school, you never get that money back.
Since I don’t have kids and am planning on having my house forever, I got the nice house in the not-as-good school district.
7 LAL // Mar 16, 2009 at 7:37 pm
Retired Syd, that’s an interesting perspective. I hadn’t considered that. Many people where I live with a great school district still spend money on a private school for some reason. Why? I have noi dea.
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