The Link Between Schools and Home Values in MA

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Nicholas Handy, GoLocalWorcester Contributor

The quality of schools is becoming increasingly important to homeowners and buyers, according to real estate agents in Central Massachusetts.

The quality of the local education system is something that many prospective home buyers – whether starting a family or not – has become such a selling point that many real estate websites now include information on the local schools.

The quality of the local education system – both to families and non-families – is a large factor and a selling point in the real estate market, to the point that many real estate agents and websites are becoming well versed on the various education systems in their coverage zones.

“Parents and prospective parents especially are looking into the quality of education near a home as a large selling point,” said RE/MAX real estate agent Dave Stead, who also serves as the 2014 President of the Worcester Regional Association of Realtors. “People want schools with a lot of resources, more language and athletic programs, and more extracurricular activities.”

Local realtors say that everyone who is looking to buy a home will look into the nearby education system at some point in the home buying process, but each person may have different priorities. Some commonly asked about and searched areas include after school programs, SAT scores, graduation rates, athletic programs, and the percentage of high school students that move on to college.

Online Rankings

Online databases and search engines have become an important part of any prospective homeowners search. According to Stead, school database search engines are becoming just as popular as traditional real estate databases.

“There are websites online like greatschools.org, that many people are beginning to turn to,” said Stead. “In many of these sites you can drill down into towns and even specific school areas within towns to determine how the corresponding schools perform.”

To see how Central Massachusetts schools performed in Top High Schools 2014, go here.

While parents and prospective parents want to make sure that the home itself is somewhere that they can raise a family in, the town or city itself also plays a role, especially in terms of a school district. Areas that have stronger and more involved school districts typically bring in more families, which raises the value of homes in the area.

“A lot of families are looking into not just the quality of education, but also things like extracurricular activities and more parent involvement,” said Stead. “A lot of parents and prospective parents want to make sure that if they buy a home in a town, that the schools will be the right fit for their children.”

Increased Value – With or Without Children

Families and people who desire to start families are the ones doing the most research about schools when looking into buying a home, but according to Tom Ruble of Tom Ruble Real Estate Services and 2014 President of the North Central Massachusetts Association of Realtors, the value of a school district is something that almost all prospective home owners look at.

“For those who have families or plan to start a family, schools definitely play a role in the decision to buy a home,” said Ruble. “Even those who are not planning on having kids look into areas with good schools because it increases the resale value of their home.”

While not creating a drastic value change to a home, a good school district will have an effect on the value of a home, which is why looking into a school district while buying a home has become just as common as anything else.

“The quality of a school definitely weighs in on people’s decision making,” said Ruble. “Communities with higher ranking school systems tend to have higher property values than those with poor ranking school systems.”

Perception, Not Reality

Steve Levine, a RE/MAX real estate agent in Shrewsbury who also once served on the Shrewsbury School Committee, says that while a good school district will help the value of a home and the housing market in a macro sense, there is no tangible correlation between school districts and the housing market.

Levine says that it is hard to quantify what makes a school or a district good because all parents are looking for different things. If a student is a musician, then the parents may look for a school that has a great music program or if the parents are concerned with college options then they may look to a school with a high percentage of students that graduate and then go to college.

“It is hard to quantify a good school because different parents are looking at different things,” said Levine. “People are looking for towns with great schools but sometimes it is hard to determine what makes a school great. But overall, great schools equal higher property values.”

To see the Top High Schools in Massachusetts 2014, go here.