If you’re selliing your home, is it important to also sell your potential buyers on the school district? It depends on where you live, according to a new Trulia survey. MarketWatch reports on the survey’s findings in this article.
The quality of a school district is a hot topic in some real-estate markets – and barely warrants a mention in others.
Local schools are an important factor for families with children, according to a new survey by the real-estate website Trulia, with one in five Americans indicating that their ideal home is located in a great school district. Among parents of children under the age of 18, the percentage of home buyers who want to live in a great school district jumps to 35%, compared with 12% for those without kids. It pays to brag about your local school district if it’s highly rated, according to Trulia chief economist Selma Hepp.
Looking at homes for sale on the Trulia website from June 2014 to June 2015, Hepp analyzed how frequently the word “school” was mentioned in listings in the 100 largest U.S. metros and the frequency with which the word “school” was mentioned alongside a positive adjective such as “great,” “winning,” “award-winning,” “excellent,” “good” or “best.” Hepp also looked at the relationship between property prices and listings that promoted school quality.
In metro areas with the highest share of listings referring to local schools, up to three out of 10 listings mention schools. Orange County, Calif., and San Jose, Calif., had the highest rates of school mentions at 28% and 25% of listings, respectively. Orange County and San Jose were also the No. 1 and No. 2 districts where listings mentioned the word school with a positive adjective (6.9% and 4.4% of the time, respectively). Las Vegas listings had the fewest mentions of nearby schools; that city attracts more retirees and international buyers than parents with school-aged kids.
