effect of school location on home value

[HouseofWool]

So, my house is located across the street from our school district administrative building which used to be an elementary school. Today, I read in the newspaper that a portion of the building is going to be converted back into classroom space for the new charter high school that will be starting in the fall.

I am really curious what this will do to my home value. I cannot even express how excited I am about it - hopefully it bumps it quite a bit and I can drop my PMI.

What says the brain trust on the effects of a school being located across the street from my front door on the value of the house? And honestly, this is the school that I want C to attend, so it is even more valuable to me.

[houseelf]

This could go either way. Once I looked at a great house across from a good (not great) school. The realtor specifically said that it would hurt resale value because of all the traffic. On the other hand, if the school is *fantastic* and people are dying to get into the district, almost anything will sell. I'm shocked at the prices of houses here that have 100 year old,weird architecture, still on propane gas, and known sewage problems(!). People are dying to get into this district. They'll buy the craziest houses to do so. For your sake, I hope that it makes a nice little ROI for you. Good luck.

[HouseofWool]

It is a charter school and the traffic is already there with the district employees. I think they are saying only 40-50 students the first year up to 100-150 in 4. So, pretty small. We are also just a block off a commercial street, with moderate traffic.

[v-girl]

I'm on a street with 3 schools. One is on the block just west of me, another is two blocks east. Houses on my street sell quickly if they are priced right and those that are rental properties, stay rented. We can't wait to move. It's hard to talk to the neighbor across the street when you can't safely cross.


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[SoonerTexan]

IMO elementary schools are more desirable. People didn't like being backed up to my high school, but it was huge huge huge and the stadium lights and noise were an issue.

FWIW my parents just sold their house on a cul de sac directly across the street from an elementary (hard to picture but the school wasn't in the cul de sac). It made it more attractive to buyers with kids, but it didn't make any difference in the sale price compared to other homes

[MAPPLEBUM]

It is a charter school and the traffic is already there with the district employees. I think they are saying only 40-50 students the first year up to 100-150 in 4. So, pretty small. We are also just a block off a commercial street, with moderate traffic.

What kind of charter is it? It seems like there are two broad types of charter schools, the inner city ones and the ones going for excellence in a specific field. Sounds like it will be the latter. Exciting!

[poky]

I am really curious what this will do to my home value. I cannot even express how excited I am about it - hopefully it bumps it quite a bit and I can drop my PMI.

I'm confused by this. Isn't having to have PMI based on the money you paid in being under x% of the home's value? So unless you pay more principle or the home's value goes DOWN, you can't drop PMI, right? Are you hoping it reduces the value?

[HouseofWool]

My understanding is that PMI is based on the loan to value ratio. So, if the value goes up, then the loan is automatically a smaller percentage of the value.

[poky]

My understanding is that PMI is based on the loan to value ratio. So, if the value goes up, then the loan is automatically a smaller percentage of the value.

Duur. We avoided ever paying PMI because we put 20% down when we bought, so the subtle difference there never occurred to me, because it never affected me. Makes sense, though!

[HouseofWool]

We have a couple of different charter schools here, the Montessori K-8, SOTA (School of Technology and Arts) K-7, and the Design Institute (6-8). They all tend to be very project based learning where a topic is chosen and then used to teach a variety of subjects. At SOTA, one year, they studied a particular local river valley that has a nature reserve on it. They used this for Social Studies (the history of the area, from pre-european through to the end of the 20th century - talked about the native americans, the socialist movement that took hold there in the 30's and then the aftermath of a huge flood that came through and entire towns were moved), science, and math.

So, this high school will be what these schools feed into. It is a small group, C's 5th grade has about 35 students in, not all of whom will stay in the charters. My niece may go to a mainstream school because it fits her learning style better.

But, I like this for C and I am excited by the prospect of a high school opening up.