How important are schools?

We've been looking for a house for awhile and always look at the school district - I use greatschools.net. Now I'm wondering though, just bc a school is good now, when my kids (we don't have any yet) reach high school - it could be completely different. So how much do you let it affect your decision of where to look?

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we were def stressing about this...but we got a school which i am not too thrilled about but can deal. However who is too say a school you pick is good now then in 16 yrs turns to crap. you never know. So just keep your eyes and ears open.......

WE fig if worse comes to worse we move or catholic school.

I just made sure the elementary level was good

i know it is soooo stressful!

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I find schools the 2nd most important thing when buying & resaling homes, 1st being location. Yes, schools can change, but for a good chunk, they will remain in the same ballpark they are in now. We wanted to be in a good school district. We know we want to purchase a larger house one day, but if we have to stay where we are longer, than I wanted decent schools.

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Schools were extremely important to me.

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Extremely important, not only for a future family, but for resale value.
Schools & Location sell homes.

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not important to us- always planned to send kids to catholic school (at least for elementary level). so it would not make sense for us to pay more for a house and than have to pay for catholic school.

we are buying a house we absolutely love in south amityville- gorgeous neighborhood, great location, bad schools. but everyone in the area sends their kids to private school, and those are the buyers that will come look in that area as well. so i'm not worried about resale, and we'll be there for a while (10-15 years at least)

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It was somewhat important to us because of the resale value & our future kids going to the school. With that said, who is to say the school is going to be the same way in 10+ years.

we bought mainly on neighborhood

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its wasnt too important to us because we are not having children but at the same time we tried to stay away from the "less than perfect" districts

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i think schools are important, even if you don't have kids yet (I'm in this boat.) Chances are, if you buy in a town with bad schools, you're knocking out a huge percentage of potential buyers when you're ready to sell. But, when I retire and know for sure that I'm in my last house, I probably wouldn't care about the schools.

I think it's worth it to buy a smaller house in a better district. DH and I looked at a town in Nassau where we could afford a large house and the neighborhood was right near the water. It was gorgeous. But the schools were bad, so we skipped out.

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I base 90% of my choice of area based on schools. Past/present often determines future, so you can go alot by that.

Plus its all abiout real estate values. Good schools = good real estate values.
So it means alot to me.

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We're about the start the house hunting process. We decided to search in 5 nearby towns b/c of the quality of the schools. We don't have kids yet, but schools are important b/c I'd like to stay in our house for a long time.

Four of the towns have excellent schools. The other town (which is closest to where I work) has good schools, but is not as great as the other districts. DH thinks that kids can succeed wherever they go, and their success is attributed to their parents just as much as it is to the school system. I agree with him to an extent, but I think it's important to have good resources and teachers to lay a solid foundation. There probably isn't much of a difference in quality of the schools in the towns where we're looking to buy, but I'd prefer to be in the best district.

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Message edited 1/30/2009 10:40:56 PM.

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very important for us. I've yet to see a school that was good when I was a kid go bad now. over 30 years that is. whatever school that was good then is still good now, and vice versa.

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extremely important to us

i am a teacher, and i don't go by any reviews/test scores that are published. to me they mean nothing. you need to see the district in action. i used to work in a district that greatschools says is a "10 out of 10" and a "5 star" parent rating. and it says that like 90% passed the ELA...umm...i taught the 4th grade there and 90% of our kids DEFINITELY didn't get a 3 or 4. so i'm very skeptical of "results" of standardized tests.

that being said...resale value of your home depends GREATLY on the schools many times. so if you're thinking of selling one day, think of that

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VERY important! It would have been soooo much easier for us to find a house if it weren't so important .

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School districts are extremely important to me. I personally don't want to move again so we plan on staying here for a while. As for schools changing over the years, I personally plan to be involved in the school and be aware of what is going on in the schools.

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We looked all over in a "great School" district. We bought a beautiful house on the south shore but the schools are horrible. We don't have any kids yet so we figrued by the time they would get to the Jr HS/HS we would either be outta here or have them go to Catholic school, that is what all the neighborhood kids down here go to. We figured we have time to decide.
Good Luck!!!

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It's important to me, but I've actually made a conscious decision not to buy in one of the most competitive districts. I want my kids to be able to flourish, and when I was looking in one particular district I felt like such a large competitive district would be more difficult to be the best. Also some of the highest performing districts are the most affluent, and I don't know that I want my kids growing up with such a conspicuous consumption mentality. I decided I wanted a smaller district and found the area in which we are looking which is a small district with scores equivalent to the more expensive neighboring town.

What I look at more than scores is safety. I have a friend who is a principal in a rather violent south shore Suffolk town, and the gang violence begins at the middle school level. There are many districts I would avoid due to the violence.

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