Five Steps To Home Shopping By Schools
If you’ve read most of my previous posts, then you’re probably aware that I’m not a huge fan of the LA Unified School District. However, not all the schools are bad. And in the Valley, there are certainly a good number of educational gems that can be found.
In my conversations with other parents, I’ve found that it’s all too common for folks to move to an area specifically for the school system. That’s just one way to look for a neighborhood and house if you’re not planning on sending your kid/s to private school.
I’m checking out the areas around Woodland Hills for myself, but for today, I thought I’d take a look at Tarzana as an example of how I’d go about searching for a home in a good school district. (If anyone here wants to share his/her own story about home shopping by school district please do!!)
The Redfin search features are a great tool. I used it to sell my home and I’m using it to gather information for great areas for a new home. But I don’t do my entire search there. Here’s how I go about the whole process.
1. I decide what area I want to live in. Let’s look at Tarzana.
2. I head over to GreatSchools.net and input Tarzana in the search function. Whalah! I get a list of schools and immediately see that Wilbur Elementary School (Greatschool score: 9) and Nestle Avenue Elementary School (Greatschool score :8) have high scores and thus, are desirable for me to send my kid to.
3. I click on Wilbur Elementary School first and click on the map this school feature. Now I know where the school is located and where I want to live.
4. I head back over to Redfin.com and do a search for homes in the neighborhood around the school. I decide that I don’t want to spend more than, let’s say $750,000, and I input that in the maximum price criteria. I see a few possibilities.
5400 Crebs Ave./3bd, 1bth/1,037 sq. ft./$579,000
5503 Beckford Ave./4bd, 3bth/2,183 sq. ft./$629,900
5316 Mecca Ave./3bd, 3bth/2,548 sq. ft./$690,000
5. The home on Mecca Ave. is my favorite, but then how do I know it’s really in the Wilbur Elementary School district? I input the address in the LAUSD school finder page. And I find out the house is in Nestle Avenue Elementary’s school zone. So, the search continues!
Happy shopping!
Jeff said:
go to http://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/ac/ap/ and download the API test scores for every single school in CA. open the file with Excel and analyze away. you can do sorts by school district, city, school level, test scores, etc.
i usually do a combo sort of school district and API score. then grab the school name, do a Google search for location and check out Redfin for homes in the neighborhood. the only thing i’m missing is your #5 (which unfortunately isn’t available for smaller school districts).
the coolest things are all the little facts you start to pick up on like (1), why are the schools in Pasadena so bad when it has such nice neighborhoods and (2), Minnie Gant elementary probably has the best API score to neighborhood home prices out of any school i’ve seen (not counting specialized schools) and (3), the San Marino School District is tops in LA County.
-Jeff
August 25, 2008 10:10 PM
Christina Chan said:
Thanks for sharing, Jeff!
I have noticed that too, in general. Why are the schools so bad even in nice neighborhoods?
August 25, 2008 10:48 PM
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August 27, 2008 10:30 AM
nirad said:
great post. i spent a long time figuring this out on my own, and that’s exactly the process i go through.
August 30, 2008 8:17 AM
Christina Chan said:
Thanks for the comment, Nirad.
August 30, 2008 10:08 AM