Ok, I know I'm thinking WAY ahead since DS is only 11 months, but housing prices are rising in our area and I don't know if I should act now or not.
Back story - we bought the home of our dreams 3 years ago in a great neighbourhood with a great public elementary school (ranked 6th in the city). Due to over-enrollment, the school district re-drew the boundaries last September and now we would have to go to a pretty bad school (ranked in the lowest 25th percentile in the city). There is a good private school close to our house, but it's $7,000/year. We can afford it, but I really didn't want to pay for private school.
Like I said, housing prices in my neighbourhood have been going up a lot, so technically I could sell now and move into a good school district. On the other hand, there is still 5 more years so maybe the boundaries would be re-drawn again. And I suppose I could pay for private school, or does elementary school even matter that much?
Re: Would you move to get into a good school district?
We have considered moving to improve DH's commute and because while our elementary school choices are good the high school is not great. We have over 100K in equity in this house but would have to spend double our current mortgage balance to move where we want. So we are staying put for a few more years.
I would absolutely move because of school districts. On the other hand, 7k REALLY isn't bad for private school.
One thing to keep in mind in terms of timing WHEN you move is whether/to what extent this change will affect your neighborhood and its housing prices. Is it an area that generally attracts hip (childless) people and/or people willing to pay for private school? if so, property values will probably stay where they are and you can wait to sell. but if your neighbors are primarily other families with small kids who moved here for the schools, then I would think there's a good chance values will go down over the next few years, and you're better off selling before the market catches on and the neighborhood comes to be seen as less desirable.
Where I live, you have the option for your child to go to a school that is not in your district. You just have to pay tuition (tax amount) for that out-of-your-zone public school, which when I looked into it, it was very affordable.
I'm not sure I would haul up and move unless you really didn't want to pay for private school. I definitely would not have DS go to a low performing school though.
Exactly this.
There is no lottery or open enrollment where we live, so unless the boundaries get re-drawn, we'd be stuck with the bad school. Our neighbourhood is surrounded by private schools (6 within a 10 minute drive), and most of our neighbours send their children to private schools so I have very little faith that the boundaries will get re-drawn again.
On one hand, I love our neighbourhood and we bought our house at the absolute lowest point in the market - the prices have gone up so much that I don't think we'd ever be able to move back here again if we sold our house. On the other hand, DH and I plan on having more than 1 child, so the $7K per child per year will add up fast.
We bought our house based on the school district. If the lines were redrawn we would probably move but we would do it when the time was right, but before our LO started school.
I would be really upset about the lines being drawn, though, not only b/c we lost the school but also b/c of the potential effect on our home value. The most important school in our particular neighborhood is actually the middle school. There are two middle schools fairly close and one is very good but the other is below average.
The prices for houses in our neighborhood are drastically lower if you are not zoned to the good middle school - think at least 75-100K. So, unfortunately, I would expect with redistricting, you may have taken some sort of hit on your home value.
We live in a really bad school district but LOVE where we live. We are Catholic and our church has a school. I could send 4 kids to our church's school for the price I pay for DS to go to his current daycare. As of right now, that's the plan - send DS (and any other little ones) to our church's school.
ETA: wanted to add that if DS has a disability, I'd move and send him to a better public school. I'm a special education teacher and private schools don't have to follow the same rules as public schools.
2011: FSH 13.3 & E 99; AMH 0.54 2nd FSH 6.2 E 40's AFC: 8
BFP from Clomid/IUI ~ Pre-e and IUGR during pregnancy ~ DS born 9/4/12
Feb./March 2013: AMH less than 0.16 (undectable) and AFC = 4;
BFP from supps ~ DS#2 due May 2014
May 2014 January Siggy Challenge: