How much of a price premium does Irvine Unified School District command?

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bigmoneysalsa_IHB

bigmoneysalsa_IHB

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<p>Irvine has a reputation for excellent schools. It seems reasonable that some sort of premium is "baked in" to the price of homes in Irvine due to this benefit. What is everyone's opinion about he size of this premium? In other words, by what percentage (or perhaps it's constant?) would the average Irvine home price be lower if the schools were merely mediocre? Do you think it is negigible, like 1-2%? Or is it quite significant, such as 10-15%? Would someone who is not planning on taking advantage of the school system by not having kids / homeschooling / private school get a better value somewhere else nearby, or is the difference too small to worry about?</p>
 
<p>I have no real basis, but I suspect the premium is at least 10%. When we moved back down here from Silicon Valley (Bay Area) last year, we came to Irvine specifically for the schools. Back in the San Jose area the city of Cupertino was similar to Irvine --- very highly regarded schools. We lived right next door to Cupertino in Santa Clara ---- these two cities were virtually carbon copies of each other, except for the school district. During the time we were considering buying up there I can remember that similar homes in Cupertino would go for $100K - even $200K higher than Santa Clara, simply because of the schools. A close comparison down here might be Irvine and Mission Viejo. Very similar cities, but Irvine clearly commands a premium over MV, most of it probably the percieved superior schools.</p>

<p>During the many times I have been frustrated with Irvine prices this past year, I have often thought that it might be easier to just go buy a place in Corona, and send my daughter to private school...But then when you consider that private school runs $1000-$1500/mo (and then you've got college!), Corona does not look like such a good deal as opposed to adding a couple hundred thousand to the mortgage in Irvine --- and getting a lot better lifestyle and public schools for it.</p>

<p>That said, if I did not have children, the chance would be slim to none I would be on this blog bitching about Irvine home prices....Instead, I'd be whining on the Hermosa Beach housing blog about why it was so expensive to buy a place within walking distance of Hennessy's. </p>
 
Del Mar district in San Diego has even higher API scores than Irvine, but you'd be hard-pressed to find anything under $1 million in Del Mar. The coorlation between school API and housing prices is pretty strong IMO. If you want to do homeschooling, I think Irvine's home school program is actually sponsered by Irvine school district. Not everyone who does home school is a log cabin isolationist. Some people have health (i.e. lupus) concerns.





Here's some API scores, from high to low:


http://www.hiwhy.com/2007/01/27/del-mar-union-elementary-school-district-2006-api/


http://www.hiwhy.com/?s=irvine+


http://www.hiwhy.com/2007/01/21/saddleback-valley-unified-school-district-2006-api/





Personally, I think it's more important to have 1 parent at home raising the kids. They come out better behaved than those sent to daycare (in general). I'm willing to settle for a mid-range API school and save $ on housing to afford having 1 parent stay home, than to buy million dollar home and have to have dual-income to afford it & send the kids to daycare or "key necklace" kids (comes home alone).
 
Having grown up in the Bay Area, I can relate to CK's comments regarding Cupertino. Cupertino homes prices are high because of the excellent Cupertino schools. A similar example exists in the City of Fremont (also in the Bay Area). There, one of the high schools, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fremont,_California#Mission_San_Jose" target="_blank">Mission San Jose</a> High School, stands out in particular and home prices there are definitely affected by whether they are located in an area that feeds into Mission or not. I believe that several years ago, the school district maps were redone and many homes that formerly fed into Mission High are now feeding into another HS. Prices were definitely affected and people were (justifiably) upset. I wish I could remember more details...
 
momopi, you picked the wrong blog to promote the ignorant stereotype that kids in daycare are not as well-behaved as their stay-at-home counterparts. First of all, it's only a very small part of the global population that even has the remote option to stay home. In America, it's only upper middle class or wealthy married people who have the option. As a single mother, I do not have the option, and even if I did, I would not want to do so. I love my career and am very happy going to work every day. Secondly, I know plenty of stay at home mothers with spoiled, lazy, overfed, poorly disciplined children.



It's about the individual parenting skills, and how carefully the parents choose the daycare. Do they talk to their kids? Do they listen? Do they feed them healthy food or juice, soda, and processed junk? Do they instill a love of reading and exercise? These are the things that really matter.
 
<p>Momopi, I actually just read your response after reading irvinesinglemom's comment. After your last (on another post) veiled dig at working parents in Irvine who send their children to PK-12, I stopped reading your preachy comments. For my family (and just about everyone else we know in Irvine), it is challenging at times to balance both professional and family lives, but we do what we must in order to give our children the best opportunity (as we see it) for success in the future --- and hopefully leave our children a little better off than we were. That said, even if we had the ability to keep our daughter home full time, I would still send her to preschool. The value she gets from the structured learning environment and social interaction is evident everyday. She loves it. The experiences she has at school will serve her in becoming the well rounded, open minded person that she will need to be to succeed in the 21st century.</p>

<p>Now, if you have the ability to carve out a 1950's lifestyle for yourself, more power to you. I am very much a live and let live person. So let's make a deal, nobody here will tell you how to raise your kids --- and you don't need to give your opinions on how we do things. So for any future posts that have a reference to "schools", or "school districts" and their relationship to the housing market, there is really no need for you to weigh in. If your children do not attend school as you seem to suggest, you really don't have anything of value to add to those conversations, anyway.</p>
 
I honestly do not know how much of a premium Irvine school systems command because I have never looked outside of the Irvine school system. I have a special needs child. I can tell you that Irvine has the finest program for special needs children anywhere. If I had to pay privately for the education my son receives free with the Irvine school system it would cost in excess of $25,000 a year. Leaving the Irvine school system is not an option for my family, so we pay whatever premium is required to live here. Given the education my son is receiving, I feel like I am getting a bargain.
 
I am a product of the Irvine Unified School District and have many adult (aged 30 - 40) friends who also went through these schools. Many great successes and a few failures. The bottom line is that it doesn't really matter what school you send your kid to, they are who they are. My one gripe with Irvine schools is that the high schools tend to create sheltered kids that aren't world or college ready due to the excessive focus on academics. Parental involvement is more important than picking the school with the highest test scores.
 
My last post on this thread.





If anyone took offense at my post and wish to take their years of pent-up frustrations out on me, feel free to flame/spamflood me off-board at momopi@mail.com.






 
Irvine Soul Brother believes the topic has got to be about the housing more than social order. If this brother was to weigh in on his opinion about the matter, some COMMUNITY and DIVERSITY would be what I would be talkin' 'bout. But, I refer my reading audience to my comments and contrast about Irvine and Tustin schools. Thank you.
 
<p>Brother,</p>

<p>I read your comments on the other thread and you brought up a good point that I think a lot of people miss. Far and away, the most important thing that determines how well a school does in terms of test scores and other objective measures is the quality of the students themselves. Excellent schools probably help students very little; it's just that the most motivated and intelligent parents (and thus, a disproportionate amount of motivated and intelligent children) self-select into those schools.</p>

<p>Actually, that's a big reason why I started this thread. If I do have children someday (big if ) I don't really care that much about the academic reputation of the schools they go to as long as they are safe and functional. So, if the premium for Irvine schools is pricey, I don't really want to pay it.</p>
 
<p>This information is for those of you who has school age kids and are interested in the Verandas track in Tustin. </p>

<p>The assigned schools for that track / development are: Marjorie Veeh Elementary, A.G. Currie Middle, Tustin High. </p>

<p>Marjorie Veeh Elementary's 2006 API score is 738, ranked the 15th among the 18 elementary school in Tustin ISD</p>

<p>Currie Middle 2006 API score is 685, ranked last among the 5 middle school in Tustin ISD</p>

<p>Tustin High 2006 API score is 707, ranked last among the three high school in Tustin ISD. </p>

<p>Those API number might not mean much just by looking at them. However, the following information will put this in prespective:</p>

<p>a. State of CA require all school to achieve a API score of 800. All API score range from 0 to 1000. </p>

<p>b. The lowest of the Irvine ISD elementary school API score is 823.</p>

<p>c. The lowest of the Irvine middle school API score is 883


d. The lowest of the Irvine high school API score is 848. </p>

<p>Well, the conclusion is the schools assigned to the Verandas track are horrible!!!! </p>
 
<p>The city of Tustin website shows that a new high school and 2 elementary schools are being built to service columbus square ( I would presume, also a middle school?)</p>
 
<p>One will think the new school will be better than rest of the Tustin school. HOWEVER, If those schools are not exclusively for the columbus square ( which is not likely being a public school), then I don't know how good it will get. The reason Irvine schools are so good in general, I think it is NOT bc kids are smarter, it is because of PEER PRESSURES are positive and creates a better learning environment. Changing Peer Pressure environmeat is like chaning corporate culture, it is hard, it is difficult, and it takes dramtic actions. </p>
 
<p>Here's my back of the envelope estimate :</p>

<p>Assuming a private school tution of 10K / kid (good private schools cost much more, once you include the more or less mandatory donations) and assuming 2 kids / family, staying in a good school district, in essence, "yields" 20K/ year. Assuming this continues in perpetuity, this annuity would be worth about 400K in home price. If you think it continues for just next 10 years, this is worth 160K. </p>
 
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