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There was an article in the Austin American Statesman today about the percentage of students from each school district in the Austin area who are college bound. I thought it might be interesting to look at this percentage and see how it correlates to property values, specifically single-family homes.
The source for the percentage of students attending college was the Texas Education Agency. The statistics for homes sold in each school district was taken from the Austin Board of Realtors MLS. I specifically searched single-family homes sold per district since 4/1/06. Here are the results:
The Lake Travis ISD shows as having 64% of students attending college. The average price of a single-family home sold since 4/1/06 was $396,978. The average price per square foot was $134.92.
The second highest district in terms of percentage of students attending college was Leander, with 58% of students attending college. The average price of a home sold was $233,927 and the average price per square foot was $95.34.
In third place was the Pflugerville ISD with 57% of students going on to college. The average sold price of a single-family home was $151,971 and the average price/foot of $79.80.
In fourth place was the Eanes ISD 54% of students going on to college. Eanes had an average sold price of $688,980 and an average price/foot of $192.96.
Georgetown ISD had 54% of students going on to college. The Round Rock ISD had 52% and the Austin ISD had 46%.
It is interesting to note that real estate values and the percentage of kids going to college don’t seem to correlate in the top districts (as measured by the % of kids going to college). It is also interesting to note that the percentage of students going to college doesn’t seem to reflect demographics in terms of wealth. The Eanes and Lake Travis districts look like the wealthiest districts in the area in terms of real estate value and household income.
Looking a little deeper is even more interesting.
The Lake Travis ISD is the LS Area of the Austin MLS. Leander ISD is RN, CL, part of NW and part of LN. Pflugerville is roughly the PF area and a bit of the area just west of IH 35 into N. If you look at the demographic information, specifically the household income, it looks like the leading school districts have the highest household incomes. I am surprised to see the Eanes ISD, which has the highest household income and the highest property value to be in fourth place in terms of kids going to college. But perhaps there is more to that story…
I was discussing this with a few agents in the office and one of them had an interesting comment. She said that the study probably took the number of students going to college as graduating seniors, not kids who may have taken a year of two off before attending college. She mentioned that some of the Eanes students may take a year or two to play. This would indeed skew the numbers. So if there was a way to measure the percentage of Eanes students ultimately going to college, the number may be significantly higher.
When looking at property value per MLS Area and school district, something besides the quality of the schools stands out in my mind. Eanes is very close to downtown and UT. It also has dramatic Hill Country and lake views. When you look at the SAT scores, Eanes has the highest in the area, making it a very attractive school district. All of this adds up to high property values.
Looking at the LS area, which essentially is the same area as the Lake Travis ISD, you have the side of Lake Travis that is closest to downtown Austin and the airport. There is the beauty of Lake Travis and the Texas Hill Country as well as tons of recreation (Lake Travis, lots of golf, parks, nature). There is the city of Lakeway. All of this, combined with a great school district makes it a very attractive place to own real estate.
Eanes and Lake Travis also have something else that the other districts mentioned here do not have – hilly terrain, and in some cases, fairly extreme topography on which to build. So construction costs are higher. In most of the Leander, Pflugerville and Round Rock districts, the land is relatively flat and easy to build on. Developers have built more tract homes than custom homes. Eanes and Lake Travis are much more custom builds, making homes more expensive.
Georgetown is farther out than the other districts, so I left them out of this part of the discussion. Austin ISD is too much of a mixed bag, with values differing so much neighborhood to neighborhood that I also left the Austin ISD out of this part of the discussion.
OK, lots of information here. What does it all mean? I think that high property values correlate first with the physical attractiveness, specific location and qualify of life of the area. Schools are clearly important, but not the most important factor. Interesting, isn’t it - what do you think?
Some districts in the Austin area are fabulous and real estate values tend to reflect this. Take a look at real estate and school information in other parts of the country and see how Austin stacks up.
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