As is true in most metro area with more than one school district, the quality of education and price of homes vary from district to district. The quality of education is very important to many families, but so do home prices.
Many people want to live in a specific school district, but have a lower budget for a home purchase. 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 in January, 2012. Here are the results:
The average price of a single-family home sold in January, 2012 in the Eanes ISD was $707,964.
The Lake Travis ISD had an average sold price of $425,644 in January, 2012.
The Dripping Springs ISD had an average sold price of $340,923 in January, 2012.
The Liberty Hill ISD had an average sold price of $266,572 in January, 2012.
The Austin ISD had an average sold price of $264,796 in January, 2012.
The Georgetown ISD had an average sold price of $213,195 in January, 2012.
The Round Rock ISD had an average sold price of $200,174 in January, 2012.
The Lago Vista ISD had an average sold price of $169,000 in January, 2012.The Pflugerville ISD had an average sold price of $155,611 in January, 2012.
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.
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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