Redwood City Schools Face Significant Reorganization.

Schools and Real Estate.

Those two have always gone hand in hand — home prices in communities with highly ranked schools tend to be higher and more stable.  Home prices in cities with lower scoring schools tend to be lower, and will fluctuate much more when the real estate market changes. Studying how home prices changed after the Great Recession is a classic example of what I'm talking about;  homes price in cities like Palo Alto, Menlo Park, San Carlos, and Burlingame dipped less and rebounded far more quickly than communities with lower scoring school districts.

For a variety of reasons, the Redwood City School District is scrambling to close a huge budgetary chasm that may necessitate a significant reorganization in their school district, including the closure of several existing schools and the relocation of the district office.  I have seen a number of presentations on this topic, including all of the options being considered.  This article that was recently published in the Climate online magazine offers a concise explanation of the recommendation that is being handed down by the school superintendent, and is one of the best summaries that I have seen so far.

How is this relative to San Carlos?  Although the cities share a large border, and are nearly identical geographically, their respective real estate markets could hardly be more different.  The primary factor that drives people to spend more money on a house in San Carlos than they would for the identical place in Redwood City is most often the reputation of the school district.  The fact that Redwood City's school district is arguably in disarray right now will not escape attention of today's home buyers, and will likely have a negative impact on the city's desirability for some of these buyers.  That in turn may negatively impact the value of real estate in Redwood City for the near term (demand versus supply.)

So if you're dismayed about the various school bond measures that are attached to the property taxes that will be due very shortly, or if you're tired of being asked to contribute to the San Carlos Education Foundation, stop and think for a second about how different home prices in San Carlos might be if the school district was not as highly ranked, nor as well funded as it currently is.  Like it or not, it's an investment that has paid handsome dividends for everyone who is lucky enough to own a home in San Carlos.