How Does The School District Impact Home Values in San Carlos?

The San Carlos School District has a well-known quirk in its district boundary, in that it does not encompass all of the homes that have a San Carlos address. In fact, San Carlos has homes that can be in any of three different school districts: San Carlos, Redwood City, or Belmont.

This quirk isn't unique to San Carlos. Numerous other cities have multiple school district boundaries to contend with, especially close to their respective border with an adjacent city. San Mateo has homes in both the San Mateo and Hillsborough School Districts, and parts of Menlo Park roll into Redwood City, and so on.

Home buyers in these cities must pay close attention to what school district their potential home resides in, especially if they are particular about which school they want their kids to go to. But there's another factor that comes into play when discussing different school district boundaries: Home values.

It's widely believed, and often proven, that home values run in lockstep with the perceived quality of the schools they are zoned for. The better the schools, the higher the home prices. The San Mateo Park neighborhood in San Mateo is a great example of this concept, since both the San Mateo and Hillsborough district boundaries weave through this neighborhood. The exact same home can increase dramatically in value by simply crossing the street from the San Mateo School District to the Hillsborough School District. Same house, different value.

A study done by Redfin claims that the difference in price can be as much as 35% in some cities.

When you look at the school boundaries that intersect with San Carlos, the vast majority of homes are within the San Carlos School District boundary. The next largest section is the Alder Manor neighborhood, much of which funnels to Clifford School in the Redwood City School District. Since only a few homes on the very northwestern border of San Carlos are zoned for Belmont, I'm focusing this discussion on the differences in home prices between San Carlos homes that are in the San Carlos School District versus those that are in Redwood City's.

Which is More Expensive?

Conventional wisdom has long held that San Carlos homes within the Clifford School boundary cost less than homes in the San Carlos School District. After all, Clifford School ranks 7/10 on the Great Schools website, while the four elementary schools in San Carlos rank either 9/10 or 10/10, which results in homebuyers completely eschewing homes that don't guarantee access to San Carlos Schools.

In the case of San Carlos, that means that homes in Alder Manor, and anywhere else that feeds into Clifford School, should cost less than everywhere else in San Carlos, right?

It depends…

The first chart shows the median sales price over the past five years of San Carlos homes within the San Carlos School District versus those that are zoned for Redwood City Schools.

Okay, what happened here? This data shows that the homes in the Redwood City School boundary are more expensive, not less expensive, which is completely opposite of the common assumption. But before you suggest that I have the data backwards, let's take a look at the other common metric for determining a home's value: Price per square foot.

This chart tells an entirely different story. The average price per square foot for San Carlos School District homes ran considerably higher in each of the five years.

So what do these two seemingly divergent data tables tell us? If you recall from previous data analyses that I've done on this site, when the median sales price is high but the price per square foot is not, it usually indicates that the more expensive homes are just significantly larger. Let's see if that theory holds:

Over the past five years, the San Carlos homes that sold within the Redwood City School District boundary were consistently larger than their San Carlos counterparts. This is understandable, considering that the Alder Manor neighborhood, which is where the vast majority of the Redwood City-zoned homes are located, was established and developed much later than other parts of San Carlos. The home and lot sizes in this neighborhood are simply larger on average, and thus demand higher sales prices.

Key Takeaways

So what did this exercise tell us? Here are a few key takeaways:

• Homes in the San Carlos School District are indeed more expensive than homes in the Redwood City School District, but the difference is not as pronounced as it is in other communities that have multiple school district boundaries.
• Because of the desire for many buyers to live within the San Carlos School District boundary, homes generally sell more quickly, garner more offers, and consequently fetch higher prices. It's all about supply and demand.
• Just because the Alder Manor neighborhood is zoned for Redwood City Schools, don't expect to find a bargain in this neighborhood. It's still one of the most expensive neighborhoods in San Carlos, due to the fact that the homes and lots are generally larger.

I hope you found this little exercise interesting. It certainly one of the most common topics when discussing the San Carlos real estate market.