Our schools play an important factor when families are searching for Virginia Beach real estate, homes, condos, or oceanfront property.
Bad schools can cause local homes and condos values to
decrease or deter families from in those areas from purchasing real estate.
Good schools such as those in Virginia Beach, Chesapeake,
and most of Hampton Roads add value to real estate.
Those seeking real estate ownership often use the school system as their first criteria when determining
where to live. Know your wants and needs and carefully decide where the school system fits into your long term home ownership plan.
As always, your REALTOR® can provide valuable insight into the community especially if he or she has experienced the local school system with their own children.
How do you know what is good and what is less than an optimal school? Check with your local school system for an individual “report card” on any school(s) where you are potentially searching for homes or condos.
If searching other areas there are sites offering school reports but watch for subscription fees.
Virginia Beach offers such a report card for every elementary, middle, or high school.
It compares the school against the entire local system and then again versus the State statistics. The report card will give you breakdowns such as ethnicity, staff, pupil ratios, special education, Standards of Learning, and much more. This should help you with your homes and condos search.
The Standards of Learning for Virginia Public Schools describe the Virginia’s expectations
for student learning and achievement in grades K-12 in English, mathematics, science, history/social science, technology, the fine arts, foreign language, health and physical education, and driver education.
You may want to think about purchasing a home or condo in an area that school scores are slightly below the system average but not totally out of the norm. You may get more home for the money with this
idea and benefit when schools eventually catch-up with other local real estate
locations.
Consider becoming involved in your child’s school. By volunteering and helping make your school
better helps homes and condos retain and increase in value.
The Parent Teacher Association is a good start for volunteering.
