Home Search by School Zones

Many of the larger RE brokers will sort the listings by city or school district. So go on the larger sites to do that. And I agree that you should verify things as boundaries change and often the RE gets it wrong.

Our school lines are very odd. One house could be a block from the 'preferred' school, yet in the less preferred district. I have resorted to contacting the school. Some have websites that clearly show the lines on a map.

Not all realtors are equal and many do not know about the schools or do not want to be held liable. These realtors may not be in the know when schools are planning on changing the school lines.

Such a great idea to have a website that would do this. Zillow only assumes the school based on location.

Check www.greatschools.org, pick the schools you like and then check the county/schools website to make sure where you need to live to attend them.

I use the realtor.com app and you can see which homes are near which schools. You do need to be careful though if boundaries have changed recently. We had a boundary change last year and there is a big section of town that now has a different "home school" from what the app says.

Being a teacher I would caution about choosing a school based only on ratings you find on the Internet. They are typically based on test scores and not necessarily "customer satisfaction". I teach at a school that is rated very high. My kids go to a different school that has lower ratings. I'm often asked why I don't have my kids at the "better" school that I teach at. The biggest reason is because the "better" school I'm at is not a good fit personality wise for my kids or our family. When the PTSA sends out an invite saying to come to a meeting "where the cool people hang out" that is not what I want to be involved with. I'm not into high school type attitudes. Yes, my kids are at a school with lower ratings that are partly based on the number of free and reduced lunches. But, their school has a more funding because of that than the more affluent school I teach at. That means they have some extra programming that my own kids benefit from. I hear grumblings at my school that it isn't fair we don't have the money for some of those same programs. Yes, my school has higher test scores. But if you look at growth points (which unfortunately aren't published or even considered by some schools) and how much growth students make in a year, my kids' school shows more growth. The school I teach at is much more crowded and shorter on space than the school my kids are at. Our music teacher teaches on a cart some days because there isn't a room for him. Other days he teaches in the art room or the media center. My kids have a music room to go to. And a separate art room. And frankly, having also taught at the school my kids are at, I think overall there are better teachers at their lower rated school than at the school I teach at. That's why I'm trying to get out of the "better" school.

All that being said, go and visit the schools. Ask for a tour and to meet with the principal. Ask pointed questions. Ask if there are parents you could talk to. Ask them pointed questions about what they like and don't like. Ask if you can attend a PTSA meeting. Don't rely only on Internet rating systems that only tell a little bit of the story. Sometimes the best schools on paper are not necessarily the best schools in reality.

A realtor would know this information so that might be your best bet now. That being said please remember that school districts can redistrict their school zones at any time. When my children were young the school district redistributed several neighborhoods due to overcrowding. My neighborhood was moved from a large school with a great rep to a smaller school. A lot of people were upset but my kids did great at the smaller school.

ETA: When I posted, Christine's post wasn't showing on my screen yet -- she and I say the same things, pretty much!

Original: I agree that you need to find out from the school system, rather than only from realtors, what precise areas are in the boundary for the schools you want. You certainly can ask realtors to provide you with listings only in the zone for school X, Y or Z, but if you like a house, double check with the school system to see what school it's zoned for, because things can change year to year and realtors' systems may not have the latest information.

In Chantilly, you're in Fairfax County Public Schools (at least, Chantilly HS is). Search for "boundary maps" on the FCPS web site to see the boundaries--very helpful. The web site also has a "Boundary Information System" so search on that separately. The boundary info system lets you put in a house address to get the name of the school that covers that address but as far as I know, it doesn't let you do it the other way around (putting in a school's name and getting streets or whatever). That's where you'd need the maps instead.

It's a case of "home buyer beware," though. Boundaries can change from one year to the next. If you think your child would eventually be in the FCPS advanced academics program (AAP), the AAP centers also are not necessarily the same as the base school your child might attend, and the AAP center assignments also have changed at times.

And as someone noted below, never rely on how close a house is to a school and then assume that the school a block away will be your kids' school; the house might be on the far boundary of another school's zone altogether.

Most realtors websites include school district as one of the items you can search. If the school district has more than one school in it, you might need to ask the school district which school your kids would attend. We only have one elementary school in our district, so searching for that school district was sufficient.

Do not depend on your realtor to know school zones. Many times realtor.com, etc just list schools that are nearby but may not be your zoned schools. In Virginia, school zones are based on county - I am guessing you are searching in Fairfax and Loudoun counties. Here is the Fairfax County Public Schools website: http://www.fcps.edu/index.shtml So go to http://boundary.fcps.edu/boundary/ and you can either enter an address or look at the boundary maps for individual schools. Don't forget to look at feeder patterns: So you might only have a kindergarten student but don't look just at elementary - look at middle and high school also. Here is Loudoun: https://webinter.lcps.org/Lcps_Locate/SelectSystem.aspx

We used to be in Fairfax - would be happy to answer questions if you have specifics.

Cheers,
C.

Find the school district web site. Then find the school districts boundaries. Then look for homes for sale in those boundary.

Your dream home might be across the street from the most perfect school in the town but you might not be in their boundaries and have to send your kids to a school 5 miles away with a sorry reputation. Finding the exact boundaries is the most important thing you can do. You might even call the district office to clarify that the boundaries haven't been changed and they forgot to update their website too.

Go to the school district website. There should be a link that allows you to enter addresses of homes you are interested in and see what schools are zoned for those addresses.

Do not rely on internet real estate sites. They are notoriously inaccurate and often do not update when the school district rezones. This has happened in our area.

We just bought a house this summer and are in the process of selling our former home. When I look at the listing on the various real estate sites, nearly all of them list the wrong school(s).

The only way to know with certainty is to find out through the school district. They are the one source that will know what addresses are assigned to which schools. If you cannot find the information on the district website, call the school district and ask before you make any real estate decisions.

I think your first step is to find homes that are within your price range. In our area, the better schools are in the better neighborhoods, SMH.

For what you are looking for, I think you should go to the school district. They should have maps. However, our school district changes zoning often. So, you could move, but if they change the zoning, you are out of luck.

There are a couple of things you can do. Look into a zone variance or possibly, put your money into a private school as opposed to the home.

talk to a realtor who is really local (ie has been in that area for a while and has some expertise in finding homes for families with school-age kids) and put the onus on him/her.
khairete
S.

The Realtor.com app on my phone allows searches by school district. I would double check on the listing, though, to make sure.

If you are ready to work with a realtor, you can get listings by school district.