Searching for a home with schools in mind
Schools are usually a factor when parents go house-hunting. Sometimes that's No. 1, as in, "I'm not buying a place if it's not in XYZ school district."
Vermont-based Maponics wants to make it easier to see if the homes that interest you are inside the attendance boundaries of the public schools you like.
The company announced today that it has school-boundary data for the largest U.S. metro areas, including Baltimore, and expects to have every part of the country covered in a year. It's up to their customers to decide how to integrate the data, but you could start seeing it on real estate search sites in about a month. (Maponics' clients include Google, Trulia and Zillow.)
Here's an example of what it looks like:
Darrin Clement, chief executive of Maponics, said he knows of no other firm that's put together school boundary maps across the country. He thinks the data will change the way people shop for homes.
"It comes down to ease," he said. "Right now, imagine you've got a kid in elementary school and a kid in middle school and a kid in high school, and you're going to move to Baltimore. You know a few of the neighborhoods that are called good neighborhoods, a few schools that are good schools, and you want to potentially find those properties that are in that overlap of good schools for each of your kids and good neighborhoods. And they're not always the same. Could you find that information now? Yeah, with days of research."
What the Maponics data will allow users to do is "turn on boundaries and filter out homes that don't fit your criteria," Clement said. "You're talking an hour of research. Maybe less."
The company thought about doing this years ago but held off because it's so costly. Gathering all the information once is labor-intensive enough, and then you have to keep updating it because some school districts change their boundaries frequently.
"We decided last year, finally, that this was something we were committed to," Clement said.
What do you think, folks?
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Comments
It would be great if it was freely available! I'm not sure about other counties, but I know that Howard provides maps as well as address look ups on its website.
http://www.hcpss.org/boundarylines/
Posted by: Kevin R | May 18, 2010 8:50 AM
Thanks, Jamie! This would be an awesome feature. Our AA county can't even get the school search to work on their web site - it's been "temporarily unavailable" at least since last year. They do respond to the emails quickly though, have to give them credit for that.
I also would like to mention CrimeReports web site, which has been very helpful in our home search efforts. They have the police reports available from January 2010, it seems.
Posted by: Jelena | May 18, 2010 2:15 PM
I did this for myself by checking school data a few years ago before buying in Baltimore. Don't remember the website but it gave class size and average test scores, math and reading. By all counts, nearly all Baltimore city school districts failed miserably except Roland Park area and Hampden, which was middling. So sad reality is that one pretty much needs to factor in the cost of private schools, along with the high property taxes, when considerig housing in Baltimore.
Posted by: lisa | May 18, 2010 3:54 PM
Maponics school research centralization tool is an excellent idea for potential home-purchasers that have or planning to have children.
In areas that value public education with an excellent school system it will boost for their home values. However in areas like Baltimore city it will be a deterrent.
When purchasing a new home individuals must look at the big picture to properly plan the true cost of the new home purchase.
Just a few of the factors outside of the new mortgage payment including the taxes and insurance are increase or decrease in auto expense, education, home maintenance and new furnishings/remodeling.
Again taking Baltimore city as an example the cost of private education can become costly and a deal breaker for some.
Hopefully Maponics can get the full database on-line sooner than later.
Posted by: Tom | May 19, 2010 10:22 AM