My businesses are usually built around challenging conventional wisdom, so I tend to gain by taking the other side. It’s been very profitable and entertaining for me — Mark Cuban
The conventional wisdom is that it is always a better investment to buy a home in a good school district. Just like with much other conventional wisdom, this commonly held belief is often wrong. Good schools may have been the number one factor in real estate appreciation at some point in the past, but I don’t believe that is true today. However, after decades of being told specific trends are true, people stop looking at the data and fail to notice the changes that have taken place.
From an investment perspective, choosing a home because it is in the best school district often turns out to be the wrong choice. I am not going to argue that you should never buy near good schools, or always buy in bad school districts, but in many cases, the conventional wisdom on this topic is out of date, incomplete, or just wrong.
Analyzing a Denver area home appreciation map from the past 20 years, I noticed that the greatest appreciation seemed to occur in what were considered the worst school districts, while the areas with the best schools had sub-par appreciation. When I started analyzing data from around the country, I found this trend to be common in many other areas as well.
Let’s look at the six reasons why you should not buy a home in a good school district: [Read more…] about Six Reasons Why You Should Not Buy a Home in a Good School District
“Don’t believe anything your teachers tell you!” I used to tell my economics classes this in the beginning of each semester. Usually one or two students would respond with, “Wait, can we believe that?” “Good question kid. If you believe it, you can’t believe it.” I use this paradox as a starting point for the students to see that critical thinking and questioning are integral parts of life.