I get all these comments. I live in a school district rated about what Somerville and Everett are rated at and send my kids to the public school. Some people can look beyond ratings on paper, but in my experience, people who can drop 1.5 million on a house do not. This is the mystery I see with Somerville's 1.5+ million houses. The buyers must be optimizing for something very different. I wonder what percentage are overseas buyers who don't actually live in those houses.
Boston Rindge and Latin? Another poster mentioned that BPS has some stellar schools, but that is through lottery. It's surprising that people would pay such a premium only on a chance that the children could attend a "good" school.
This is a question in the right direction: I haven't looked carefully, but I don't think spending per student accounts for the difference.
The typical correlation is expensive houses (relative to area) -> affluent parents -> better school performance. This holds true pretty well in most school districts around Boston, but not in a few.
I suppose, as another poster proposed, it is the location bonus that raises the prices, but I'm impressed that a location bonus would be so strong.
Another poster mentioned that some Boston schools are stellar. I know there is a lottery to get in, but I suppose if you have the right connections the lottery isn't so random.
Intelligent_End6019 OP t1_j4lsktx wrote
Reply to comment by chemgeek87 in High property prices in poor school districts by Intelligent_End6019
I get all these comments. I live in a school district rated about what Somerville and Everett are rated at and send my kids to the public school. Some people can look beyond ratings on paper, but in my experience, people who can drop 1.5 million on a house do not. This is the mystery I see with Somerville's 1.5+ million houses. The buyers must be optimizing for something very different. I wonder what percentage are overseas buyers who don't actually live in those houses.