FLORIDA SCHOOLS- OPEN ENROLLMENT COMING -Effect home values?

Question

open-enrollment policy — to be applied starting in fall 2017 — that  allows students to transfer to any public school as long as there is  room for them.

First thought that hit me was this is great for us investors renting homes.  Lets say you have a family looking to rent and they have a middle school-er. Chances are you may not choose to rent in riverside or Ortega unless you can afford private but with this open enrollment coming now a family could rent in riverside and drive over the river to get their child to a higher ranking school.  Yeah,  I know... The St Johns county school officials are freaking out and all the rules haven't been panned out just yet.  It's a wait and see    how it works out. For most parents transportation will be an issue but for some it may be the perfect solution. For me as an investor this is great news! Tenants will have more options on home choices if they have school age children.

QUESTION: What effect does this have for home values? Homes in better districts command a higher price per sq foot.  With open school district does this effect the homes value?

Joey Hamaoui · Answer

Hi @Kimberly G.

That is an interesting take on the open enrollment. It seems to me that while having the ability to send the kids to any school would open doors to neighborhoods that were previously closed to families it won't make a drastic effect.

First there is the issue of the commute but second it seems to me that very few tenants are choosing properties based on the school district and more are choosing based on the rent. They may be able to send their kids to other schools now but they will still rent in the same areas and I doubt it will have a significant effect on the home prices because I don't think there will be a large percentage of parents sending their kids to other school districts.

Have you seen anything this past year to indicate it has made a change?

Jassem A. · Answer

I would expect to see more sales and higher than typical sales prices but probably won't be drastic or happen overnight