[IHB] Does the Irvine school system add value to local houses?

irvinehomeowner

irvinehomeowner

Well-known member
Interesting post on the IHB today:
http://www.irvinehousingblog.com/bl...vine-school-system-add-value-to-local-houses/

Larry details why he pays more to rent in Irvine and breaks down an interview with Bren about the importance of quality K-12 education. The funny thing is over the last few years, commenters have insulted the idea that Irvine has a great school system... but since Larry is basically affirming that it's one of the reasons he lives in Irvine... I don't see the anti-children posts as active (maybe they will be after my comment).
 
Having been in the IUSD for three years and now Foothill Ranch, I'm even less impressed with IUSD than I was when we were in it. At any given time in my son's Kindergarten class, there are between 2-4 parent volunteers staffing the room. It is never without a parent volunteer. I have never seen parents help out in the IUSD Kindergarten classroom save for a special occasion or by special request. Write checks, they do, but that's where it seems to end. Also, here, the parents have formed a separate association apart from the PTA. It's called the Kids' Foundation sponsored by business and private donations. It offers a broader spectrum of advocacy efforts by funding things that by law, the PTA can't cover since the PTA can only direct funds towards things which are available to every student. The IUSD has Bren's donations so I guess you could consider that to be similar but I don't know how those donations are used exactly.

Larry has different needs than the majority of IUSD parents, so he's going to be looking for something in particular. Whether the IUSD special needs program is of a higher caliber than other districts, I can't say and probably most in those comments can't either. But, having now experienced three different areas: inland empire, Irvine, and south OC, I believe Irvine is a better quality school district than many, not all, IE schools but doesn't have anything, imo, over surrounding schools in other districts. IUSD has budget issues like everyone else. They, too, rely on parents to supply something as basic as paper. Same here but the parents do step up both with money and time.

 
'insulted the idea'?  What do you mean?

I don't recall anyone saying that the schools in Irvine weren't very good.  Only that the relative value of the schools compared to other cities schools didn't justify the steep price differential.

IR still isn't paying the differential for a house, just the more reasonable rent differential.
 
I never, ever understood how people could use "great public schooling" to justify blowing $1,000,000 on a house.
 
freedomcm said:
'insulted the idea'?  What do you mean?
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There are several variations actually.

One is that the schools in Irvine are no better than anywhere else, therefore not worth the premium.

Others, would say that paying more for a better education was ridiculous... the whole "for the children" meme. Those comments are usually made by people who don't have children.

IndieDev's comment above is more like the second. I'm not saying he doesn't value quality education for his children... nor does he think IUSD does not have a good school system, but that he does feel that paying bubble prices for a "great public schooling" is not justifiable.

However, paying that kind of price for beach city property doesn't seem justifiable to other people either.
 
SoCal78 said:
Having been in the IUSD for three years and now Foothill Ranch, I'm even less impressed with IUSD than I was when we were in it. At any given time in my son's Kindergarten class, there are between 2-4 parent volunteers staffing the room. It is never without a parent volunteer. I have never seen parents help out in the IUSD Kindergarten classroom save for a special occasion or by special request...
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which elementary school is this?  my daughter's kindergarten class at stonegate has at least 1 volunteer every day.  (although there is no more than a single volunteer a day, the volunteer chart is filled up)
 
I've got to disagree with our friend from Foothill Ranch.  My child's class is filled with parent volunteers as you mentioned with yours.  In fact, that's been one of the stronger points with Irvine schools from my experience.  To me, it's almost a self fulfilling prophecy.  Parents who care enough to buy here to send their kids to a "better school" are probably very attentive to their child's academic needs.  The child's needs are in fact, the school's needs and parents here aren't laissez faire about being active to help their respective school for the most part.  Not to say that other districts aren't like this too.

I pay the premium for two reasons.  1) The city is as safe as anywhere I know for my kids in so cal.  2) The educational reputation backed by countless rating and rankings.  IMVHO, if you have a group of parents, like me, who drink the iusd kool-aid and want to uphold the standard to ensure that your kids get a great education, you end up with a larger concentration of education minded families.

Of course, nothing against Foothill Ranch where a homeowner really is a homeowner. Lol
 
I have to disagree with the Foothill Ranch parent as well.  My kids' current school in IUSD has amazing parent participation (and not just the pocketbook).  Perhaps it was her school. 
 
The Irvine dichotomy is certainly a peculiar thing but I feel like it's overlooked just from reading some comments here on this site. Yeah, there are a lot of homeowners who overpay and pay $1M plus as Indie said and sure, there are parents like The IRV mentions who "care enough to buy". But then again, have you not noticed the huge population of renters receiving subsidized rent or affordable housing??? I think the thing is, I don't see it as a stable community of high net worth individuals with Ivy-League intended children as is portrayed by some or maybe the image that they want to project. Irvine became a (low-income) renter's paradise a long time ago. A friend of mine just lost her job and on Friday, the primary bread winner in her household died unexpectedly. She is distraught, not knowing what to do. She'll have to move from here in Foothill Ranch to lower her cost of living. Guess where she is considering the most? Irvine! Not because of the schools. Because of the large selection of affordable housing. There are 42 complexes she can pick from. She doesn't have internet access since she can't afford it right now so I've actually spent all morning printing out info for her to help take the burden off her a little and I found this:http://www.cityofirvine.org/civica/filebank/blobdload.asp?BlobID=12855

I saw a lot of this in Portola Springs and Woodbury when I lived there. I just feel like this debunks the theory that the parents here are so well-endowed financially and with the resources  to help the students. There are parents who can't help as much as they'd like to. And yes, maybe it was just our school. We were at Westwood Basics Plus, which has since closed and is now Stonegate. I wouldn't expect to see as much parent involvement with the higher grades as it's needed more for the younger kids but I'll tell you I never saw two parents at a time all day, every day staffing the classroom - not once. I'm not at all saying Irvine is a bad place to put a child - heck, no!, but from my experience no way is it the "golden standard" that some people want to believe - at least, not the schools we attended. (No kidding. I overheard an Irvine woman call it The Golden Standard.) It has warts, too.
 
Irvine School District's reputation definitely adds value to local homes...it's a self-fulfilling prophecies at this point.  People with money clamor to get into IUSD and thus makes the school district excellent. 

The effect on Asians alone is material.
 
there was an interesting study someone showed for Piedmont vs. Oakland in northern cali.

Literally, on the same street, one side of the street was 500k more for the same house. The difference was that street was the borderline of going to Oakland USD vs Piedmont. They did an analysis and the present value of sending 3 children to private school in the area was the delta in price. (this was a while back.)

Obviously the other schools in south OC aren't Piedmont vs Oakland, but it seems the price premiums aren't as random the kool aid might suggest.
 
irvinehomeowner said:
However, paying that kind of price for beach city property doesn't seem justifiable to other people either.
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hmm...sarcasm invites pop-corn-show?

How are you, IHO?
 
Lets be honest, Irvine is all marketing, and TIC is great at it.

South County OC has schools just as good, and parts of Tustin have schools that are better. The Irvine premium is people paying for branding, nothing more.
 
IndieDev said:
Lets be honest, Irvine is all marketing, and TIC is great at it.

South County OC has schools just as good, and parts of Tustin have schools that are better. The Irvine premium is people paying for branding, nothing more.
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I don't know...the school that put Irvine on the map is University High, which predates TIC.  Irvine obviously benefits from having higher property taxes and parents with time/money.
 
IndieDev said:
Lets be honest, Irvine is all marketing, and TIC is great at it.

South County OC has schools just as good, and parts of Tustin have schools that are better. The Irvine premium is people paying for branding, nothing more.
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the irvine premium is not solely based on schools... it's closeness to work, closeness to family, how safe the city is, etc, etc... all of which can be debated on, as to how much it's worth and will be different for each individual, but to call it "solely" based on one thing (marketing) is moronic.
 
Irvinecommuter said:
Irvine obviously benefits from having higher property taxes and parents with time/money.
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What benefits are those? The ability for soccer moms to buy 5,000 lbs luxury SUVs and run poor people down in Turtle Ridge?

That seems very American, actually.
 
IndieDev said:
it's closeness to work, closeness to family, how safe the city is
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That's great marketing. Living in Irvine automatically makes you close to your family. TIC rules!
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Well, if you check the traffic on the 91, 57, 55, and 22...you can see that they generally flow into Irvine in the morning out of Irvine in the afternoon.
 
Irvinecommuter said:
IndieDev said:
it's closeness to work, closeness to family, how safe the city is
Click to expand...

That's great marketing. Living in Irvine automatically makes you close to your family. TIC rules!
Click to expand...

Well, if you check the traffic on the 91, 57, 55, and 22...you can see that they generally flow into Irvine in the morning out of Irvine in the afternoon.
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With such a scientifically accurate study as the one above, there can be no question that living in Irvine makes you closer to your family.
 
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