Moving OOS.. School district ?s

For people who moved out of state, how did you decide which school district/area to move in? We went looking at homes this past weekend in PA. We found a house that we really liked but the school district is rated horrible on School Digger yet the test scores were pretty much the same as the current school district I am in. So I am a little confused unless I am reading the stats wrong.

Re: Moving OOS.. School district ?s

We moved to PA in sept, i used city data and bc it was for my DHs job he was able to ask a ton of coworkers. Do you have any contacts in the area? Not sure where ur looking, but Im in bucks county, and we have a few friends in montgomery county if that could help.

Re: Moving OOS.. School district ?s

i would ask people on the city data forums. i found them to be helpful when researching places to live OOS (not happening for me, but still, it was helpful!)

Re: Moving OOS.. School district ?s

We are moving OOS in the early fall for DH's job. What I did was start to do searches for "top elementary schools in (wherever you are moving)" and this led me to find that one of the counties near that city DH will work in had the top school district in the state. From there there are certain real estate websites that let you search by school district so that can help. Also, look up the zipcodes for the schools you are interested in and search on realtor/trulia/zillow etc by zip code and see what schools the house is zoned for.

This is what we are doing. It helped us narrow it down to 2 particular areas. Still need to look at test scores though. GL!

Moving OOS.. School district ?s

I used zillow and greatschools.org
I rented an apt for a year to feel out the area and then picked a place to live, based on what I 'knew'. Realtor was also very helpful. I don't live in "THE" best neighborhood that goes to "THE" best school. I live in the 'next best' school area in a 'fair to good' neighborhood of middle range hard working average joes of all trade types - which suits me just fine. May not have the lawyer of the year or doctor so and so living next to me but everyone on my block worked really hard to get to this place and they appreciate it as it shows in everything this tiny community does. From home care, car care and just neighborhood care and THAT is what sold me. She will go to the #2 school in the #1 district. Which is leagues better than both my husband and I. LOL

All 3 of her schools got 9's on greatschools.org which supports the neighborhood buzz and realtor input. (and tax charge if you ask me!)

I pay nearly $4k in taxes WITH our tax credit (homestead) for my home tax valued at $130. Still most of it is for the schools and I consider myself lucky to be just barely under $100 a sq ft. The houses they just put up by the major street from us ‘start in the $270’s’ like that’s cheap (which is sort of is for here) but move up the road a tad bit and it ‘starts’ in the $400’s. I find that its always ‘THE’ best area what is full of well.. to be honest… MONEY. The more money you and your neighbors have the better the neighborhood.

ETA: I believe the money = school thing is especially true in 'transplant' type areas like here. All over the US people are bringing their income into our area. Since we have no state tax and lower cost of living, you can buy a lot of house for $200k-300k, and these transplants have ready cash. Nearly everyone living in a house worth more than $400k is a transplant.


ETA#2: that great schools.org has test scores as well.

Message edited 5/28/2013 4:15:30 PM.

Re: Moving OOS.. School district ?s

My BIL lives in Whitehall PA and sends his kids to he Whitehall Coplay school disrict. I know they did a lot of research on districts before moving out there from Lindenhurst.

Re: Moving OOS.. School district ?s

Did you try greatschools.org?

How does those ratings compare?