Home real estate sales and pending sales in Fayette County are holding their own despite the uncertainty generated by the public school system’s effort to redraw attendance boundaries.
December home sales in Lexington were up 21 percent over the same month in 2013, according to the Lexington-Bluegrass Association of Realtors. The solid market is defying expectations that the major changes being worked out by Fayette County Public Schools might dampen sales.
“In December, our numbers did not show what we might have expected, which is a cautious attitude by the buyers,” said Larry Freels, president of the LBAR. Freels is an agent with Re/Max Creative Realty. “It was a healthy, somewhat unexpected increase. It is hard to see cautiousness or skepticism with the buyers.”
Fayette County school officials say the district has added 600 to 750 students per year for the last decade. To accommodate the growth, the district will open two new elementary schools in 2016 and a new high school in 2017. Before that happens, new attendance boundaries are being drawn up to incorporate the new schools and evenly distribute the students.
A school rezoning committee is currently working on new boundary maps and holding a series of public meetings seeking input. Such moves can have a major effect on real estate markets as parents find their children no longer in preferred schools and prospective homebuyers sit on the sidelines awaiting final decisions.
But December’s numbers show a more confident market. And although Lexington home sales dipped slightly last month when compared with January 2014, the association said pending sales were up 18 percent and agent activity, as reported by realty companies, was “up significantly.”
The redistricting plan is expected to be finalized in early April. The new elementary school boundaries will take effect in fall 2016; the new high school boundaries in fall 2017. A plan will be devised for determining boundary changes for middle schools.
Ty Brown, an agent with Weichert Realtors-Bluegrass and a member of the school redistricting committee, has experienced some buyer pushback.
“Some clients have delayed their decision to buy or sell; not in a negative way, but if they’re going to move, they just want to know what school they’ll be in,” Brown said.
Freels said school options matter but only to a point. “We feel consumers make their decision to buy based on the entire group of amenities in a neighborhood, not just schools,” he said.
Realtor.com surveyed a thousand potential homeowners nationwide, and 91 percent said school boundaries mattered to them. The survey showed some homebuyers would sacrifice amenities to be in the school zone or school district of their choice. One in three would buy a smaller home and one in five would give up an extra bedroom or a garage to be near their ideal school.
“Local schools are clearly more important to specific population segments, such as today’s Millennials, who either have or are planning to have children,” said Jonathan Smoke, chief economist for realtor.com. “High-ranking schools can have a positive impact on home values over time as new families pay a premium for access to better schools.”
Brown said most of his clients already have a school in mind when seeking a home in a particular area. He said he doesn’t recommend one school over another.
“Sometimes they want all the information they can get,” he said. “Our job is to give them access to that information to help them make their decision.”
Brown added that he is impressed by “how seriously the committee is taking its responsibility” and how comprehensive the effort is. Rick Queen, an agent with Turf Town Properties and another member of the redistricting committee, said redrawing the boundaries is a tough job.
“Some parents don’t want their kids to switch schools, and it sometimes gets out of proportion a bit,” Queen said. “No matter where school boundaries are drawn, we are not going to isolate any particular street or area. We are trying to keep it as cohesive as possible.”
Freels said he hopes the committee is able to reach a consensus quickly to remove uncertainty from the marketplace. But Freels said he doesn’t envy the committee members their task.
“I wouldn’t want that job for any amount of money in the world,” Freels said. “You’re not going to please anybody.”