As I wait for my morning Gigantic-Mug-O-TeaTM to cool down so I can start the day, a few musings…
As folks reading this blog know, we’ve been involved in house hunting of late. Initally this was just to help out our friend ellipticcurve, but the bug was reactivated in my wife, so we’re looking for ourselves as well. She’s already won a big part of the battle: I have accepted the fact that I do want to move, and get a larger, slightly more elegant place.
However, I’m stubborn at times (I can hear the snickering out there), so we’re not moving right away. First, I need to figure out how to do this right financially. I do think real estate is a better investment than the stock market (unless you are dollar-cost averaging). However, I need to work out how to handle our current place: do we sell it, or rent it out to bring in extra income. That decision influences what repairs must be made to it, and how much we need to declutter it before we move. I need to figure out what loan products in today’s market will be within my financial comfort level. I also need to figure out timing with respect to the real estate cooldown I know is coming (which is why you’re seening me monitoring the real estate news more). However, such ruminations aren’t the subject of this post.
What are we looking for in a house? More space, of course. I’d like to have space for an office, master bedroom, our daughter’s room, sewing room, and a guest room. Ideally on one floor, although some could be upstairs. We’d like it in a relatively nice neighborhood, with decent resale values. And, of course, a decent high school. That’s the subject of this post.
We believe in public schools. Our daughter has attended public schools all her life, primarily in LAUSD‘s magnet program. She should have sufficient points to enter a middle school magnet. It’s high school we’re thinking about. Where we live currently has Monroe High School as its local high school. Monroe has a 2004 API of 599… which is pretty low. My wife would like us to be in the area for Granada Hills High (2004 API: 754). That would be fine with me. Other possibilities in our part of the valley are Kennedy High (2004 API: 626) and Chatsworth High (2004 API: 666). My concern is that the API in 3 years will reallly be unknown, and will likely be much higher. First, there is the effect of students raised in the API era with smaller class sizes matriculating to high school, and thus improving the overall API. Second, LA Unified has embarked on a large construction program. This will result in a significant number of new high schools in the San Fernando Valley. Ones likely to affect our area are East Valley High School #2 in Arleta (on the former GEMCO property right around the corner) with 1512 seats; East Valley High School #3 (on the former Carnation Research property in Van Nuys) with 2142 seats; Valley New HS #1 (on CSUN land) with 870 seats; and the new High School to be built on the former site of Granada Hills Hospital. I think the effect of all these new seats will also improve the schools in the valley. It should also improve the ability to get into a high-school magnet program. Thus, I’m a little bit less concerned about the school: I think being in a good neighborhood is what is important. However, I don’t know if I’m off.
In any case, my tea has cooled enough to drink, and so it is time to get off to do some real work. Expect more real estate musings and pointers to articles about valley real estate as I work this out in my head. For example, there was a great article in yesterday’s LA Times about how right now there is better appreciation of values in mid- and low-priced neighborhoods than in the pricier ones (with the exception of Malibu, 90265). Very interesting article.
