Baggins

Regarding the short sale answer by Matt Irvin below, the rule was recently changed forgiven debt for an owner occupied home is not taxable for the next three years. This was a fairly significant change and was widely reported.

Matt, you should keep up with the news if you are going to give advice.

I posted a story on the issue below. - Mon Jan 7 2008, 23:40

Ed

Here is my view. A students edcational outcome is dependent on 3 factors:

1) the students basic inborn ability and makeup
2) the parents involvement
3) the school and peers at school

1) Student is fixed, the kid is who he is
2) Parent - we will do the best we can, regardless of school
3) The school and the kids peers in the schools is the only one that is variable

Number 1 and 2 are separate from the school, so while they are the major factors in success, they arent really part of the discussion about the value of a top school. Its external to the model, if you will.

Certainly one can find examples of people at top schools who lag, and kids at lower performing schools who excel. But we are talking probabilities. not anecdotes.

Analogy to a car wreck: You can find people who die in a wreck in a Mercedes, and people who wreck in a Geo Metro and live. Every case is different. But on average, which car is safer across the spectrum of possible events?

Now I would agree that some kids could be turned off by the hypercompetitive nature of some 950+ API schools, and actually do worse because they get intimidated or rebel. I am less convinved a kid is better served at a sub 700 API performing school. I think the people who come out of there and excel are just really strong in areas 1 and 2. If they went to a better school, they might have done even better.

I am sure that educators you talk to have denigrated the testing as mainly a measure of socio-conomic status and not their teaching skills. That may be, but it doesnt change what the scores tell us about how much the kids have learned in that school - for whatever the reason. I really dont care why, I just know that the kids have learned more on average and those will be my kids peers. I think we know how strong peer pressure is.

If your kid gets into Univeristy of Notre Dame and CSU Hayward - where are you going to encourage him to go? Maybe he will become a bank VP in either case, but which is more likely? - Mon Dec 31 2007, 18:50

Fair Points Ed. There are Catholic School families even in Palo Alto School District.

Still, on the whole, I dont think its unfair to categorize the RWC school district as a whole as low scoring. This year only Cloud exceeded the state target of 800.

The API is not just the result of some single test, its a fairly comprehensive system of noting how much the students have learned across a bunch of subjects. I dont think low scoring schools are "bad", they may be doing a great job with the students they have ir they may not be. Hard to say from afar.

But I do think that if a kid goes to a school with lower average scores, ***all other things equal***, they are likely to learn less than at a school with higher scores. Do you disagree. - Sun Dec 30 2007, 09:21

Accorfing to the State of Calif "An Academic Performance Index (API) score of 800 is the statewide performance target." RWC elementary came in at 759 and its two middle schools were below 700.

Its interesting that the agent who disagreed with what you had hear, in ALL CAPS no less,sends his kids to private school in RWC.

The other agent is more frank about RWC schools.

If your kid is sharp, he may be able to qualify for North Star Academy in RWC, which requires competitive admission including an IQ test. It covers grades 3-8 I do hear that there is a lot of homework at that school, which may or may not be to your liking for your kids. - Sun Dec 30 2007, 01:11

This is just my opinion as an avid amateur, but with 43.5 months of inventory on the market and the builders still building I suggest that further price declines are likely on the way.

Seems you have two choices:

1) Put an agressively low price on the house now and take a loss now.
2) Rent out for the next few years at negative montly cash flow and hope that the area recovers.

Personally, I would dump now. I dont know Mountain House specifically , I do know that the entire general Tracey/Stockon/Modesto area is ground zero of overbuilding and falling prices, so it might take a quite while to recover. Given that most housing cycles are 5-10 years in length, and this was the biggest boom in US history, its likely to take some time. You might just end up selling at a loss a few years from now if you try to wait it out. - Mon Dec 31 2007, 18:22

For preschool, I think it depends on what you want. Certain things are a universal good - clean facility, caring teachers. Others factors are more subject to choice: Do you want play based or "academic" based?

Some of the top private schools (Sacred Heart ) actually use preschool as entry point, and entering in Kindergarten is not as common. So if you want to go private for elementary, you need to get on top of it ASAP. - Sun Dec 30 2007, 01:17