SAN FRANCISCO, March 20 /PRNewswire/ — Trulia.com, the best place to start a real estate search, released a study today indicating that purchasing a home with excellent local schools helps buffer the home from industry downturns. Trulia has analyzed its proprietary real estate data and newly incorporated information on over 125,000 schools and 14,000 districts and found that despite the economic downturn in the real estate market, homes with highly rated local schools across the nation generally maintain or increase their value.
In addition, Trulia has leveraged that data and has solicited on-the-ground feedback from experts on Trulia Voices, Trulia’s Real Estate Q&A community, to uncover several cities in major metropolitan areas throughout the U.S. where relative bargains can still be found in cities where the schools receive an education rating of 9 or higher on a 10 point scale, based on standardized test scores as reported by the Department of Education for each state.
“In this uncertain economy, people are really searching for ways to ensure the big purchases they make are going to be sound,” said Pete Flint, co-founder and CEO of Trulia. “Despite the tough housing market, there are still areas throughout the country where potential buyers can purchase a home with confidence that not only will their home maintain or grow its value, but their family will also receive a top-notch public education.”
Trulia identified nine markets that are a representative cross section of the U.S. that combine high quality public elementary schools and a history of maintaining or increasing value despite a weak economic climate with relative affordability.
Included below is a list of the markets, along with median list prices for the major city within each market, as well as three “educational value” areas that are within 50 miles of the core city. The first alternate city in each list is the Trulia Pick — the city with the best combination of value and local elementary education in a given market. Median list prices are for March 2008, and year-over-year change is from March 2007 to March 2008.
Boise, ID Median List: $317,576 Increase: 2% School Ranking: 7 Alternate City Median List Increase Garden City, ID $334,900 10% Meridian, ID $279,100 0% Eagle, ID $529,900 12% Boston, MA Median List: $379,900 Increase: -24% School Ranking: 2 Alternate City Median List Increase Swampscott, MA $459,000 15% Sudbury, MA $729,450 1% Hingham, MA $749,950 4% Chicago, IL Median List: $334,900 Increase: -4% School Ranking: 3 Alternate City Median List Increase LaGrange, IL $440,000 4% Valparaiso, IN $259,000 6% River Forest, IL $575,000 2% Dallas, TX Median List: $235,000 Increase: 19% School Ranking: 4 Alternate City Median List Increase Melissa, TX $223,990 13% Celina, TX $317,450 63% Allen, TX $369,740 6% Los Angeles, CA Median List: $599,000 Increase: -20% School Ranking: 4 Alternate City Median List Increase Los Alamitos, CA $709,900 15% Topanga, CA $1,075,000 8% Calabasas, CA $1,599,000 18% New York, NY Median List: $1,075,000 Increase: 25% School Ranking: 4 Alternate City Median List Increase Basking Ridge, NJ $724,950 15% Lebanon, NJ $799,450 33% Larchmont, NY $1,125,000 49% Philadelphia, PA Median List: $199,900 Increase: 0% School Ranking: 2 Alternate City Median List Increase Collegeville, PA $379,900 7% Havertown, PA $315,000 0% Royersford, PA $268,000 1% San Francisco, CA Median List: $799,500 Increase: -6% School Ranking: 6 Alternate City Median List Increase Walnut Creek, CA $505,000 12% Moraga, CA $799,000 0% Pleasanton, CA $859,000 2% Washington, DC Median List: $434,000 Increase: -4% School Ranking: 5 Alternate City Median List Increase Huntingtown, MD $579,900 4% Pomfret, MD $414,900 1% Bethesda, MD $1,025,000 21%
The release of this data underscores the unique advantage Trulia offers consumers. The site’s mix of extensive listings information coupled with powerful search capabilities have made Trulia the fastest growing real estate website, according to ComScore. Trulia has recently introduced several new features that further enhance the site’s search function including search by keyword, advanced search by lot size and year built, and open homes search.
The research findings coincide with the addition of extensive education information on Trulia.com, including data on over 125,000 schools and 15,000 school districts to help consumers with their home buying decisions. The education information includes education ratings and more than 250,000 parent reviews and can be found in Trulia’s city and neighborhood guides as well as on every property page, helping home buyers better understand the quality of schools surrounding each of the over 2 million homes on Trulia. School data incorporated into Trulia’s site is provided by OnBoard and compiled from the National Center for Education Statistics, Greatschools.net, and the Department of Education for each state.
Trulia is one of the most popular sites on the web for real estate and has approximately 4 million unique monthly visitors and over 2 million real estate listings across the country. For more information about Trulia or to experience the power of a Trulia search, please visit http://www.trulia.com/. For more information on Trulia’s education research, please visit http://www.trulia.com/school_study.
About Trulia, Inc.
Trulia, Inc. (http://www.trulia.com/), a residential real estate search engine and the fastest-growing U.S. real estate Web site (comScore), has revolutionized online home search by offering a rich, intuitive user experience that points consumers directly to listings on agent and broker Web sites. By partnering with the real estate industry, including 93 of the top 100 largest U.S. brokers, Trulia helps approximately 4 million unique visitors per month find information on homes for sale using custom search criteria. The site also provides market trends and neighborhood data at the hyper-local level, as well as Trulia Voices, a real estate Q&A community, that enables consumers and professionals to exchange information about their local markets. For more information, visit http://www.trulia.com/.
Media Contact: Amanda Sanyal SutherlandGold for Trulia Amanda@sutherlandgold.com 650-520-5419
SOURCE: Trulia, Inc.
CONTACT: Amanda Sanyal of SutherlandGold, +1-650-520-5419,
Amanda@sutherlandgold.com, for Trulia, Inc.
Web site: http://www.trulia.com/
