OK, by more educational opportunities, I really mean City Garden Montessori School. Beginning as a small pre-school, City Garden has actually been around since 1995. But it didn’t begin anew as a charter school until 2008.

Since then the Shaw Neighborhood has become really hot. Some of my clients were just involved in a competing offer situation on a home in the neighborhood. And I noticed that a 350K home on Botanical went under contract within 4 days of being listed. That got me wondering whether or not the new school had anything to do with the property values in the area. So, I decided to look at some of the sale data from 2009 to present. It’s all typed out below and I am including the screenshots of the MLS data at the bottom of the post for anyone who is interested.

Note: To be included in this MLS search the house had to have sold for more than 100K and be within the Shaw Neighborhood boundaries.

2009 Averages in Shaw

Sq Ft: 2435

$/SqFt: $94.51

DOM: 108

Sold Price: $221,157

List Price to Sale Price Ratio: 90.15%

2010 Averages in Shaw

Sq Ft: 2439

$/SqFt: $97.05

DOM: 98

Sold Price: $236,273

List Price to Sale Price Ratio: 92.73%

2011 Averages in Shaw

Sq Ft: 2010

$/SqFt: $97.51

DOM: 64

Sold Price: $197,300

List Price to Sale Price Ratio: 90.40%

2012 Averages for Shaw

Sq Ft: 2454

$/SqFt: $105.31

DOM: 93

Sold Price: $245,377

List Price to Sale Price Ratio: 90.74%

2013 Averages for Shaw

Sq Ft: 2670

$/SqFt: $102.74

DOM: 67

Sold Price: $282,613

List Price to Sale Price Ratio: 92.60%

Looking at these numbers it’s really hard to draw any conclusions but it is interesting stuff. Compare the average sold price in 2009 ($221,157) to the average sold price in 2013 ($282,613). That’s pretty significant. But that could be due to many different reasons. A lot of the homes selling now in Shaw are new rehabs (especially those that are selling at the higher end) while in 2009 there were probably more resales. The market will deliver a higher dollar sale price for a home in mint condition rather than one that feels lived-in with deferred maintenance issues.

There has been a lot of rehabbing in the neighborhood over the last 5 years. Maybe the school gave the developers some reassurance that there would be buyers ready when the rehab became available. Note the difference in days on market for the homes sold in 2009 (106). Compared to the days on market for 2013 (67).

The strong involvement from the Shaw Neighborhood Housing Corporation whose mission is to “improve the quality of life in the Shaw neighborhood by addressing housing related issues” cannot be denied either. Another factor could be the overall economy. On a macro level the housing market is better than it was in 2009 and sale prices have increased in many areas.

Regardless, having the option of a great (FREE) school in the neighborhood cannot hurt home sales!