The effect of school performance on property values: a literature review and a case study

Purpose This paper, a pioneering one in the Israeli context, aims to augment the research literature on school quality and housing prices by examining the effect of primary-school performance on local property values. It focuses on the main question whether the release of students’ test scores offered households a new source of information with which they could evaluate the quality of schools, thereby affecting local housing markets. Design/methodology/approach Several models that examine a variety of transactions, schools and locality characteristics that affect house prices are estimated. Using different administrative sources of information, a wide array of socioeconomic characteristics of students, parents and homebuyers, as well as locality features, is constructed and merged. This information, combined with students’ scores on Meitzav exams (standardized student achievement tests) in 2009-2012 and house prices, illuminates the relationship between student achievements and the prices of houses purchased within the defined attendance zones. Findings Student achievements, mainly in the state education system, are found to have a positive and statistically significant effect on housing prices. Accurate information published about a certain school that showed much stronger achievements than those yielded by information attainable about the same school before school-level publication, does contribute to boost house prices in the post-publication period. The socioeconomic background of the students’ parents was found to have a significant effect on house prices. The premium for housing value is much higher in the most prestigious, prime demand districts, in which the housing supply is limited and the housing price level is higher than in that the peripheral districts. Originality/value This study not only breaks new ground in the Israeli context but also contributes to the existing literature, by investigating the relation between publishing students’ scores and property values near the same schools, on a national scale. Given that the housing price dynamics and the spatial differentiation of housing stock are extremely hot issues in many European cities, the results of this study could serve as an important tool for better understanding the housing price responses to market incentives, resulting in specific patterns in local housing markets. This paper could be thus applicable in housing policy outline, urban design and planning.