Local Schools' Student Quota Keeping Families from Buying Homes in North Carolina

Student quotas of local schools in North Carolina counties are driving away potential home buyers in the state, a report on News Observer revealed.

The report revealed that local schools are limiting their student admissions due to crowding. As a result, many locals are forced to send their kids to schools miles away.

The situation does not sit well with new home buyers shopping around in the area and has prompted them to look elsewhere.

“When we buy a house, we look at it as an investment. We think about resale value,” Mary Patel, a North Carolina home buyer, told News Observer. “If the kids cannot go to school here, I will not buy here.”

Mary is looking for a home with her husband in Morrisville, a town in Wake County, North Carolina. The couple still does not have kids but would very much want to send theirs to a school a stone’s throw away from their residence in the near future.

North Carolina real estate agents blame dwindling home sales in parts of Raleigh, Holly Springs and western Wake County on imposed school caps in the said jurisdictions.

Currently, there are 20 capped schools in the area for academic year 2014 to 2015, the report stated. Nine of the capped schools are located in Raleigh, while eight are located in Western Wake and Holly Springs.

Weichert Realtors broker Walter Fike notes that until the problem is fixed, “more families will walk away from homes” in Holly Springs, which has three of its elementary schools capped.

Either way, the scenario creates an opportunity for Fike’s team of agents who have sold properties in the neighboring county of Fuquay-Varina to home buyers who “snubbed” Holly Springs properties.

As of this posting, the Cary Town Council and the Wake County Board of Commissioners are working out a solution to address the issue without compromising homeowners in the area. 

Caps are usually imposed in colleges and universities, especially on the number of foreign student admissions. A Fox Business report in 2011, however, noted that some state school systems in the U.S., including North Carolina and California, have a “particular quota” even for out-of-state students.

Ivy League colleges have also been accused of imposing racial quotas in student admissions based on several reports.

Indeed, agents and realtors have to work harder to sell homes in areas where school caps are imposed. But boosting one’s marketing prowess and visibility in the local real estate milieu make all the difference in successfully selling a home in these locations.

RealBiz Media Group, Inc. RBIZ is one real estate company that helps agents market their listings and build their brands through its suite of proprietary video marketing platforms.

Florida firm RealBiz Media develops disruptive technology software and platforms such as Nestbuilder Agent and the Microvideo App to provide agents and brokers an avenue where they create virtual tours, video-based how-to’s and tips, and microsites that they can email to leads and share on social media sites.

These platforms are mobile-capable, and feature an analytics dashboard where agents can identify solid leads and customize their marketing campaigns.

Nestbuilder.com, the consumer site that offers the Nestbuilder Agent platform, is now home to 1.6 million home video listings—more than Zillow’s listings thus far. Over 350,000 agents have signed up for an account on Nestbuilder.com since the website went live, the company said in a statement.