Education and Nonmetropolitan Income Growth In the South

This study estimates the impact of school quality on property values within the city limits of Greenville, South Carolina. This study differs from others in its use of a relative, rather that an absolute measure of school quality. We apply a hedonic pricing model to estimate the impact of K-12 rankings on the real constant-quality housing values. Based on 3,731 housing transactions carried out from 1994 to 2000, our results suggest that those who choose to live within the city limits of the study pay a premium to live in high quality school attendance areas. Therefore, high-ranked schools have values capitalized into single-family house prices. Further, greater distance to assigned K-12 schools has a negative impact on the value of the property