The key to property values isn't in your home - it's in your neighborhood school. In the early '90s, Needham's school board was trying to push through a tax increase to fund improvements in the school system. It wasn't just an advertising ploy.
Schools are absolutely critical in the value of a piece of real estate.
Some people take that into account even if they don't have children, knowing that it helps the resale value of the house. Just ask Robin and Tripp Jones, who live in the North End and have been house-hunting since last August. They don't have children yet, but are planning for a family in the future and would like to live in a town where they have faith in the school system. Her husband, Tripp, heads up the think tank Mass Inc., and worked with former state rep Mark Roosevelt on the Massachusetts Education Reform Act of 1993. But we want to stay close to Boston, so we're looking in Milton instead.