Thirty years ago, it was some of the hottest real estate in the suburbs.
For many couples, a bit of land next to a school was the ideal spot for a house because children easily could walk to and from their classes and after-school activities.
But in recent years, the appeal of living next to a school has been turned on its head. While it is not a universal phenomenon, more homeowners are discovering that living in the shadow of a junior high or high school can be a pain in the neck–and the pocketbook, when it comes time to sell.
“A home’s proximity to a junior high or high school, within about three to four blocks, is not a selling feature now,” said Pat Dalessandro, president of the Illinois Association of Realtors.
“It does go against the traditional thought process of living close to a school and what that does for the value of a home. That’s unfortunate.”
For the most part, homes near elementary schools are still highly prized. Living within walking distance of a grammar school can raise a home’s market value as much as 10 percent and reassure anxious parents who can watch their youngsters come and go, Dalessandro said.
But life can be especially tough for next-door neighbors of high schools.
Often, they must deal with students who park or cruise their cars on neighborhood streets, loiter after classes, toss cigarette butts onto the prized begonias, and worse.
“Residents have told me they’ve witnessed kids roaming the streets, sitting on their lawns and smoking,” said Pat Feichter, a trustee in Elk Grove Village.
Elgin real estate broker Laura Hastings remembers the trouble she had trying to sell a family on a two-story, four-bedroom home about two blocks from the “smokers’ corner” at Larkin High School.
If the same home had been farther away, it would have sold for between $150,000 and $160,000, she said. But the asking price was $138,000, and her clients refused to pay more than $120,000.
Ultimately, they passed on the house, and it took more than a year to finally sell, Hastings said.
“I don’t tell my people where to buy houses, but that’s a concern,” she said of the closeness to the high school.
Other agents say that in today’s favorable real estate climate, a home’s proximity to a junior high or high school doesn’t dramatically affect the asking price but can lengthen its time on the market.
In the meantime, police officers, school officials and village trustees are getting an earful from residents who already live near schools.
In Arlington Heights, Thomas Middle School Principal Charles Crissey gathered with neighbors twice this month to field a litany of aesthetic concerns about the school’s new rooftop air-conditioning unit and parking lot.
Other residents are demanding that school officials plant grass over the baseball diamond, tear down the batting cage and relocate the ballfield because of the dust it generates.
“Nowadays, education encompasses a lot more than what happens within the four walls of a classroom,” Crissey said. “Dealing with neighbors and community issues are part of the process.”
Oak Park-River Forest High School recently instituted a closed-campus lunch for freshmen after neighbors complained about a group of kids who were loitering, smoking and being disrespectful.
And the tensions at Elk Grove High School were evident this month when a local vigilante armed with a digital camera busted four students who had wandered off campus to sneak cigarettes. The resident delivered the incriminating photos to police.
Although the four youths had fled at the sight of the camera, another group had assembled by the time police arrived. One was promptly arrested for marijuana possession.
“Many people want their children within walking distance of a school, but not so close that it creates a problem in terms of loitering, smoking, noise or people parking cars on their lawns on game nights,” said William Bainbridge, president of SchoolMatch, a school-selection consulting firm that helps corporations relocate families around the country.
“For high schools, most people want to be at least a mile away,” Bainbridge said.
The attitude has developed over the last decade, Bainbridge said, as more schools adopted open campuses and students with cars became more common.
At the same time, young parents who two or more decades ago jumped at the chance to purchase a Cape Cod near the schoolyard have since become empty nesters longing for peace and quiet.
Wim Wiewel, an urban planning professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said changing demographics also are fueling intolerance toward neighborhood schools.
“The number of households with children is much lower than it was 20 years ago,” Wiewel said, “and it’s affected the amount of connection residents have to schools.”
There’s also the argument that today’s kids, and today’s schools, are different from three decades ago.
“Kids in school today are getting into a different type of trouble,” Bainbridge said. “They’re carrying guns now, not knives or fists.”
Added Dalessandro: “When I went to high school, we didn’t have to go through a metal detector.”
He said many home buyers adopt this mind-set: “Rather than buy a home across the street from a high school and fight a one-person crusade, I’m going to find another home that’s in the same school district but that’s not near the problem.”
Concerns even have arisen at some elementary schools, where thrice-daily cavalcades of minivans and buses can turn residential streets into parking lots.
Students such as Tim Doherty, Elk Grove High School’s student council president, ask that problems be put in the proper perspective. He said the entire student body may lose street-parking privileges near the school because of the misbehavior of a few teens.
Despite the problems between neighbors and junior high and high schools, many residents still like living close to elementary schools.
“My children can walk to school, and the neighborhood is always filled with children,” said Holly Sitkiewicz, who lives adjacent to Brentwood Elementary School in Des Plaines. “Yes, I can hear the intercom system all day long, and there is noise when the kids are outside during lunch and recess.
“But I like the sound of children playing.”
