New Tool Shows Exact School District Assignments for Homes

Location is so important to real estate buyers in part because of the quality of school district assignments associated with a home. Now, education.com has released a tool that allows users to find the exact school district assignments of any home in the United States.

School Boundaries, their creation, can be found on their website but also can be used as a widget on other real estate websites and blogs. This mapping tool is free, and uses the data from all 13,000 school districts in the country. It can also specify schools for 55% of the country.

Using Google Maps, users can view school boundaries, filter by elementary, middle, and high schools, and see the schools’ test ratings. This could be a great widget for homebuyers everywhere.

Cash Buyers Dominate San Mateo, Santa Clara County Home Sales

Over the past several months, cash buyers – often investors – looking for bargains have been purchasing homes in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties at a high rate, according to a San Jose Mercury article. This activity lowered the average sale price in San Mateo County, and kept it level with last year’s average in Santa Clara County.

The real estate information service DataQuick stated that the area home sales are dominated by distressed homes and these cash buyers, who made up about a quarter of home buyers in January in both counties.

“What’s most interesting is how active the investors were through the holidays and into early January,” said Andrew LePage of DataQuick in the Mercury story.

Buyers in the area are on the bargain hunt as well, with multiple-offer real estate transactions being common of late. Foreclosures have allowed some buyers to get in to the market, and the low prices fuel the competition fire.

It is hard to compete against a true cash buyer when bidding on a property. To stand out when making an offer, make sure you get your loan pre-approved properly, essentially turning yourself into a “cash buyer.”