Housing Affordability and School Quality in the United States

Abstract

In discussions of the barriers faced by the poor to accessing high-quality K-12 education, housing costs figure prominently. A common view is that housing costs more when it provides access to higher quality schools. But is this view accurate? We investigate this question by relating housing affordability with two test-based measures of school quality, test score levels and rates of student learning. Our work contributes the first nationwide estimate of this relationship for rates of student learning, and to date the most comprehensive nationwide examination for test score levels. We find that there are relatively few affordable housing options near high test score levels schools, but for a substantial range this is driven by the phasing from renter into owner-occupied housing, and the associated rise in down payments. By contrast, the association of housing affordability with learning rates is much weaker. We examine heterogeneity in these relationships, and discuss policy implications.