Who's still buying a school district house?

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2024-05-14 09:54Posted on the official account of Beijing characters

When school district housing no longer means that it will go up immediately after you buy it, and there is no complete guarantee that you will be able to go to the school you want to go to, it will start to become worth measuring, and even doubtful—is a degree full of uncertainty more important? Or is it more important to keep the assets in hand from being lost?

Nowadays, most of the people who buy a house in the school district are young emerging middle-class parents, who have some assets in their hands after years of hard work, and want to send their offspring to a more desirable school, but it is difficult to accept the real risks such as investment failure. People who have bought a house in the school district in the past two years are likely to enter the school in a swing.

Text: Wu Yuchen

Edited by Chu Ming

Swing in the admission

It was a school district house in Beijing's Desheng School District, or a residential area with a yard where parking could be parked - the house was on the 5th floor, with an open kitchen, not a dark hall, and a north-south orientation. For this reason, 34-year-old Wang Li and her husband decided to sit at the negotiating table.

The owner's bid was 500,000 yuan higher than they expected, and neither Wang Li nor the owner relented. "It's not impossible, but it's not worth it." Wang Li thought to herself. The two sides were silent for a long time, and the intermediary asked the owner away. "Let's go." Wang Li thought that the owner was "cheating". After that, the owner never came back, and when the agent came back, he told Wang Li and his wife, "This house has been sold."

Since deciding to buy a house in the school district, it was the closest Wang Li had come to a deal. "I knew I was relieved." She regretted it a little, but she quickly came back to her senses, maybe she could have seen something better? The couple cautiously wandered the school district housing market.

"I'm confused, do I have to buy a school district house?" In March this year, Sun Yuehuan, who lives in Beijing, wavered for the first time in buying a school district house. She is 35 years old and a staunch buyer of school district housing, but since she started looking at properties last year, she has found that school district housing in Beijing is becoming more and more difficult to get started.

Buying a school district house has not been a strange thing in China's property market for nearly a decade. The value of the house is an additional variable because of the educational resources that come with it. It is no exaggeration to say that during the property market dividend period, buying a school district house is a reliable investment in a sense, and there is no need to hesitate in most cases.

Li Xiaofen, who is in her early 30s, still remembers that around 2013, when she was still in college, the unit price of Huaqing Jiayuan, the famous "Shenpan" in Beijing, was once close to 100,000 yuan. Built in 2000, the community itself is unremarkable, but because the school district is the counterpart of Zhongguancun No. 2 Primary School, close to Tsinghua University, housing prices have increased by about 20 times in 20 years. It was a "school district room enlightenment" for her, and she is still very impressed.

Maybe at that time, her road to buying a house would not be so tortuous. More than ten years have passed, and the school district house has attracted attention at this time because of the fading of the halo. is also Huaqing Jiayuan, and the unit price of some houses has dropped by more than 20,000 yuan. In Haidian Wanliu, the hummingbird home, once the "myth of school district housing", has not stopped falling in this round of decline, and some houses have even fallen by half compared with the high point in 2020.

There is a consensus that the property market is in a downward trend, and the educational environment is also changing. First, the number of new school-age population is declining, and the overall demand for housing in school districts is expected by many to decrease; Policies have indeed changed over the past few years, such as "multi-school zoning", "education collectivization", and the rotation of teachers between schools in the school district, in an attempt to make educational resources more balanced. These policies and trends have greatly reduced the value of school district housing in the minds of many people.

For many nights of inner entanglement, Wang Li flashed that thought in her mind, "Why don't you give up buying a school district house in Beijing and let your children go back to Changsha to go to school." She quickly convinced herself to hold on a little longer.

At the moment, buying a school district house is more worth measuring, even questioning, than ever – is a degree full of uncertainty more important? Or is it more important to keep the assets in hand from being lost? People who want to buy a school district home can't ignore the risks. Most of them are young emerging middle-class parents who have some assets in their hands after years of hard work, and want their offspring to go to a school of their choice, but at the same time, they are not very resilient to risks.

In the past two years, people who want to buy a house in the school district are likely to enter the school in the swing.

The school district in the Wudaokou area of Beijing is a source of Visual China

divergence

School district housing is harder to get started than you think.

The gate faces the road, there is no yard, only many buildings. The house to be seen is on the 7th floor, Wang Li took the elevator to the 5th floor, came out of a large platform, and then climbed 2 floors up through the stairs before reaching the 7th floor - what caught her eye was a long corridor, broken and yellowed white walls, and small advertisements were plastered on it. There was an unpleasant smell in the corridor, and the houses were on one side of the corridor.

"Here we are." The intermediary said that the lock was twisted with a key, making a screeching noise. Pushing open the door, there was a toilet in front of it, and there was no sunlight in the small living room. The price of this house is 7 million yuan.

"I don't look at this type of house," Wang Li told the agent with some dissatisfaction. But soon, she found that with a budget of 7 million to 8 million yuan, she could only see such a house type in the East and West Cities.

In October last year, Wang Li and her husband paid to make an appointment with a real estate blogger to consult about the purchase of a school district house, and their child is 2 and a half years old, hoping to get the school district house before kindergarten. Wang Li's needs to buy a house are not complicated: she wants her children to go to top school districts in the future and maintain their value as much as possible after the purchase — a requirement that may seem simple, but in the current market environment, it seems difficult.

Until then, the young mother had little idea of the Beijing school district. At the consultation table, the blogger told her, "The school district looks at the east and west seas." "Dongxihai" is Beijing's three traditional "strong districts" for education, namely Dongcheng, Xicheng and Haidian. It includes several of the so-called "top" school districts in Beijing, as well as countless old neighborhoods. According to the recommendation, Wang Li set her sights on several top school districts in the East and West Cities, including Hepingli and Anjiao School Districts in the East City, and the commonly known "Jindeyue" in the West City, that is, the Financial Street, Desheng and Yuetan School Districts.

The counterpart schools in these school districts are all well-known "Niu Xiao" and "Niu Zhong", but when it comes to the real house viewing, Wang Li has to face the problem that most people who buy a school district house will face: the living experience is generally poor, and unless the budget is sufficient, it is possible to buy a house that takes into account both the school district and the residence. The oldest house on her to-see list was built in 1975, and the newest dates back to 1996. "Most of the communities have a poor environment, and a yard with parking in the community is a luxury", and there are finally communities with a better environment, and the buildings are relatively old.

Li Xiaofen still remembers a 56-square-meter second-hand house she saw in Haidian, and the living room was only 4 square meters when she opened the door, which could only fit a table. She asked the agent, "What's the price?" "$5.3 million," she smiled wryly, turning to leave. After that, Li Xiaofen and her husband took a budget of 5 million yuan and looked at several houses of sixty or seventy square meters on Wanshou Road, but they were not very satisfied. Their trip to Haidian came to a standstill.

Nowadays, when the value of the school district housing is not guaranteed, the poor living experience undoubtedly adds another layer of hesitation in the hearts of parents. In the past, buying a low-cost "pit house" was the choice of many people, which was not only able to go to school, but also equivalent to buying a "financial management". But now, because of the low residential attributes of the pit house, it has fallen the most in this round of market.

Sun Yuehuan went to the top school district at the beginning. "Top" may make people willing to take risks, she set a budget of 8 million yuan, and rushed to Desheng to look at the house, but was immediately stopped by her husband, "I can't afford it, and the price will drop sooner or later".

Since I started looking at the house, my husband has said the most is this sentence "I can't afford it". In order to motivate her husband to buy a house, Sun Yuehuan was optimistic about the house in advance, and calculated the amount of the future monthly payment to her husband, "The down payment for this house is relatively low, 1.8 million yuan, we take all the provident fund in our hands, and then ask our parents to borrow one or two hundred thousand, and the 1.8 million is enough." The husband verbally agreed, but soon objected, feeling that he could not afford to take the risk. Recently, I saw a school district house in Xicheng, a 50-square-meter commercial house with an elevator, with a price of 5.8 million yuan, and they were very satisfied on the spot. The husband finally said that he wanted to make an appointment, but when he was close to negotiation, he changed his words and said, "It's a big loss, at least 5.6 million yuan."

Sun Yuehuan almost wanted to quarrel, but she still held back. Because of the viewing, she even began to wonder about the marriage, "What was it like before I married him? It seems to have gotten worse since I married him."

She adjusted her budget to 5 million yuan to see the Hepingli School District in Dongcheng. But like Wang Li, she found that the environment of the old community in Heping was generally not good, and the space was still small, which made her feel that it was not worth so much money. "I hate peace and break, and peace hates me for being poor." She teased.

Wang Li and her husband once took a hard look at a suite in Yuetan in Xicheng, with a listing price of 11.8 million yuan, the house is on the top floor, the area is not large, 76 square meters, but the house type is relatively square, and the community environment and school environment make them very excited, but there are two other groups of customers who also look at the house, and the budget is indeed too much, they give up - many months later, Wang Li found that the house fell to 3 million before the transaction, and she had palpitations.

Li Xiaofen also deeply remembers that four years ago, Xicheng District implemented "multi-school zoning", and some school district houses in the market plummeted by one million yuan overnight. Buyers can't help but wonder if the demand for school district housing will be so strong in the future if the policy will change and the population will decline. No one wants to fall like this after buying a school district house at this time.

Parents once asked a friend who has studied the Beijing property market to "guide" Wang Li to buy a house, and the other party posted a long voice message on WeChat, telling Wang Li earnestly: "I don't recommend you to buy a school district house now, the economy is down, and the risk is very high."

The concerns of the elders are not without practical considerations. Two years ago, the business line where the husband worked was directly laid off. It was her husband's birthday, and Wang Li remembered that the family group was wishing her husband "success in his career and success in his work", but her husband sent a message to tell Wang Li, "I am unemployed." At that time, the couple also believed that with their husband's ability, they would soon be able to find a new job, and soon the husband was hired by a foreign company. The atmosphere of foreign companies is good, and the pace of work is much slower than that of large factories, and her husband and Wang Li are very satisfied. But half a year after joining the company, the company suddenly announced that it would withdraw from China, and her husband lost his job for the second time.

This time the job loss hit much harder than the first time, and Wang Li and her husband really felt that "this is from the outside". At this time, the husband was 33 years old. Seeing that they were getting closer and closer to the age of 35, the couple gradually felt in danger, and the husband returned to the Internet company. Now, despite the temporary stability of their jobs, they are all worried about when the next job loss will return.

Her husband still supports Wang Li to buy a house in the school district, but he just hopes to buy a smaller house with less loan pressure. "Just buy one with a lower total price and change it in a few years."

Wang Li is a native of Hunan, and she also thought about giving up all her life in Beijing and going back to Changsha to buy a good school district house, but a check on the Internet showed that she had to pay social security for one year to buy a house in Changsha (note: in April this year, Changsha has lifted purchase restrictions). After the argument, her mind fell back to Beijing.

Photo source movie "72 Hours of School District Room"

"I have to buy it"

People know what it means to be in at this point, but for some middle-class parents, school district housing is like a ticket to the school. For them, the belief in added value may have been shaken, but the "school district faith" remains. That's what makes this tangle so deep.

Wang Li and her husband began to plan to buy a school district house when their child was 2 and a half years old. Although there are still four years to go to primary school, the second year of kindergarten will start the child, and the programmer couple wants their children to enter the route of high-quality public education as soon as possible, and they will not have to worry about choosing a school in junior high school. And public schools are cheaper — their children started attending private nursery classes a year ago, and they cost 8,000 yuan a month.

Buying a house is obviously a more expensive thing, and in Beijing, there are not many good school district houses. If you calculate an account, even if you go to a private school for the entire compulsory education stage, it may not be as expensive as buying a house. Li Xiaofen thought about this problem, and went to the Internet to check the posts about private schools, "riding horses, studying abroad, comparing their parents' cars", she was afraid that her children would have a sense of disparity in the comparison of their parents' wealth, and decided to buy a house to go to a public school.

In 2017, Wang Li bought a 4 million yuan house in Hangzhou as a wedding house and also as an investment - the house rose to 6.3 million yuan in 2022, but it was not sold at that time, and soon ushered in a downward trend in the property market, falling by 20%. After discussing with her husband, she unanimously agreed to sell the house in Hangzhou as soon as possible and replace it with a good school district house in Beijing. Wang Li said that there is another reason for the rush to buy a house, because she is afraid of holding the money in her hands and spending it - it is the family's savings for seven or eight years, and she has to quickly settle her assets.

For Li Xiaofen, for a long time, she didn't believe that she could buy a house in Beijing, let alone a school district house. More than 10 years ago, when she was still working part-time as a tutor in college, she walked into an old house in Dongcheng District, opened the door and saw that the student's family lived in a one-bedroom apartment of about 50 square meters, and the tutoring homework had to be in the living room. This girl from Sichuan couldn't understand at all, "How can children learn and grow in such a cramped environment?"

When people reach middle age, after having children, the school district house has become an inseparable sustenance. Although having it does not mean a good future, without it, it seems that there is a lack of capital compared to others. When the neighbor said that the family was going to buy a school district house in Dongcheng, Li Xiaofen's heart tightened. A friend of hers, who has two apartments, bought a school district house in Haidian last year, which made her feel fluctuating. Influenced by the people around her, Li Xiaofen felt that "to be a competent mother, you can't do nothing".

Once they start thinking about school district housing, parents develop a spontaneous sense of urgency. Different regions have different requirements for obtaining degree qualifications, for example, some cities require to settle in the school district one year in advance, and some areas only provide one degree for a property within 6 years, etc. In order to cope with future changes in regional policies, many people want to get the school district housing earlier, subjectively believing that this can avoid mistakes in going on to higher education.

At the same time, the algorithm is also pushing bloggers' real estate information in rounds, and posts about various school district houses are also stimulating parents to hurry up and look at the house.

Sun Yuehuan borrowed to live in a relative's house, and buying a house has always been a knot in her heart. Now living in a house with scarce light and little space, when she saw her young daughter playing with toys on the floor, she secretly decided, "I must buy a school district house and do my best to make the children better." Although her daughter will only enter school in 2029, she often searches for "TOP50 in Xicheng District" on social platforms, and forms for real estate bloggers abound. She knew that was the goal.

Photo source drama "Thirty Only"

赌局

Wang Li decided to "smash" the school district room.

In order to minimize the risk of depreciation, she repeatedly analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of school districts. She believes that in order to find a more balanced school district with fewer shortcomings, "the so-called good school district is a school that is the bottom line, not too bad". Eventually, she leaned more towards the Desheng School District. "It's been down for two years, and the bubble is relatively small." She subjectively speculated that in the future, the population will decrease, and the probability of the Desheng School District lottery not being able to enroll will become lower, "maybe it will not fall but will rise."

It's nice to imagine, but the reality is that you have to face huge risks, and the chess pieces are still not falling. She also found that whether it is a $7 million, $8 million, or $9 million house, it is far from "satisfying", and the house that satisfies both the school district and the house is obviously more expensive. It seems that going to school in a top school district will require a lot of betting, as if only a big enough stakes will be good enough.

With each additional bet, the cost and risk become greater and greater. Wang Li and her husband began to frequently calculate how much they would have to repay each month — the earliest figure was about 30,000 yuan, and later it rose to about 50,000 yuan.

She keeps raising her budget, hoping to add another 1 million to see a good house appear. She made a table to record the houses she had seen: a house of 7.65 million yuan is less than 70 square meters, and it cannot be made into a three-bedroom house, and the living room of a house of 8.5 million yuan is an "L-shaped", and when it comes to 9 million, a house of 76 square meters has a "great taste...... The budget has broken 10 million all the way - a house of 11 million yuan and 80 square meters, "the house type is the same as the pistol legs".

Sun Yuehuan is also looking at the house hard. She gave up her lunch break, took a taxi for more than an hour to go to the school district in Dongxihai to climb the building to see the house, and hurried back to Chaoyang's company. In order to buy a house, she couldn't stop for a moment, and went to work part-time photography on weekends to earn money to support her family.

She persuaded her husband to increase the budget. In December last year, the down payment ratio for Beijing's first individual home was lowered to 30%, and she increased her budget by 1 million yuan to 6 million yuan, and went to see the Guangnei School District and Taobai School District in Xicheng. The husband was still hesitant and the house he had seen was bought. She complained that her husband had been delayed in making a decision, and finally couldn't help arguing with him.

The husband was also anxious: "If you hadn't lost money to me, this house would have been bought." 2 years ago, the husband and wife experienced an investment failure and lost 1 million, although the husband and wife agreed not to mention it again, but the husband still brought it up again when he was emotional. He probably didn't want to "bet" on losing anymore.

Buying a school district house is already an uncertain gamble at this time, not only betting on whether the school district house can go to that school and whether it can maintain its value in the future, but also betting on the future of a family.

Families are worried about the future. Li Xiaofen is also an employee of an Internet company, and her anxiety is no less than that of Wang Li. It's just that the husband is in the system and seems to share some of the risks. Sun Yuehuan's ability to resist risks is also not strong. She and her husband both work in an architectural design institute, the real estate industry is not good, and the efficiency of the design institute is not high. In the past few years, layoffs and salary cuts have occurred from time to time, and she has long since gone from panic to calm. She said that the way to protect her life after buying a house is to keep 400,000 yuan in cash.

Photo source drama "Little Shede"

Self-consistent

Wang Li finally bought a house in the school district.

In October last year, when she was about to leave Hangzhou to sell a house, the agent suddenly called her and told her that there was a house of the same type downstairs from the house that had not been negotiated, and several customers were talking, "You are now in the first place, do you want to buy it?" She was still hesitating. It wasn't until early the next morning that the agent called again, "It's only been 3 hours". She panicked a little and asked her mother to go to the scene to see and find that someone was indeed negotiating the price with the owner.

Impulsiveness eventually shattered caution. She and her husband decided to buy the house, no longer tossed, negotiated with the owner remotely by phone, and finally negotiated the price at about 11 million yuan.

Wang Li breathed a sigh of relief, but was not happy. She finally got a school district house, but she took this bet to gamble on a stable job, a smooth career, and even a healthy and safe family in the future.

Li Xiaofen also bought a house in the school district. She gave up Haidian, where the room type was not good and the price was expensive, and lowered her budget to return to Chaoyang. She felt that "multi-school zoning" was not safe, and the schools in this area belonged to the "third echelon" of Haidian, and she was not fully prepared to become a Haidian parent. Like many people, her understanding of various schools basically comes from the news she saw on the Internet, such as some saying that Chaoyang District is "not so rolly, and the atmosphere is relatively free", and the housing prices are lower in comparison, and some people say that "single-school zoning, nine-year consistency, and the degree is guaranteed (note: the specific admission policy should be based on the interpretation of the relevant departments)."

Near the North Third Ring Road, she took a fancy to a house with an elevator, with a square house, good lighting, and a large balcony, a total of about 80 square meters, two bedrooms, and felt that this was like a house. She and the owner started negotiations that lasted for a month, and the house was finally sold at a price of 5.86 million yuan.

Sun Yuehuan was still hesitating. Her father advised her, "School is not that important, just go to school." But the new information posted by various property bloggers will usher in a turmoil in her heart, "I read too much information every day". She wrote a post about her house viewing process, and there was a comment at the bottom: "Fortunately, your husband persuaded you not to buy Desheng, what did it fall into." But she still firmly believes that sooner or later she will buy a school district house.

People who buy a house try to stop looking at the housing prices in the neighborhood and let themselves have peace of mind. One day the husband muttered, "The surrounding neighborhood has fallen again." Li Xiaofen responded: "If you don't sell it, look at what it's for."

They can only wait for the answer of time. There are still a lot of uncertain things, excluding those complicated considerations, back to the original question, after buying a school district house, does it really mean that you can go to a good school? Is going to a so-called good school to provide the best education for the child? Or this question is difficult to answer, but everyone will give their own interpretation. "From a result-oriented point of view, even if we graduate from the top 2, we know that we are not much different from others. Every soul is different, and I want him to be more interesting, more insightful, have a better experience, and have more choices in the future." Wang Li said.

After Wang Li settled down, she called the kindergarten to inquire about admissions, and the other party told her, "Our enrollment policy is to settle down at birth." Putting down the phone, Wang Li was speechless. So far, she can only continue to gamble that if there are more degrees next year, maybe the policy will change.

She told herself that she had "gambled" all the way, "I gambled in elementary school, and then gambled in kindergarten."

(At the request of the interviewee, Wang Li, Li Xiaofen, and Sun Yuehuan are pseudonyms in the article)

Photo source drama "Thirty Only"

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