A Handsome Return

On Our Education Investment

To the Editor:

As the president of a relocation management firm, I can say unequivocally that quality schools equal higher property values. One of my firm’s main functions is to advise relocating employees on communities which best meet their needs and whether those communities hold their values in a tenuous real estate market.

The correlation between children’s school test scores and property values in undeniable. A recent study by Trinity College as reported in The New York Times, June 17, 2007, demonstrated that as children’s test scores climbed, so did home prices, in specific and predictable ways.

Locally, for example, the relationship of children’s eighth grade math, reading, and writing state test scores demonstrate the impact that quality schools have on property values. Danbury’s combined score for the percentage of children exceeding the state goal was 164 with a median home value sold in 2007 of $350,000, according to The Warren Group. New Milford’s score was 213 with a median home value of $355,000. Newtown’s higher score of 252 produced a much higher median home value of $474,000. That’s a pretty nice return of over $75,000 in our median home value just for supporting quality education in Newtown.

My wife and I have lived in Newtown for 17 years, and we have always supported our schools and the town budgets. We know it’s the right thing to do for the children and their success. It’s also a smart thing to do to keep our property values high and ensure that Newtown continues to be a desirable community. Although I have not had children in the Newtown school system for 40 years, we have been proud of Newtown and certainly pleased with the return on our property tax investments.

Please support the high school expansion and the budgets on April 22. You will get paid back handsomely.

Bruce and Holly Walczak

12 Glover Avenue, Newtown                                             April 7, 2008