No two buyers have the same needs.  One might be all about the views the house has.  Others will gladly sacrifice the house in lieu of access to schools.  One of the most common search criteria in a home search is schools.  Similar to views, schools aren’t set in stone; boundaries can change, once respected schools can dip (or vice versa) or even be shut down.

Yesterday was a big day for Portland schools.  Portland Public Schools released their 2009 Report on Schools, the Oregonian reported on it, and Marysville Elementary School caught fire.   Ask 10 people their opinion of “what is the best school” and you’ll get 10 different answers.  As the Oregonian story reports, the metrics have changed so some schools have moved from one ranking category to another.  We have one client that uses www.greatschools.net as their measure of areas schools.