Category: Student Posts

Results and Reflection:

The home buying simulation exposed me to the world of home ownership and mortgages. I realized that finding a home involves considering other factors besides how many bedrooms the home contains and what the home looks like on the outside. I was able to experience how it feels to look for a home with having to consider the quality of life and education that I would like to give “my children.”  In addition, I was able to compare the cost of homes in areas around Hartford. In the process, I discovered which areas had a higher cost of living, as well as, whether or not the housing was well maintained. More importantly, I was exposed to the correlation between the neighborhood one lives in and the school districts that their children attend. For example, had my family chosen to live in a $264,000 home in Glastonbury, CT, my two children would attend a school district that has three magnet schools (one for each grade range), has 2011 CMT testing scores in which 90% of students were at/above the goals, and has a strategy to include parents, community, and staff in the education of the children. Whereas, if my family had chosen to live in a $129,000 home in New Britain, CT, then my two children would be able to attend school in a school district that has one elementary magnet school, has 2012 CMT scores that rank them at 7th among other districts with 20-30% at/above the goals, and has a summer program based on literacy. Overall, I learned that higher priced suburban homes are correlated with school districts that are more improved and have more options for schooling. I believe this is related to the neighborhood the housing is available in, as well as, the income of the residents, and how suburbs with higher priced living are often able to afford higher priced educations for the children.

In order to make the housing simulation capable on the web, one might consider creating a form on a webpage. This form could then be filled in with appropriate information depending on the student’s scenario. The student can use a calculator on the computer to make necessary calculations or use the calculators that are provided online. Making the links available on a single webpage (instead of in a separate Word document) would also be an option.

 

Please click here to view my completed housing simulation.

This home buying simulation I felt has given me the opportunity to research possible residential venues all throughout Connecticut suburbs solely based on a specific given criteria. I was assigned the Family Profile #3 which consisted of two children (grades 3 & 6) currently enrolled in Hartford Public schools. Financially this profile contained an annual gross income of $30,000, $5,000 in savings (for a down payment), a car, and monthly debt payments of $100 for my car. With all this given information I was able to use an internet mortgage affordability calculator to estimate the purchase price of an affordable house given my specific statue of limitations. The results presented were essentially a bracket of the minimum and maximum values in:

House price:                                             $87,007.43 – $114,844.30

Loan amount:                                          $82,007.43 – $109,844.30

Monthly mortgage payment:               $368.25 – $493.23

Taxes/homeowner insurance:            $331.25 – $331.75

Total monthly payment:                        $760.00 – $825.00

*This information was obtained on http://cgi.money.cnn.com/tools/houseafford/houseafford.html

After completing this I was provided with maximum and minimum prices I would be able to afford given my circumstances. Then I started searching the suburban towns in Connecticut to see what was available. It was researching that I came across some interesting realizations. I found it interesting that when I plugged in my minimum and maximum into some search engines not a single result appeared that matched my information instead the cheapest venue would pop up and they would start at about 250,000. For example when I plugged in my info searching in the town of Darien the cheapest house was 449,000. I was fortunate to have found adequate housing in Bristol, Danbury, Tolland, Cheshire, Killingworth, New Milford, Newtown, Southbury, and Southington. All the other suburbs were too expensive and did not my financial demands. Another facet of this simulation that I found interesting was that some places being sought out for rental required that you call to inquire a rental price.

**Homes for purchase information was gained from: http://www.househunt.com/community-living/types.php?st=CT&type=SU

***Homes for rental information was gained from: http://www.prudentialct.com/rentals-apartment-houses.asp

The Final step of this simulation was trying to find out the quality of education in some of the towns where housing was available and affordable. I referred to http://www.frontdoor.com to find figures and facts pertaining to educational achievement in Bristol, Killingworth, Southbury, and Tolland. Then I compared them to those of Hartford. All of these suburban towns had higher percentage of obtaining an Associates degree, a Bachelors degree, and Masters degree then Hartford. Also Hartford has a high percentage of less then ninth grade education attainment compared to these cities and that national average. This data shows that Hartford has a lower quality of educational achievement however I feel this is also a direct result of property values and how much money is truly invested in education and in  obtaining adequate resources for success.

For this Home buying simulation, I was put in the shoes of this woman:

As a mother of two children, still living with my parents in Hartford, my husband and I decided to move on.  We heard from some family friends that our lives would improve if we moved to the suburbs—especially our children’s lives and their schooling.  Our annual income combined equals 42,000 dollars, and we have 5,000 dollars in savings that we can use for a down payment.  We also have a monthly debt payment of 200 dollars for our car.  I heard about a “home affordability calculator” online and started from there.  After putting in my information, it told me I should look for a house between 149,362 dollars and 182,766 dollars.  This information steered me away from renting, because I realized I could start an investment by buying a house, instead of giving my money away to a landlord.  I looked at homes.com and found many different houses I could afford, in many different suburbs of Hartford.  After jotting down a few of the homes that stood out to me, I decided to look further into what these homes would offer.  One of my biggest concerns in moving is my children’s education—they need to attend a school that I can trust will push them to their fullest potential.   I looked up different school districts online: Manchester, New Britain, East Hartford, and Wethersfield.  I looked at parent reviews, and greatschools.org ratings, and after choosing Wethersfield, I spoke to a student from the district who also had high reviews of the public school district.  After this research, although it was a more expensive, yet less accommodating house than the others, I decided on 403 Nott Street, due to its location in Wethersfield.

This simulation exposed me to the reality that cheaper housing is typically easier to find in the suburbs of Hartford (and I’m guessing, probably other suburbs as well) with schools that have worse reviews, something that since I’ve never thought about since I’ve never looked for a house and I have no children.

For this Home buying simulation, I was put in the shoes of this woman:

As a mother of two children, still living with my parents in Hartford, my husband and I decided to move on.  We heard from some family friends that our lives would improve if we moved to the suburbs—especially our children’s lives and their schooling.  Our annual income combined equals 42,000 dollars, and we have 5,000 dollars in savings that we can use for a down payment.  We also have a monthly debt payment of 200 dollars for our car.  I heard about a “home affordability calculator” online and started from there.  After putting in my information, it told me I should look for a house between 149,362 dollars and 182,766 dollars.  This information steered me away from renting, because I realized I could start an investment by buying a house, instead of giving my money away to a landlord.  I looked at homes.com and found many different houses I could afford, in many different suburbs of Hartford.  After jotting down a few of the homes that stood out to me, I decided to look further into what these homes would offer.  One of my biggest concerns in moving is my children’s education—they need to attend a school that I can trust will push them to their fullest potential.   I looked up different school districts online: Manchester, New Britain, East Hartford, and Wethersfield.  I looked at parent reviews, and greatschools.org ratings, and after choosing Wethersfield, I spoke to a student from the district who also had high reviews of the public school district.  After this research, although it was a more expensive, yet less accommodating house than the others, I decided on 403 Nott Street, due to its location in Wethersfield.

This simulation exposed me to the reality that cheaper housing is typically easier to find in the suburbs of Hartford (and I’m guessing, probably other suburbs as well) with schools that have worse reviews, something that since I’ve never thought about since I’ve never looked for a house and I have no children.

For my web simulation, my annual gross income was $24,000 with no savings for a down payment. Fortunately, I had no debt; however, this does not widen my choices in any sense, especially looking for a place to live with two apartments in the suburban area of the Hartford County. When I did the mortgage affordability calculator to estimate the purchase of a home I could afford, I calculated that the maximum house price I could afford was $72,827. Being from Connecticut and living in a suburban town of Hartford County, I knew this was impossible to find, so I automatically went to looking at apartments in suburban districts. I can only afford a monthly rent of about $666. Automatically I went to look at the town I grew up in, Farmington, and found that anything with two bedrooms was going to be easily over $800. Even a studio apartment was $875. I also looked at Avon, and Simsbury and found similar things; everything was going to be too expensive. Although I am searching for the best education in these suburban towns, I will unfortunately not be able to afford were mainly New Britain and Bristol. When I looked at the CMT scores of the towns I could afford, I was also surprised by my findings; Bristol for third grade was 83.1% proficient in math, 65% in reading, and 78% in writing. In sixth grade the proficient was even more promising; 86.6% in math, 82.1% in reading, 83.8% in writing. I actually anticipated lower results so finding this out was happy for me to see that my children would receive better education than they would have in Hartford. Unfortunately, in New Britain, the proficiencies were much lower; in the third grade, 48.6% were proficient in math, 43.1% in reading, and 52.8% in writing. For the sixth grade, the results were similar, 44.6% in math, 45.3% in reading, and 43.7% in writing. Luckily though, there were a few choices of places in Bristol with two bedrooms that met my budget. I was very frustrated at first because I could not find much in towns with a great education in the Hartford County, but it shows how difficult it is for those who want a better education for their children to move out of a place such as Hartford. This really opened my eyes to the reality of how much apartments cost, even ones that are a studio. I could not even afford to live in a studio apartment in a town such as Simsbury so I could have a better education.

 

My data was from: http://www.courant.com/news/education/hc-database-2012-capt-cmt-test-scores-20120719,0,855259.htmlstory?appSession=994214309191532