Free College in Kalamazoo
Do you know what this picture is about?
If NOT then read the story that Detroit News printed this morning:
KALAMAZOO -- The yard signs are all over town this summer, planted in front of homes and on vacant lots up for sale.At the top of each sign is the distinctive red, white and blue Kalamazoo Public Schools logo. Down below are three words of great importance to many prospective buyers:
"COLLEGE TUITION QUALIFIED."
The signs indicate that the properties lie within the Kalamazoo school district, where all high school graduates meeting certain residency and enrollment requirements are eligible to receive free tuition to any public university or community college in Michigan.
The Kalamazoo Promise, as the privately and anonymously funded tuition program is called, was announced in November. From Jan. 1 through July 31 of this year, the number of homes sold within the district jumped 6%, from 797 to 846, compared with the first seven months of 2005, according to the Greater Kalamazoo Association of Realtors.
The average residential selling price rose nearly 7%, from $114,812 to $122,612, and the number of homes for sale went up about14%, from 1,848 to 2,133.
"It's going to be a tremendous economic development tool and not just an educational opportunity, so it's going to take three, four, five years probably for it to really play itself out," said Matthew Maire, the association's executive vice president and chief executive officer.
Although the association doesn't keep such figures, it is believed that many single-family homes sold in the school district this year were bought by families whose children are new to Kalamazoo schools. When the school year begins Tuesday, the district expects about 450 more students than at the start of the last school year, when there were 10,223, Deputy Superintendent Gary Start said.
"The Promise has made a gigantic difference for us," he said.
Dave McKee put his three-bedroom Kalamazoo Township house on the market about two months ago. He's asking $144,900 for the home, which is in the Kalamazoo school district.
McKee said he thinks highly enough of its potential marketing power that the words "Kalamazoo Promise" lead off the classified advertisements that he runs.
He reports "a good deal of interest" in his home, which he's selling because he just got married.
It's too soon to tell what kind of a long-term effect the Promise will have on the housing market within the district.
In units sold, residential sales fell 1.6% from July 2002 to July 2003, rose 6.1% a year later, then fell 10.8% in July 2005 before rebounding this year.
"People may choose to move their children ... to Kalamazoo Public Schools to qualify for the Promise, but if their homes in Portage schools aren't selling, then they aren't going to be able to make the move," real estate agent Vicki Peck said.
The impact of the Promise would be greater if the local economic climate were better, Peck said, but the scholarship program is expected to trigger development.
"On the one hand, we think that the Promise is really going to help economic development," Start said. "But in order to have more students, we need more jobs."
Note to Inner Circle member Chris Kelheun and Dwayne Mann who are both from Kalamazoo and Portage area - opportunties like these dont come along every day. Use this positive press to your advantage - with private investors, with selling houses, with wholesaling houses - whatever you are doing in Michigan real estate.