September signals the beginning of the school year in most areas across the country, as well as the end of the peak multifamily leasing season as families aim to settle into their homes before classes start. This highlights the importance of local schools when renters are making decisions about where they want to live.
While the quality of local schools is paramount, other factors are also top of mind, including the commute between home and school. The amount of time spent traveling to and from school can have a significant impact on a student’s educational experience, with shorter commutes correlating with less stress, according to a recent Soliant school commute report.
Soliant’s analysis is based on a variety of factors, including school transportation funding and quality, commute time, walkability, bikeability and daily school attendance rates. The report ranks the communities with the best and worst school commutes, data that could be valuable to both renters and property managers and owners.
New York, San Francisco and Philadelphia were the best cities for commuting to school in the nation, while Lakeland, Florida, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and Charleston, South Carolina have the least favorable commutes for parents and students, according to the report. The top three cities all benefitted from the proximity of homes to schools, but also had longer commute times for those who couldn’t walk or bike to school.
New York ranked atop the list because it has the highest percentage of children between the ages of 5 and 17 who live within half a mile of a public school at 99.7%. Walkability and bikeability are high in the city, although it is less favorable for commuting via car or public transportation, which averages 30.7 minutes. In addition, there is sufficient school transportation funding that ensures students have a variety of safe and effective ways to travel between home and school.
San Francisco followed New York with the second-highest percentage of students living near public schools, but similar to the Big Apple, the city posted long average commute times of nearly 29 minutes. It is the most walkable city analyzed in the report.
Philadelphia had the third-highest percentage of students living near public schools at 91%. The city ranked 81st for time spent commuting at an average of 28 minutes.
At the bottom of the list, Lakeland struggles significantly with long commute times at an average of 30.5 minutes. The market with the longest commute time for students using cars or public transportation to travel to and from school is Riverside, California, where they spend an average of 32.6 minutes on the road. Stockton, California, was second at a 32.5 minute average commute and Washington, D.C., was third with an average commute of 31.7 minutes. Other markets with long commutes for students include Atlanta, Poughkeepsie, New York, Houston, Chicago and Boston.
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