Zillow is launching “search by school,” a new feature on the Zillow app that allows home shoppers to discover homes within specific school attendance zones or school districts by using the search bar.
“Nearly one-third of home shoppers have children younger than 18, making ‘search by school’ an important feature on the Zillow app,” Nicholas Stevens, vice president of product at Zillow, said in a release. “We understand the perfect home often extends beyond the property itself, and this feature makes it easy for shoppers to explore homes for sale or for rent in their desired school districts.”
The search by school feature is accessed through the Zillow search bar and offers auto-complete suggestions for relevant schools and school districts based on the user’s search history. Searching by school is currently available on Zillow’s iOS mobile app and will launch on Android platforms by the end of the year. It is slated to be available in web browsers sometime next year.
Additionally, Zillow is introducing the ability for home shoppers to receive instant or daily alerts about new for-sale homes within their preferred school attendance zone or school district.
Once a school or school district is selected, the app will automatically display the attendance zone boundaries on the map. Users will then see which homes are available within that attendance zone. Searches for open enrollment or charter or private schools without assigned boundaries will display homes within a 5-mile radius surrounding the school.
The importance of school district selection was particularly evident among buyers in their 30s, with 75 percent of them emphasizing its significance. In addition, 67 percent of buyers in their 40s and 61 percent of first-time buyers considered it a highly important factor in their home search, according to Zillow.
Zillow statistics from 2021 revealed that 68 percent of buyers with kids younger than 18 emphasized the importance of school districts, compared with 20 percent of buyers without children. Year-over-year, the percentage of buyers who considered school districts highly important remained steady at 43 percent from 2018 to 2021. However, in 2023, there was a notable increase to 52 percent of buyers, indicating a growing preference among homebuyers for locating homes within specific school districts.