When many look at the housing crisis, writes Robert Frank, they "see undisciplined families overcome by their lust for cathedral ceilings and granite countertops, families that need to be taught a lesson." They see, in other words, a crisis of materialism, a search for ever better and more impressive homes. The truth, he argues, is more complicated. "Millions of families got into financial trouble simply because they understood that life is graded on the curve. The best jobs go to graduates from the best colleges, and because only the best-prepared students are accepted to those colleges, it is quixotic to expect parents to bypass an opportunity to send their children to the best elementary and secondary schools they can. The financial deregulation that enabled them to bid ever larger amounts for houses in the best school districts essentially guaranteed a housing bubble that would leave millions of families dangerously overextended." It's hard to find -- and assess -- data on motivations, so how much of the bubble is due to the fight for school districts is hard to say. But it's surely part of it. School quality is a varied thing, but no small part has to do with a) property taxes and b) educational readiness of children. Both of those are pretty directly correlated to the income of parents, which means if you want to help your kid punch above weight, one way to do so is to move into a district where everyone's a bit richer than you are. That might strain your finances, but it gives your kid a leg up.
