They slow down too. When a market cools, it cools broadly, and top-school-district homes just tend to soften a little less and recover a little sooner. The reason is durable demand. Buyers with school-age children weight district quality heavily, sometimes above almost everything else, and that steady pull keeps well-rated districts desirable through a downturn. Even buyers without kids benefit indirectly, because that same desirability supports resale value when they eventually sell to someone who does care about the schools. What you shouldn't expect is a split market where school-district homes keep appreciating while everything around them falls. In a slowdown these homes generally soften along with the rest, just less, and they typically come back a bit sooner because the underlying demand never really goes away. So treat a strong school district as a resilience factor rather than a shield. If you're buying partly for the schools, you're also buying a resale advantage that holds up through cycles, which is a genuinely good reason to pay a bit more for the right district. Just underwrite the purchase on its own merits, at a payment that works for you, rather than assuming the district alone will protect you from a broad market move.