China's primary schooling enrollment policies reflect that of my own hometown...

Link: http://www.cnbc.com/2016/03/13/chinas-property-market-overheats-in-tier-1-cities-stagnates-in-lower-tiers.html

CNBC reports that China has changed their primary school enrollment policies to be solely determined on a pupil's home address. Prior to 2014, a prospective student would test into primary school and be placed in one of many options in a city like Beijing. This is no longer the case. Many Chinese families are relocating their homes in order to guarantee that their children are secured a desk in the finest schools in their area. For many Chinese people, this doesn't come at a cheap price. The wealthier Chinese families have been known to spend big when it comes to education, but many people such as Peter Zeng are spending as much as 600,000 USD in order to buy properties in well known school districts so that their children can enroll in prominent schools.

I can see many similarities between this situation in Beijing and my own community as well as surrounding ones. In suburban Chicago, a good school district is very important to many families. Families that choose to settle in the suburbs of any city often seek a good school district, but in my own town, 55th street serves as the dividing line for high schools. Homes on the south side of the street are often priced $100,000's less than like homes on the north side of the street because the high school on the north side is more amicable. Since I was born, my town has transformed from a sleepy commuter suburb to a swanky and affluent village boasting one of the highest teardown rates in the country - developers have built homes so large that the town floods after every rainstorm because many people lack yards behind their 6,000 sqft, homes. It appears that a well awarded school district can mean a lot in the US, and it is particularly relevant in China too. 

On a further note, due to the rocketing prices in some school districts, many Chinese people are using apartments as investment opportunities and they rely on appreciation of their property almost too greatly. Many Chinese people are investing in apartments, borrowing against them, then "flipping" them in the short run. With property rates going up 3x in 5 years, little money required in downpayment, and interest rates at 4.9% apr, Chinese people state "it's almost like free money."