New Jersey has places with good schools that have real houses in nice neighborhoods for less than $500,000. Look at places in Northern/Central NJ like Bridgewater, Hopewell, Clinton, Hillsborough and surrounding communities. The taxes will be higher, so you need to factor that in too.

Excluding magnets present in all metropolitan areas (and that top the US news high school rankings. I’m excluding these because there’s the element of chance of your kid being smart enough to get in), your best bet is a public school in a wealthy suburb. In Montgomery county, MD for example, the North Star would be Walt Whitman high school and its school boundary zones. You can’t go wrong with that area. The same idea applies to suburbs around LA, SF, New York, and Boston.

This will be hard to find, because higher cost areas tend to have better schools (urban areas excepted) and vice versa. Your best bet will be the suburbs of wealthy metropolitan areas. No surprise, D.C. is one such area. Rural and smaller urban areas tend to have less money to spend on schools.

Kansas City, MO.

Omaha, NE

try zip code 22032

Anonymous wrote:Philadelphia or Pittsburg suburbs. You will be able to find a unicorn property in a good school district around 500k.

No, get out of there now.

Philadelphia or Pittsburg suburbs. You will be able to find a unicorn property in a good school district around 500k.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The top rated school would be Thomas Jefferson if you look at reviews, it's competitive to get there from what I understand. You need to live in VA suburbs to be eligible in the first place. There are multiple good school districts all over DC metro in VA and MD, depends what state you prefer.

In VA it would be Langley or Mclean HS zones. Don't know about MD much.

I’m trying to leave the DMV area

Smart to get out. Go north(NJ,NY, MA)-better schools and funding. This area is horrible for education.

. But those house prices are lower due to very high property taxes to fund the schools. So you have to take taxes into account.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The top rated school would be Thomas Jefferson if you look at reviews, it's competitive to get there from what I understand. You need to live in VA suburbs to be eligible in the first place. There are multiple good school districts all over DC metro in VA and MD, depends what state you prefer.

In VA it would be Langley or Mclean HS zones. Don't know about MD much.

I’m trying to leave the DMV area

Do a Redfin search for 8/10 schools (excl unrated) and houses max 500k. Looks like Pasadena, Md, Lancaster, pa, parts of upstate ny would work. Didn’t look much further out.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The top rated school would be Thomas Jefferson if you look at reviews, it's competitive to get there from what I understand. You need to live in VA suburbs to be eligible in the first place. There are multiple good school districts all over DC metro in VA and MD, depends what state you prefer.

In VA it would be Langley or Mclean HS zones. Don't know about MD much.

I’m trying to leave the DMV area

Smart to get out. Go north(NJ,NY, MA)-better schools and funding. This area is horrible for education.

I think that areas Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Columbus have some decent public schools.

Bloomfield hills MI

Anonymous wrote:The top rated school would be Thomas Jefferson if you look at reviews, it's competitive to get there from what I understand. You need to live in VA suburbs to be eligible in the first place. There are multiple good school districts all over DC metro in VA and MD, depends what state you prefer.

In VA it would be Langley or Mclean HS zones. Don't know about MD much.

I’m trying to leave the DMV area

The top rated school would be Thomas Jefferson if you look at reviews, it's competitive to get there from what I understand. You need to live in VA suburbs to be eligible in the first place. There are multiple good school districts all over DC metro in VA and MD, depends what state you prefer.

In VA it would be Langley or Mclean HS zones. Don't know about MD much.

I need to move out of the DMV and want good public schools. I work remote and have location flexibility. What are some good locations to consider? ne d a house for under $500k