Anonymous wrote:Probably not as cheap as you’re looking for, but I’ve always felt the Philadelphia suburbs offer good value for the quality of public schools.
Property taxes can be quite high in these places (that's how they pay for the excellent schools) but if you are used to NYC housing costs it might not feel that bad. My PA family complain all the time that it's not worth it to live in the burbs with really great schools because taxes are so high, but they also think buying a home for less than like 600k is insane whereas if you live in NYC that's likely going to sound like a huge bargain. So it's all relative.
One thing I like about Philly suburbs is that you can live on one of the close in, Main Line suburbs and be able to live a relatively walkable lifestyle (walk to train and take that into Philly, get by with just one car for family, most of these suburbs have little downtowns reasonably walkable from most houses, good density) while also getting good schools and affordability (again, relative to NYC, not relative to like Columbus, Ohio).
We have been looking at that area recently. We currently live in DC and are frustrated with the rat race culture here and getting frustrated by the mix of ever increasing housing costs while public schools are mediocre to bad, and seem to be getting worse. But we don't want to give up walkability and an urban lifestyle. It's hare to find that balance.