06

Most of yesterday's most active threads might cause feelings of déjà vu. The first of those was titled, "$300k house near swim and tennis clubs, sports facilities, and great schools and jobs anywhere in the US" and posted in the "Real Estate" forum. I recently discussed a very similar thread in which the poster had a somewhat higher budget of $500,000. The original poster of this thread is recently divorced and must downsize. The poster has a child who is about to enter high school and who is a gifted athlete. The poster says where they live now is too expensive and she would like recommendations for a place where a house can be purchased for $300,000 and has good schools, available sports activities, and good jobs. The responses in many cases remind me of the expression, "good, fast, cheap, pick two" meaning that you can't get all three of those things. In this case, those responding suggest the list is more like, "affordable, quality schools, good jobs, pick two" because as the availability of good jobs and good schools goes up, so does the price of housing. Even so, many responders have suggestions. However, most of the suggestions actually come from the original poster herself who has independently identified potentially suitable cities and asks for opinions about the high schools. Other posters caution about high property taxes in some areas that have otherwise affordable housing. The original poster also seems to prioritize the weather, ruling out several places because they are too cold and also worrying about the bugs and humidity in southern states. Suggestions from other posters as well as from the original poster herself are for locations all over the place with little coherence. One repeated suggestion that also came up in the earlier thread was to look for college towns based on the assumption that the professors would demand good schools.