The price of a home is often just one factor of many that goes into the decision of where to purchase. An affordable home, regardless of how close to your dream home it is, becomes much less desirable if it's in a neighborhood that doesn’t provide you with any of the features or amenities on your list. For many families out there, the top feature that goes beyond just the home itself is a good public school system.
Being in an area with a strong school system is so important for many homebuyers, that they are willing to pay a little bit more or sacrifice in other areas, such as size, to buy a home in a school system they like. But, in a classic case of finding a way to have your cake and eat it too, HomeUnion, a real estate management firm, analyzed median home prices in 31 major metro areas and schools ranked in the 80th percentile or higher by the National Center for Education Statistics to identify the most affordable zip code in each area where the local schools met the criteria, Business Inside reports.
Blue Springs, Mo., a submarket of Kansas City took the top spot with a median home price of $143,000 while still having schools ranking in the 80th percentile. Noblesville, Ind., just outside of Indianapolis, came in second with a median home price of $157,000. Southwest St. Louis, Sellersville, Penn., and Oak Park Ill. round out the top five.
For the complete list of 31 cities, follow the link below.
