It is hard to pick a daycare or preschool, and it may not become easier to pick a high school or college. Schools are important factors for buying a house. A lot of parents even consider the school district is the most important determining factor in house hunting if their kids will attend public school. The other factors affecting the house buying decision include: price, location, neighborhood, and amenities.
Although the public school offers more social diversity than a private school, the quality of the public school is often related to the wealth of the neighborhood. The attendees to the school are still being preselected by their parents' occupations and incomes. Some charter schools are available but the admission is restricted. Charter schools allow individual school to run independently of the traditional public schools and they are allowed to tailor their programs for meeting community needs. In Massachusetts, there are 62 charter schools.
Given the education factor in mind, parents in a metro or suburban area may have difficulty to buy a place. Despite of housing market slowdown and the relatively low interest rate, it is still fairly expensive to buy an ideal house in a desirable location. With the limited budget, one can either buy a rundown house in a good school district or he can buy a decent house which is located far away from work. A lazy dream of mine that buying a house and then stationing there for next twenty years, becomes unreal. It is too pricy to do the combined house/school hunting. We will need to pay off the daycare tuition first and save more equity before we can move to a decent house with a yard in a nice suburban neighbor. We may move a couple of times but it will be moving up.
Best places to live in (top 100 in the US)
In Massachusetts (from Money magazine)
No 5 Milton
No 16 Acton
No19 Hopkinton
No 31 Southborough
No 37 Easton
No 58 Shrewsbury
Best US high schools (US news and world report)
Boston globe MACS grade 10 ranking
10th grade top-ranked districts
