- Blue Springs, Missouri's median home value is $143,000 making it the most affordable place to live with the best schools.
- Of the data pool, San Francisco metro Novato came in at the bottom with median home value of $612,000.
- Chicagoland's best ZIP code is 60301, or Oak Park, where the median home value is $172,000 and area schools rank 91.3.
There are approximately 5,567 grade school students in the 64014 ZIP code of Blue Springs, Missouri, and 92 percent of them will graduate high school, according to HomeUnion, which says the school system sits in the No. 1 ZIP code to live in for great schools with affordable living.
The real estate investment management firm looked at data from 31 major metro areas and then broke down each metro into respective ZIP codes, tracing the school zones and filtering it all based on median home value.
“We looked at every ZIP code in 34 major markets in the study,” said Steve Hovland, director of research at HomeUnion. “ZIP codes where the average school ranking was less than 80 percent were immediately disqualified. Beyond that research, we looked within the ZIP code to verify that the area had schools offering K-12 education and all of the schools within the ZIP code were above average or high performing. If the average for a ZIP code was elevated by a few great schools but contained some poor performing schools, we excluded those ZIP codes.”
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The list ranks just the 31 major markets examined and picks out the lowest median home value with a Maponics ranking in the 80th percentile and above.
HomeUnion graphic
“The quality of public schools is one of the most important factors to consider when buying a home, especially for families,” HomeUnion CEO Don Ganguly said. “In many cases, home buyers are willing to pay more to be located in a neighborhood with highly ranked schools, even if it means downsizing into a smaller home.”
Notable markets
Chicago’s best metro area ZIP code is 60301, Oak Park. The median home value is $172,000 and the area schools rank 91.3.
In Katy, Texas, residents of the 77450 ZIP code live comfortably with a medium home value of $202,000. The area schools earned a score of 89.3 on Maponics.
The Miami metro that earned a 29th place ranking was 33158, or Pinecrest, Florida, which has a $570,000 median home value.
Novato, California, a town situated near San Francisco, ranked last out of the 31 markets. With a median home value of $612,000, the 94947 ZIP code is priciest of them all.
Oakland’s 94551 ZIP code sat only a few places higher than Novato, with a median value of $525,000.
