How much it costs for a home in top-rated school districts

With the new school year fast approaching, parents are busy getting ready—including choosing the best academic environment for their children’s success. 

And that often involves moving to a new area for its top-notch quality schools—a choice that can come with an eye-watering price tag.  

A new report from Realtor.com® focusing on the intersection of schools and housing sheds light on current demand trends and where competition might heat up as parents search for the best opportunities for their children while having to contend with their financial limitations.

To identify the most popular school districts in each metro, economists used views per property on Realtor.com from out-of-district home shoppers from May to July 2025.

To focus specifically on school-driven homebuying activity, Realtor.com experts limited the online traffic analysis to listings with at least one assigned school rated 8 or above based on scores from GreatSchools.com.

Texas metro tops the list of priciest school districts

Realtor.com economist Jiyai Xu says the quality of schools in a community often plays an outsized role in buyers’ relocation decisions, with 27 of the 50 most popular districts among property shoppers earning an average school rating of 8 or higher. 

“However, living in these high-performing districts comes at a price,” warns Xu. 

From May to July, the average median list price in the sought-after areas climbed to $1.21 million—135% higher than the price in their surrounding metros. 

For comparison, popular school districts with average ratings below 8 had a median list price of roughly $640,000, representing a premium of just 29% relative to their surrounding metro areas. 

Across the top 50 U.S. metros, Carroll Independent School District in the Dallas suburb of Southlake, TX, stands out for having the nation’s highest premium of 391%, or a staggering $1.7 million. 

In other words, the typical home in the top-notch district with the average school rating of 9 cost $2.16 million, while the median list price outside the district was just $439,967. 

The Dallas-Ft. Worth–area district comprises 11 schools, seven of which are rated 9 and up, including the Robert H. Rockenbaugh Elementary School and Eubanks Intermediate School, both of which earned 10 out of 10 scores.

Dallas market sees a glut of inventory

A zoomed-out look at the current state of the Dallas metro’s housing market reveals that active listings in the area reached nearly 32,000 in July, the highest level in more than 10 years, Nick Gerli, founder and CEO of real estate data startup Reventure App, posted last week on X.  

Gerli described the Texas city’s housing supply as being “through the roof,” with the inventory of listings up 60% compared with average July levels dating to 2017.

Gerli said that is “the most selection the market has had since the tail end of the last downturn in 2011–12.”

In more good news for buyers, the median list price in Dallas last month was down 2.2% from a year ago, at $439,900, and dropped by 8.5% compared with 2022, according to the July Housing Market Trends report from Realtor.com.

Looking ahead, Gerli’s firm forecasts a 7.8% drop in Dallas-area home prices over the next 12 months.

The Reventure APP CEO wrote that the local market is “still pretty overvalued” by 22% and said he “wouldn’t be surprised if we see prices drop for a couple years before market bottoms out.”

California districts’ staggering price tags

The latest school report found that Laguna Beach Unified School District in the wealthy Orange County enclave of Laguna Beach, CA, best known for its breathtaking Pacific coastline views and a thriving art scene, commanded the second-highest premium for housing.

The district has 12 schools, a third of which are rated 8 or higher, including Laguna Beach High School, which boasts a score of 10. 

Buyers looking for a home in Laguna Beach should expect to shell out around $5 million, which is 322%, or $3.78 million, higher than the median list price in the surrounding Los Angeles metro. 

Laguna Beach Unified is not California’s only school district with an eye-popping price tag.

Some 450 miles to the north, a family looking to relocate to the Reed Union Elementary School District, located in the San Francisco Bay Area, to take advantage of its high-quality Bel Aire Elementary and Del Mar Middle schools, should set aside roughly $4 million.

For comparison, that is more than 304%, or $3 million, higher than what a household would have to pay for the typical home in the San Francisco metro outside the high-scoring school district with a near-perfect average rating of 9.

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“Reed is among the most desirable districts in my county and, yes, it is one of the reasons for the high prices in that community,” Alexander Nardony, founder of Alamera Real Estate, confirms to Realtor.com.

Midwest and Northeast schools come with a premium

The West and South are not the only regions where parents looking to relocate for their children’s education can expect jaw-dropping markups on homes.

In the generally high-priced Northeast, home shoppers looking to close on a house in the in-demand New Hope-Solebury School District outside Philadelphia had best be prepared to spend significantly more money than elsewhere in the metro area.

Within the desirable district boasting a middle school and a high school rated 8, the median asking price for a home is $1.24 million, up 224% from the median in the surrounding metro. 

That means that a buyer has to spend a hefty $863,000 more on the typical home within the school district. 

Turning to the relatively more affordable Midwestern housing market, Ladue School District, with an average rating of 8 out of 10, has earned the distinction of having the highest premium in the St. Louis metro.

The typical home in the district comes with an asking price of $968,247. That’s more than $668,000, or 222%, higher than the median list price in the surrounding metro, which is just $299,950—the fifth-lowest price among the 50 largest U.S. metros.

The district encompasses eight schools, of which half are rated 8 or higher, including the outstanding Ladue Watkins High School.