Nationwide, homes in top-rated school districts usually come at a steep premium. In Philadelphia, it’s 93.5 percent. But in Little Rock, Arkansas, homes near top-rated schools are actually cheaper.
Buying into a highly rated school zone costs the average American homebuyer 35 percent more than the typical home nationwide, according to new Redfin data released just in time for back-to-school season.
The premium swings wildly from a 5 percent discount in one metro to a 94 percent surcharge in another, depending on how scarce those schools are and where they happen to sit.
The typical U.S. home in a zone with a GreatSchools rating of 8 or higher sells for $580,000, Redfin found, versus $430,000 for the typical home overall.
To afford that premium home in a highly rated school zone, a household needs to earn $159,157 a year. That’s about $41,000 more than what’s required for the typical U.S. home, and roughly $71,000 above the median American income of $87,599.
The analysis covers home sales between January and June 2026 across 81 U.S. metros, matched to the public high school boundaries those homes sit inside.
The scale of that gap may worry real estate agents working with move-up buyers who list school quality as a top priority.
Just 13 percent of listings in highly rated school zones nationwide are affordable to a median-income household, Redfin found, compared to 27.6 percent of listings overall.
Yingqi Xu | Credit: LinkedIn
A median earner buying into a top-rated school zone would need to spend 54.5 percent of their income on housing versus 40.4 percent for a typical purchase.
“Access to a highly rated school zone can come with a steep price tag, but house hunters who consider school ratings in their search may find smaller price differences in metro areas where highly rated schools are more common,” said Yingqi Xu, a senior economist at Redfin.
Where the premium nearly disappears
The premium isn’t uniform, though.
Redfin’s ranking found the gap comes down largely to scarcity. Metros where highly rated schools are common tend to have smaller premiums, because those zones sweep in a lot of ordinary, affordable neighborhoods along with the pricier ones.
Little Rock, Arkansas, is the only metro in the analysis where a highly rated school zone actually costs less than the metro’s typical home — $237,450 versus $250,000, a 5 percent discount.
Redfin’s Xu attributed the mismatch to lower-rated schools sitting in some of the priciest neighborhoods locally.
In Little Rock’s Joe T. Robinson zone, the median home costs about $506,500 but carries a GreatSchools rating of just 4. The Benton zone, rated a 9, has a median price of $225,000.
Anaheim, California, posted the second-smallest premium at just 6 percent, driven by an unusual supply dynamic. Seventy percent of Anaheim’s school zones are rated 8 or higher, the largest share of any metro Redfin measured.
Greenville, South Carolina, and Chicago followed with 7.8 percent and 8 percent premiums each, respectively. In both cities, roughly 40 to 46 percent of zones clear the highly rated bar, compared with 30 percent nationally.
When good schools are hard to find
Flip to the other end of the list, and the pattern reverses.
Philadelphia posted the largest premium in the country. A home in a highly rated school zone there runs $600,000, nearly double the metro’s typical home price of $310,000.
Fort Worth, Texas, came in second at an 81.7 percent premium, followed by Akron, Ohio (78 percent), Detroit (77.2 percent) and Jacksonville, Florida (68 percent).
What links those five is scarcity. Just 8.1 percent of Fort Worth’s school zones are highly rated — the smallest share Redfin measured — and Jacksonville sits at 15.2 percent, both well under the 30 percent national average.
Every metro in the top-five premium list has a below-average share of top-rated school zones.
Redfin’s analysis notes that Philadelphia’s premium isn’t purely a school story. Many of the region’s highly rated zones sit in wealthy Main Line suburbs like Radnor that also offer larger, historic housing stock and easier access to town centers.
By the numbers
The numbers below break down the data on top-rated school districts and housing prices, according to Redfin:
- The school-zone premium is steep. Buyers need 54.5 percent of median income to afford a home in a highly rated school zone, versus 40.4 percent for a typical U.S. home.
- Mid-income households can afford just 1 in 8 listings in highly rated school zones. Nationwide, only 13 percent of listings in top-rated school zones are affordable to a household earning the median income compared with 27.6 percent of listings overall. A home is considered “affordable” if it requires no more than 30 percent of income for housing.
- The typical U.S. home in a highly rated school zone costs $580,000, which is 35 percent more than the $430,000 median for a home in any school zone.
- Little Rock, Arkansas, is the outlier. The typical home in a highly rated school zone there costs $237,450, roughly 5 percent less than the $250,000 median for a home overall. It’s the only metro in Redfin’s analysis where highly rated school zones cost less.
