The top 15: No. 1: Dover-Sherborn; No. 2, Concord-Carlisle; No. 3, Weston; No. 4, Lincoln-Sudbury; No. 5, Lexington; No. 6, Manchester-Essex; No. 7, Wayland; No. 8 Northborough-Southborough; No. 9, Hamilton-Wenham; No. 10, Sharon; No. 11, Wellesley; No. 12, Newton; No. 13, Cohasset; No. 14, Westwood; No. 15, Acton-Boxborough.
While overall sales are down markedly, price per square foot for homes in Dover is now nearing $300, up 2.8 percent over last summer,Trulia reports. The median sale price is $1,040,000.
The median sale price in Sharon, ranked No. 10 on the Boston magazine list, is just under $400,000, after a modest, 1.7 percent decline over the past year. Not exactly a huge drop, despite the double dip in home prices we are seeing generally across the state and country.
The median price in Lexington, No. 5 on the list, is down half a percent from last year, to $699,000, though price per square foot is off 8.8 percent, according to Trulia.
I just picked those three towns at random off the list. It is clearly going to cost you if you want to buy a home in one of these top school districts.
That said, I happen to think school chasing is foolish - what happens, or doesn't, at home is likely to make a much bigger difference.
And that boils down to encouraging a love of reading, which will unlock a myriad of doors. I'll take a bookworm in a middling school system any day over some video-game addicted brat in a supposedly top school district.
