Exclusive | NYC-area luxury buyers shell out $2.6M and up, yet their kids public schools rank near the bottom nationally
A multimillion-dollar home may come with sweeping views and lavish amenities — but a top public school rating isn’t necessarily part of the package.The New York-Newark-Jersey City metro ranks ninth among the most expensive luxury housing markets tracked in Realtor.com’s September luxury housing report, with the priciest 10% of listings starting at $2.62 million.Yet public elementary schools assigned to those properties average 6.7 out of 10 on GreatSchools, placing the metro among the bottom 10 of the 43 markets studied.The findings suggest that buying at the top of a housing market doesn’t necessarily mean getting a public elementary school rated among its state’s best.GreatSchools ratings compare schools with others in the same state, rather than using a single nationwide academic benchmark.According to GreatSchools’ published methodology, ratings reflect state test results and academic progress relative to other schools in the same state.Realtor.com averaged the overall ratings of public elementary schools assigned to luxury listings in each metro.The New York result covers the broader metropolitan area, including communities in New Jersey.
It is not a rating of all New York City public schools.Realtor.com examined markets that averaged at least 500 million-dollar listings over the previous 12 months.Within each metro, it defined luxury homes as September listings priced at or above the local 90th percentile.Each property received the average GreatSchools rating of its assigned public elementary schools.
Those property-level scores were then averaged across the market, excluding homes without an assigned school rating.Naples-Marco Island, Florida, led with an average school rating of 9.3.Its luxury listings started at $3.69 million, making it the third-most-expensive market in the analysis.Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin, also in Florida, followed with a 9.1 average and a $2.87 million luxury threshold.Closer to New York, Bridgeport-Stamford-Dan...