Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Levittown is a suburb, 45 minutes away from Manhattan. Prices are lower there than they are in the city. Try comparing prices to a suburb 45 minutes away from Seattle, and I'm quite certain the prices will not be twice as much as they are in Levittown.
The schools in Kent aren't comparable to Levittown NY. Kent is cheap because the schools are among the worst in the area.
So pick a suburb a comparable distance from the city that has good schools, I don't know Seattle well enough to know. I still believe it will be less than Levittown or at most about the same price, not twice as expensive.
As for quality of schools, this looks like a reasonable ranking IMO
MacArthur is a little above average, Division is slightly lower. Island Trees is a different district but also covers part of Levittown, and that's about average. But it's true that average for Long Island is probably above average for most places.
Long Island has unusually good schools (really all of the tri-state metro area has unusually good schools). So, yeah, Levittown schools are average for NYC suburb standards but that probably makes them well above average for national standards.
That's, in part, why property taxes are so high in NYC suburbs. They're spending more on schools than anywhere else in the country. I believe NY, NJ and CT are #1, #2, and #3 in per student spending.
My sister lived in both NY suburbs and CA suburbs, and, she found a tremendous difference (and she was in one of the best districts in CA). There are big differences in class size, technology, teacher pay, and the like. CA is a wonderful state but the public schools suck if you're coming from somewhere like Long Island (and don't get me started on Florida schools, which are worse than CA).
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.