Last Spring, when Andrea and Pete were moving to Fairfax County, they wanted the best possible school for their daughter, Haley.

Choosing among the best school boundaries

But, like most of us, they had to stick to a budget so their challenge was to find the school boundary with the best schools, while still keeping to their budget.

When they started their search, they focused on school rankings

For school rankings, they looked at The Ultimate Fairfax County High Schools Ranking©* (which compiles rankings from The Challenge Index,  average SAT Scores,  as well as the Virginia SOL  (Standards of Learning) Test Results).

This way, they had a list of Fairfax County Schools ranked by academics.  But can they really afford to buy in any one of these boundaries?

Next, they looked at the affordability of homes in the best school boundaries

Their question was: “Which of the more affordable boundaries are also well ranked for its schools?”

On the following table, you can see all the Fairfax County High Schools ranked using The Ultimate Ranking©*  (we have added colors to each of the rows to denote the average affordability of homes within the boundary):

Color Legend

The colors in the table above reflect the average price of homes in each boundary:

•    above $1,000,000 Red
• $700,000 – $800,000 Dark Orange
• $600,000 – $700,000 Orange
• $500,000 – $600,000 Yellow
• $400,000 – $500,000 Green
• $300,000 – $400,000 Blue

+ Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology has a select admissions process, and it is not a neighborhood school. We have included it on this table for reference and completeness.

After studying the table above, with schools ranked using The Ultimate Ranking ©, as well as the average affordability of homes in each boundary, Andrea and Pete identified several good options.

Which school boundaries are the best options?

Andrea and Pete selected the 7 best school boundaries that looked like great options for their needs (great schools and home affordability):

Andrea’s and Pete’s next step was to figure out which boundary would be the best choice for their daily commute.

To do this, they accessed the Fairfax County Map of School Boundaries (see below), which helped them understand, geographically, where each boundary was.

Using the map, they could see if living in any of those boundaries would be a better choice for their lifestyle.

You too, can use the Fairfax County Map of School Boundaries to find the best place to live for your lifestyle.

Log in to the Fairfax County Map of School Boundaries

Click to access the Fairfax County Map (with high school boundaries)

Log in to the Fairfax County Map of School Boundaries (a.k.a the Affordability Map) to see the location of each of these boundaries within Fairfax County and to choose your ideal boundary.

* Click here to access the Ultimate Fairfax County High Schools Ranking©

If you haven’t subscribed yet, why wait?

Downloading The No-Tears Guide to Moving to Fairfax, VA is free, and you’ll get access to our unique home-search (by school boundary).

Plus, you get the Fairfax County Real Estate Affordability Map, AND access to detailed information about each Fairfax County School boundary.

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Fairfax County High School Rankings: IB vs AP Fairfax County High School Rankings – by 2011 SAT scores US News 2013 Best High Schools Ranking Top High Schools in Fairfax County VA