alt Hacker News> There are no homes in the area for under $1M, and many are $5M+.
We were talking about someone who found a $575,000 home to be stretching him to his limits. Have we gotten a bit off track here?
> The more relevant factor is that a bunch of doctors, lawyers, engineers, etc.
I'm one to talk as an engineer living in a $300,000 (maybe, on a good day) home, but I technically could afford a multimillion dollar home if I found some strange reason to show off to others. Generally speaking, a $575,000 home is really a "working man's" home.
What you describe is interesting, but is it the same obvious reasons as what was brought up before? Said person isn't of the class you describe.
They didn't say the $575k was stretching, or that it was the current value of the home. Just that it was the price when they bought it, and presumably they couldn't find something nearly as nice in a dense city without paying significantly more.
In any case, you asked why people are concerned about being "zoned for good schools" and why that would be obvious to Americans, and I think I explained it to you: making sure their kids are surrounded by the "right" peers who will pressure them into the "right" behaviors is a high priority for a lot of people, particularly in the professional-managerial class. They generally won't word it that way because overt classism is uncouth, but that's what they mean when you think about it. Obviously that's not a concern you have (it's also not "showing off" to live in an expensive area; everyone around you will necessarily also live in an expensive area...).