The Chinese/Indian/EasternEuropean immigrants I have asked (my peer group) invariably pay for school district. If they have a budget of 500k, they would go for the best school district that money can buy.

How about the locals and the immigrants from Latin America, middle east, or western Europe? If they have a budget of $500k, they also have an idea what’s important to them and worth paying for.

Mind you, $500k (or $800k for some) is a big sum and heavy commitment, so we are naturally careful about exactly what we are paying for.

In my discussion with JackHe, I felt these second group (the majority) want to pay for quality of life:

• bigger home — in a top school district, 500k would probably get a small condo
• more independence — such as detached house
• bigger land
• shorter commute?
• closer to grandparents and relatives?
• privacy, like high up in the mountains
• more restaurants, galleries in the neighborhood?

School district is still one of the most important factors for parents, but I guess many parents don’t care so much about 5/10 vs 8/10 at the primary school level.

Last but not least, they want to have more money left over for other nice things like

• vacations (each can cost a few months of salary)
• home improvement, better furniture