Thanks for all the feedback everyone. Just a little more information about our thought process.
We have 3 kids. An almost 4 year old daughter and almost 2 year old twins. Currently I am mostly fired, the SO is still putting in about 35 hours a week. The idea to downgrade our neighborhood is that this would allow us to both be finished working before we turn 40.
Our oldest would not be in school until August of 2018, and I could see us buying back into our target neighborhood by then. But we would also be content to stay put wherever we land if it went borrowing a huge amount of money.
Some folks commented on schools being the #1 thing. I agree they are a big deal for any number of reasons. However, Is it wrong to believe a kid in a "5" school with two parents at home who are completely on top of their child's studies, and volunteer at the school weekly is going to be just as well off as a kid in a "10" school with both parents working 60 hour soul crushing jobs?
Any teachers on here could weigh in on that?
Not a teacher anymore but I was for 12 years. I taught at a big, public high school (2,500 + students) in the less affluent side of our county. I think of our economic demographic as "teacher-fire fighter-cop middle class." In other words, people with steady, solid jobs and a strong sense of community but generally modest income. The student body was also very racially diverse (black, Indian, Asian), though still majority white. The high school, middle school, and elementary school are together in the center of the community (originally built in 1964; renovated in 2000) and surrounded by local shops and neighborhoods of nicely kept mid-century era homes. Sidewalks are pretty much everywhere -- or the streets are residential and safe for walking. My kids could walk or bike to the YMCA, the library, all 3 schools, the grocery store, Chik Fil A, and more. Several of the teachers I worked with were alumni of the high school. They were Knights in the 70's or 80's, went off to college, and returned to teach as a Knight and now their kids are Knights too. Many of the faculty have been there for their entire career and have a deep commitment to the school and community. The current Principal was a science teacher there for over a decade, then an AP, and is now Principal. Her two kids are alums (her son went to the Naval Academy). I haven't seen her in 6 years and ran into her recently and she gave me a big hug.
Among the Knight alums, just off the top of my head, are kids who went on to: West Point, the Naval Academy or the Air Force Academy (in 2006 - a banner year - we sent FOUR graduates to the Naval Academy and one to Air Force); the University of Virginia, William & Mary, Virginia Tech, Princeton, Yale, Columbia, NYU, Georgetown, St. John's, and Duke. The county also has an awesome vo-tech school (students split their time) so many kids graduated as journeymen electricians, computer coders, nursing assistants, etc. The school offers dual-enrollment classes (HS and college credit simultaneously) in cooperation with the local community college, and AP classes in many subjects. Some alums graduate just shy of sophomore-year-in-college status.
Here's the kicker.....
In our region, that school and community is considered....... undesirable. "Working class." On the Great Schools website, that school gets a "5" ranking. I taught AP U.S. Government, AP Psychology and regular levels of other social studies topics. Almost universally, the students in my AP classes had married parents who were engaged and interested in their success. Parents who took them abroad, to the theater, to museums, or paid for music lessons. Parents who came to Back to School night, called, emailed, and asked for updates. Though I hate to say this because I was a single mother, in 12 years of teaching, I could probably count AP kids from single parent households on one hand. Ok, maybe both hands, but barely. Kids who struggled almost universally came from families that struggled -- for whatever reason. Not always but the correlation was high enough that I'd bet real money on it.
YMMV.
FWIW, both of my kids are Knights. They are now 25 and 19. From age 15, they had summer jobs (at the Chik Fil A or the YMCA -- they could walk). They are normal kids -- not superstar athletes or brainiacs. My 25-year old rejected college and started her own business. She's been self-supporting since she was 19 and is thriving. My 19 year old meandered through his teen years and 3 semesters of community college. He just found his passion and put together a package of scholarships that will pay for the rest of his college. I think being in a modest community of hard-working people helped them learn to be self-starters and hard workers. I provided the basics and they worked to provide the rest of what they wanted. That was "normal" and expected in our community.