I can speak for Houston at least. The suburbs (Sugar Land, Katy, etc.) all have pretty good schools, and the homes zoned to them are generally affordable to mid

I can speak for Houston at least. The suburbs (Sugar Land, Katy, etc.) all have pretty good schools, and the homes zoned to them are generally affordable to middle class families ($250-300k is probably the sweet spot). If you live in an urban inner-city neighborhood, though, then yes, you have to pay an extraordinary amount to get a good education for your kids through private school. On the plus side, Houston has some incredibly strong private high schools (e.g., St. John's School) if you can afford the $20-25k/year tuition on top of the super expensive real estate and the 3% property taxes.