Best Places to Raise Kids: The 15 Most Family-Friendly Philly Suburbs

Haddonfield

Population: 11,593
School district: Haddonfield Borough
Average SAT scores: 576 math / 572 reading / 577 writing
Crime rate: .53 violent crimes per 1,000; 15.06 nonviolent per 1,000
Median home price: $272,500

A charming, flora-lined main street. Stellar schools. (Newsweek just named the local high school one of the 500 best in the country.) Comparatively affordable houses. The general feeling that your kids can play out front and a skinned knee is the worst that could befall them. Proximity to Philadelphia (20 minutes, plus there’s PATCO), and the thriving shopping and dining haven of Collingswood (less than five minutes). The downside to raising kids in Haddonfield would appear to be that eternal Jersey bogeyman: outlandish property taxes. But Sally Cottone, who forks over more than $10,000 to the borough each year, says you gotta do the math. “We look at the big picture: What would we pay to send our four kids to private schools that probably wouldn’t even be as good?”

To read about Huntingdon Valley, click here.