I don't know in which armpit corner of the US you live. But if you need to buy into a good school district in an attractive location in a city on the coast ~$300,000 is a steal. Same goes for Colorado, Utah, heck, basically any place where people would want to live. Plus, if your stats are correct, the mean house price is way above the median, making Colchester look even cheaper. Oh, and have I mentioned that UK schools are not financed through insanely high property taxes?
Average house price for Colchester = £230,231.
"Incredibly cheap" LOL.
And that is for a house in infamous Essex, the county known across the UK as classless, vulgar and rammed with chavs.
But hey, at least the university's polsci dept does quantoid junk, LMFAO.