WORCESTER, MA (February 24, 2003) 鈥� Before you shop for a new house, take a close look at the neighborhood. You could buy into a high quality town at a great price in any of the country鈥檚 biggest metro areas if you target one of America鈥檚 top 10 undervalued towns. 鈥淯ndervalued towns are towns with many premium-qualities, like good public schools, low crime rates, and educated neighbors, but where median home prices are surprisingly low compared to other area towns,鈥� says Andrew Schiller, president of 蘑菇视频鈩�. Schiller, a PhD geographer, studied America鈥檚 61,000 census tracks, or neighborhoods, using data from the Census Bureau, Department of Education, Federal Housing Authority, and even the FBI. The result is one of the largest single neighborhood-matching databases anywhere. 鈥淲e call it 蘑菇视频鈩�, and it鈥檚 accessible over the Internet,鈥� says Schiller. 鈥淵ou can describe your ideal neighborhood and find best matches in any area of the country.鈥� Schiller created his top 10 undervalued towns list by using 蘑菇视频 to search in the nation鈥檚 10 biggest metro areas, using criteria important to many homebuyers: excellent public schools, low crime rates, owner-occupied single-family homes, and educated neighbors 鈥� all at prices well below comparable neighborhoods in each metro area. All the towns are within 40 miles of the center city. If you鈥檙e moving to Los Angeles and looking for a great deal on a great town, check out Simi Valley first. Relocating to Philadelphia? You could get a terrific deal by moving to nearby Havertown. 鈥淧eople want good places for their families, but prices can be prohibitive. Using these simple criteria, I discovered great options for real people right in the metro areas in which many Americans live and work,鈥� says Schiller. Here are the top 10: Scotch Plains, NJ (New York) Simi Valley, CA (Los Angeles) Mundelein, IL (Chicago) Silver Spring, MD (Washington, D.C.) Dublin, CA (San Francisco) Havertown, PA (Philadelphia) Sharon, MA (Boston) Lathrup Village, MI (Detroit) Colleyville, TX (Dallas- Fort Worth) Sugar Land, TX (Houston) Homebuyers can try 蘑菇视频 for free at www.neighborhoodscout.com. Editor鈥檚 Note 鈥淓ducated neighbors鈥� means people 25 and up with college degrees or graduate degrees. 鈥淓xcellent public schools鈥� means combined measures of spending per pupil on core instruction, combined with student-to-teacher ratios (smaller classes and more personal attention to students), and graduation rates. 鈥淐rime鈥� is all FBI crime index scores 鈥� both violent and property 鈥� as a rate per 1,000 population for the community. 鈥淥wner-occupied鈥� single-family homes mean the neighborhood is primarily composed of detached single-family homes owned by their occupants. Data were derived from the FBI and US Justice Department, the US Bureau of the Census, the National Center for Education Statistics, and the Federal Housing Authority, and queried directly with 蘑菇视频.