Best Value / By Major

Best Value Colleges for Real Estate

Schools ranked by payback period — how quickly you recoup your investment through higher earnings.

Schools Ranked

$51,042

Avg. Earnings

1.1 yrs

Best Payback

729

Graduates

How we calculate value: Payback = (4 years of net price) / (major earnings - $35k baseline). A 2-year payback means you recoup your investment in 2 years through higher earnings vs. not attending college.

#	School	Net Price/yr	Major Earnings	Payback
1	University of Wisconsin-Madison Madison, WI · Public	$10,364	$73,949	1.1 yrs
2	University of Southern California Los Angeles, CA · Private	$22,826	$71,643	2.5 yrs
3	Ohio State University-Main Campus Columbus, OH · Public	$13,273	$53,775	2.8 yrs
4	Villanova University Villanova, PA · Private	$28,580	$71,351	3.1 yrs
5	The University of Texas at San Antonio San Antonio, TX · Public	$10,316	$48,432	3.1 yrs
6	Florida State University Tallahassee, FL · Public	$11,506	$49,588	3.2 yrs
7	University of North Texas Denton, TX · Public	$14,132	$52,107	3.3 yrs
8	University of Georgia Athens, GA · Public	$15,037	$52,941	3.4 yrs
9	University of San Diego San Diego, CA · Private	$28,214	$63,005	4 yrs
10	Texas Christian University Fort Worth, TX · Private	$33,018	$63,005	4.7 yrs
11	Virginia Commonwealth University Richmond, VA · Public	$18,553	$48,432	5.5 yrs
12	Marquette University Milwaukee, WI · Private	$25,377	$52,107	5.9 yrs
13	University of Northern Iowa Cedar Falls, IA · Public	$15,287	$45,221	6 yrs
14	Baylor University Waco, TX · Private	$31,907	$55,964	6.1 yrs
15	DePaul University Chicago, IL · Private	$28,577	$40,626	20.3 yrs
16	Temple University Philadelphia, PA · Public	$21,568	$38,337	25.9 yrs
17	Georgia State University Atlanta, GA · Public	$18,466	$37,568	28.8 yrs
18	California State University-Northridge Northridge, CA · Public	$10,780	$28,366	N/A
19	CUNY Bernard M Baruch College New York, NY · Public	$7,187	$34,704	N/A

Top Earners in Real Estate

See schools ranked by earnings alone, without considering cost.

Best Value Rankings

Explore best value colleges across all majors and categories.

Payback uses earnings by major from the College Scorecard's field-of-study file, last updated June 2026, against net price from the June 2026 release. Scorecard publishes the two separately, so they are different vintages.