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The Journal · 17 September 2026

Which Langley neighbourhoods do families choose, and what do the schools say?

The short answerWalnut Grove, Willoughby, Murrayville and Brookswood carry the family houses; Walnut Grove holds the highest-rated schools and the tightest market. The four best-rated public elementary schools in Langley are all in Walnut Grove, and its houses sell in 21 days at 97.6% of ask.
Analysis by Hamish Ross · 17 September 2026 · Data: September 2026 edition (August 2026 data)
The Evidence
MeasureAugust 2026, as read on 5 September
Walnut GroveAlex Hope 8.3, Gordon Greenwood 7.3, West Langley 7.0, Topham 6.9; Walnut Grove Secondary 7.6 (41st of 252 in BC); 3.6 months of supply
WilloughbyWilloughby Elementary 6.8; R.E. Mountain 6.0; 5.2 months; 193 four-bedroom-plus houses sold, median $1,505,000
Murrayville48 four-bedroom-plus houses sold, median $1,558,000; 4.1 months
Brookswood85 four-bedroom-plus houses sold, median $1,632,000; 7.4 months; Brookswood Secondary 6.2
Any addressLangley Fundamental 7.8 (choice programme, 36th in BC)

What is happening

Langley buyers bought rooms this year: 632 houses with four or more bedrooms sold, and four-bedroom townhomes were up 34% while two-bedroom townhomes fell 23%. The neighbourhood with the best school scores is also the one whose houses moved fastest, closest to ask, and fell least in price. Ratings describe test results, not teaching, and the pairing is an observation across eleven neighbourhoods, not proof; but the market and the Fraser Institute table point the same way.

What it means

A family that wants a catchment chosen in advance starts in Walnut Grove and pays for it in competition rather than dollars per square foot. A family that wants a four-bedroom house at the Langley median looks at Willoughby ($1,505,000) or Langley City ($1,302,000); one that wants land under the house looks at Brookswood, where the shelf is deeper.

What we are watching nextEnrolment and the Township’s phasing of Willoughby: fewer new doors a year is the supply side of every band under $2 million tightening.
The full answer

What “best for families” can be measured, and what cannot

Every list of the best Langley neighbourhoods for families is someone’s opinion dressed as a ranking. This one is built on three things that can be measured: what families bought this year (bedroom counts, by neighbourhood), what the schools score (the Fraser Institute’s report cards, the only published ranking of BC schools), and how each neighbourhood’s house market behaves (months of supply, days, sold at % of ask). What cannot be measured from the board’s data is what a street feels like at four o’clock on a Saturday, and for that you walk it.

What families bought: rooms, not square feet

In the twelve months to August 2026 Langley buyers bought bedrooms. 632 houses with four or more bedrooms sold at a median $1,468,000, against 191 three-bedroom houses at $1,190,000. Four-bedroom-plus townhomes sold 240, up 34%, at a median $923,000, while two-bedroom townhomes fell 23%; three-bedroom condos rose 26% while one-bedrooms fell 23%. And the market priced rooms cheaper than floor area: a four-bedroom townhome at $499 a square foot against $535 for a two-bedroom, a four-bedroom house at $502 against $638 for a three-bedroom. The family home in Langley this year was a four-bedroom townhome or a four-bedroom house, and the neighbourhoods below are ranked by how many of those sold.

Four-bedroom-plus houses by neighbourhood, twelve months to August 2026
NeighbourhoodSoldMedian sale$ per sq ftHouse months of supplyMedian days
Willoughby193$1,505,000$4695.228
Walnut Grove100$1,421,000$5433.621
Brookswood85$1,632,000$5277.429
Aldergrove72$1,114,000$4716.220
Langley City68$1,302,000$5037.328
Murrayville48$1,558,000$5554.126
Fort Langley30$2,178,000$6385.551
Salmon River21$2,143,000$5347.941
All Langley632$1,468,000$5026.023
Four-bedroom-plus townhomes by neighbourhood, twelve months to August 2026 (median sale, sales)
Neighbourhood2 bedrooms3 bedrooms4 or more
Willoughby$691,000 (104)$828,000 (244)$931,000 (175)
Walnut Grove$813,000 (29)$798,000 (87)$933,000 (23)
Murrayville$771,000 (18)$831,000 (17)$1,010,000 (20)
Langley City$670,000 (21)$722,000 (34)$789,000 (18)
Aldergrove$572,000 (18)
All Langley$706,000 (176)$813,000 (401)$923,000 (240)

What the schools score

Elementary ratings are from the Fraser Institute’s 2025 report card (2023/24 results, 1,015 schools ranked); secondary from the 2020 report card (2018/19 results, 252 ranked), the most recent the Institute has published for BC secondaries. In the 2025 table the four highest-rated public elementaries in Langley are all in Walnut Grove: Alex Hope 8.3 (101st of 1,015), Gordon Greenwood 7.3, West Langley 7.0 and Topham 6.9. Walnut Grove Secondary rates 7.6 (41st of 252), the highest-rated catchment secondary in the township. Willoughby Elementary rates 6.8 and R.E. Mountain Secondary 6.0 (122nd). Fort Langley has Langley Fine Arts at 6.8 (K to 12, a choice school) and Fort Langley Elementary at 5.1. No Brookswood elementary rates above 6.7 in the 2025 table; Brookswood Secondary rates 6.2 (115th). Aldergrove has Coghlan Fundamental at 5.9. Open to any address: Langley Fundamental 6.8 elementary and 7.8 secondary (36th, public choice), and the independents St Catherine’s 9.7 and Langley Christian 7.6.

Schools and the house market by neighbourhood
NeighbourhoodTop public elementary (rating /10)Catchment secondaryMonths of supplyDays% of askBenchmark, year
Walnut GroveAlex Hope 8.3, Gordon Greenwood 7.3, West Langley 7.0, Topham 6.9Walnut Grove Secondary 7.63.62197.6%−4.9%
WilloughbyWilloughby 6.8R.E. Mountain 6.05.22896.8%−6.9%
Fort LangleyLangley Fine Arts 6.8 (choice), Fort Langley 5.1Langley Fine Arts5.55195.4%−8.6%
Brookswoodnone above 6.7Brookswood Secondary 6.27.42996.5%−6.7%
AldergroveCoghlan Fundamental 5.9Aldergrove Community6.22096.6%−6.3%
Salmon River (rural)none above 6.7D.W. Poppy 5.17.94195.4%−5.2%

The four neighbourhoods, and who each one fits

Walnut Grove is the answer for a family that wants a catchment chosen in advance and will pay for it in competition rather than dollars: the best-rated schools, the tightest house market in Langley (3.6 months), the quickest sale (21 days), the closest to ask (97.6%), and the smallest price fall on the year (4.9%). A four-bedroom house there sold at a median $1,421,000, below the Langley median of $1,468,000, because the houses are older and smaller; the price is paid in scarcity.

Willoughby is the answer for a family that wants a newer four-bedroom house or townhome and choice: 193 four-bedroom-plus houses sold at a median $1,505,000 and 175 four-bedroom-plus townhomes at $931,000, the most of any neighbourhood by far, with 91 houses and 165 townhomes for sale. Its schools rate mid-table, and its supply of new homes is being phased by the Township rather than opened all at once.

Murrayville is the answer for a family that wants the hilltop and a full ladder in one village: four-bedroom houses at a median $1,558,000 (48 sold), four-bedroom townhomes at $1,010,000 (20), the highest townhome benchmark in Langley at $854,100 and the mildest townhome fall (3.5%), on 4.1 months of house supply. Brookswood is the answer for a family that wants a big lot and can tell a home from a rebuild site: 85 four-bedroom houses at a median $1,632,000, but 7.4 months of supply and two markets on one street (a pre-1990 house at a median $1,304,000, a 2012-or-later build at $2,209,000). Aldergrove is where a four-bedroom house costs least, a median $1,114,000, and sells fastest, 20 days.

What we would tell a family choosing now

Pick the school first if a school is the point; Walnut Grove’s ratings are public and its catchments are drawn. Then decide whether you are buying a house or a four-bedroom townhome, because the townhome is $500,000 cheaper at the median and this year’s buyers chose it in numbers. Then price by the neighbourhood, not by Langley: a $1.5 million budget buys a four-bedroom house above the median in Willoughby, Walnut Grove, Langley City or Aldergrove and below it in Brookswood, Murrayville, Fort Langley or Salmon River. And walk the street on a Saturday, because that is the one thing the board cannot measure.

Questions people ask

Which Langley neighbourhood has the best schools?

On the Fraser Institute’s published ratings, Walnut Grove: the four highest-rated public elementaries in Langley (Alex Hope 8.3, Gordon Greenwood 7.3, West Langley 7.0, Topham 6.9) and the highest-rated catchment secondary (Walnut Grove Secondary 7.6). Langley Fundamental, open to any address, rates 7.8 at secondary.

What does a four-bedroom house cost in Langley?

A median $1,468,000 across 632 sales in the twelve months to August 2026, ranging from $1,114,000 in Aldergrove to $2,178,000 in Fort Langley. A four-bedroom-plus townhome sold at a median $923,000 (240 sales).

Is Willoughby or Walnut Grove better for families?

Walnut Grove for schools and a steady, tight house market; Willoughby for choice, newer homes and the most four-bedroom houses and townhomes sold. The full comparison is in the Journal entry on the two neighbourhoods.

Where is the cheapest family house in Langley?

Aldergrove: a four-bedroom-plus house sold at a median $1,114,000 in the year to August 2026, and houses there sold in a median 20 days, the fastest in Langley.

Fraser Valley Real Estate Board MLS® August 2026 package, released 2 September 2026; sub-area and twelve-month figures from the board’s InfoSparks database, read 5 September 2026. Benchmarks are the board’s index price, never an average. Analysis: Hamish Ross.

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