Landed will pay for half a teacher's down payment on a home in exchange for a quarter of profits when the house is sold down the line. The San Francisco-based startup has recently arrived in Bellevue, where the median home price is hovering around $1 million.

In Thoreau, New Mexico, many of the district's teachers live in the "teacherage," a neighborhood of modest, affordable homes set aside for the town's educators. Thoreau's model, which offers rent subsidization and a built-in community, is just one example of strategies rural and urban areas are using to combat teacher shortages and low teacher salaries.

In a remote community in Alaska, the school district found a creative solution to solve two of its problems: lack of housing for the teacher and lack of classes to teach students real-world skills. The solution was to have a student project to build a house for the teacher. In the process the students learned to think critically, solve problems, and work together.

In an attempt to retain teacher talent, the Santa Clara Unified School District has begun renting out apartments to teachers at subsidized rates so they can afford to stay and teach. While several cities across the country have attempted ways to offer more affordable housing to teachers, they are up against residents who are worried about the value of the their homes decreasing, even as tech companies move in. To keep teachers and families and good schools, something will need to change.

A rural school district in Arizona is building a village of tiny houses for its teachers, who cannot afford to live in the district because of low salaries and high home prices. The tiny houses are being built on district-owned land and teachers pay about $125/month for rent, utilities, and Internet, but critics argue that the houses don't solve the larger issue: that teachers are not paid enough to live there.