What do you know about the Hillcrest Neighborhood in SE DC?

[Anonymous]

SE gets a bad rap -- I hear there are great houses that are a little less expensive and there is a great sense of community. Any thoughts?

[Anonymous]

I swear this is one of those neighborhood names I often hear on the 6'oclock news - and the news is never good. Do you have kids? Have you looked into the school they would attend?

[Anonymous]

Not a bad neighborhood at all. Great houses, professionals. Schools are crap but a lot of families do private. Problem is it's surrounded by bad neighborhoods on all sides.

[Anonymous]

Hillcrest is really nice. It's like a little oasis, almost more like the suburbs than the city. Nice homes, nice yards, nice people. That being said, I wouldn't want to live there because it seems a but cut off from the other places I like to go in the city. I live on the gentrifying edge of Capitol Hill so I'm no stranger to "bad" neighborhoods, but I feel like Hillcrest is just not that walkable.

[Anonymous]

It is like Cleveland Park but without the good schools. A truly beautiful neighborhood. It is where the Mayor lives, for example.

[Anonymous]

Agree with PP-- Hillcrest is nice, but schools are not. If you are planning to do private, then I would go for it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I swear this is one of those neighborhood names I often hear on the 6'oclock news - and the news is never good. Do you have kids? Have you looked into the school they would attend?

I believe there is a Hillcrest Heights which is in Maryland. I hear about that on the evening news a lot. I don't hear about the Hillcrest neighborhood in DC much. Look at the these websites:

http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/hillcrest_notable_for_its_neighborliness/3041

http://www.hillcrestdc.com/pg_hillcr1.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillcrest,_Washington,_D.C.

[Anonymous]

Great homes. Schools really bad.

[Anonymous]

Nice homes, I think Mayor Gray lives in that neighborhood? I would bet that you could get a great home at a great price and that your home value would only increase in the coming years.

You can always check http://crimemap.dc.gov for more specifics on that, or any other, neighborhood in DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I swear this is one of those neighborhood names I often hear on the 6'oclock news - and the news is never good. Do you have kids? Have you looked into the school they would attend?

People routinely confuse "Hillcrest Heights" in PG County, MD (named in the '50's after DC's already long-established 'Hillcrest, SE'). "Hillcrest, SE" is seldom in the news, except for glowing "Where We Live" features in the Post and being selected one of DC's 'Best Places to Live' by Washingtonian(!). One other correction: "Hillcrest" actually is not "surrounded by bad neighborhoods." Although real estate agents have taken to referring to everything in the two miles between Naylor Rd and Massachusetts Ave SE as "Hillcrest" (undeniably the best-known of these 'hillside' neighborhoods), there are actually four adjacent, very similar, quiet and safe neighborhoods straddling Pennsylvania Ave SE, between Minnesota Ave and the DC border at Southern Ave: "Randle Highlands" and "Hillcrest" to the south; and "Dupont Park" and "Penn Branch" to the North of Pennsylvania Ave. Collectively, especially when you include 390-acre 'Fort Dupont Park', these four quiet neighborhoods are larger than "Takoma Park" MD. It is true that the schools (like most DC schools) need 'help', and that retail has been slow to return to the main Pennsylvania Ave corridor. But the fact is, it's a 6-minute drive to Eastern Market on a weekend. But The Washington Post did a revealing article a couple of years back, using red dots to signify high-crime areas. All four of these neighborhoods were virtually free of dots(!). There's a very good chapter on the history of these (and many other) neighborhoods - originally laid-out collectively as "East Washington Heights" in the late 19th Century- in the book "Washington At Home", available through CulturalTourismDC. Some other links to check out. Also, here's a link to just one of The Washington Post's many articles on 'Hillcrest' (SE):

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/09/AR2008050900899.html

[Anonymous]

Gorgeous homes, a little oasis is a good description. It is a hidden treasure.

[Anonymous]

Here's another glowing article about Hillcrest:

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/neighborhoods/guide/show/lawn-and-order

I'd move there in a heartbeat if it weren't for the schools.

[Anonymous]

Really lovely - nice views down that steep incline of PA ave, friendly, quiet neighborhoods. Just all around nice ambience. Leafy and green. But transit's not great and the schools are really not great and it's not super convenient to get to good school options from there. But, man I do like the nieghborhoods and there are a couple houses I've drooled over for years.

[Anonymous]

Any new opinions on Hillcrest, or "decent" parts of SE or SW? I have kids but they are in good Charters so I don't have to worry about school.

[Anonymous]

Here's what you do--
1. buy a great house, cheap.
2. put in a hippie coffee house.
3. watch all the new folks move in and paint everything chartreuse.