Moving to DC area
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Was5022a
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I will be moving to the DC area this summer . Looking at Montgomery county ; specifically Rockville, Kensington, Silver Spring areas. Wanted to get thoughts on neighborhoods and schools to focus on in these areas. Heard cloverly, colesville layhill sandy spring areas of SS are nice and the Richard Montgomery , Wotten school districts in Rockville are great. Diversity is also important.
Any insight would be greatly appreciated. |
Anonymous
| Where are you coming from? Do you have a spouse or kids to consider? How old are the kids? And, most importantly, what is your budget? |
Anonymous
| Need budget, commute to where and kid info. |
Anonymous
| Coming from overseas . Family of 4 including a one child in high school and another in middle school. Budget 700k |
Anonymous
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Just a heads up - you're coming into a hot real estate market where prices sky-rocketed during the pandemic. 700K won't get you very much.
Check out Redfin and look at all the available houses in the areas you're interested in. Then drive to all the likely ones and see if the street, neighborhood and commute work for you. I take it you want the public schools. How old is your high schooler? Did they go to an American school? No language barrier? The schools you mention are fine, but public high schools in MCPS are very large and they might be intimidating for students used to more intimate schools, especially if they also come from a different instructional method. High schools offer a variety of AP classes, and some offer IB classes. Check out what various high schools offer, in case one in particular seems more interesting and you decide to preferentially look for a house in that cluster. Also verify graduation requirements, and make sure your high schooler can either get them all in, or have some sort of waiver, if they're close to graduation. I don't know what kind of environment you're coming from, but students have acted a bit restless at all age levels this school year, after the chaos of virtual schooling. There have been discipline problems. But hopefully everything will calm down in the months to come. |
Anonymous
| 700K will be fine for the areas you described (unless you are looking for a very large home). Agree we need more info about commute etc. |
Anonymous
| Colesville, Cloverly, Layhill and Sandy Spring do not go to Wooton or RM. For $700K you can get a very nice house in those areas. We live in Sandy Spring and paid a little over $700K recently and have 2 acres. You may want to look at Rockville 20853 that feeds into Rockville and Magruder. |
Anonymous
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Wootton is not diverse. RM is very diverse. You can lookup the demographics.
https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/sharedaccountability/glance/index.aspx RM also has IB magnet. Just be aware, that the entire area is going to go through some boundary changes in 2025/2026. |
Anonymous
| Look in Woodley Gardens, College Gardens West End in Rockville...all zoned for RM High School. 700K is a good budget. |
Anonymous
I'm a little uncomfortable with the discussion of more and less 'diverse'. While I'd agree here that certain populations are better represented at RM, Wostton is still a place with substantial ethnic diversity. It doesn't have much economic diversity and it has lower %-ages of blacks and hispanics than RM, but it's far from an ethnic monoculture. |
Anonymous
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Diversity is more than skin-deep, BTW.
Downtown Bethesda has a large international presence from multiple countries, even though there are very few Africans and African-Americans. The Bethesda-Chevy Chase cluster is very diverse from an international and cultural point of view, and since there are rent-controlled apartments in downtown Bethesda, just enough economic diversity to make the vibe different from the Whitman cluster to the west, for example, which is the epitome of white and wealthy. Walter Johnson in north Bethesda has more skin color diversity but still skews wealthy. Just theoretical examples, because all these neighborhoods are expensive and you probably wouldn't get a 700K house there. |
Anonymous
| If your kid is doing IB overseas, Einstein has an IB program that anyone can do (it’s not a magnet). |
Anonymous
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You might want to consider the 20910 also, although it's probably the trendiest of the Moco zip codes so might be the hardest to buy into.
(I write this aware the comment will attract its detractors, but it's still true.) |
Anonymous
Hmm. I moved from 20910 to 20814, so we'll agree to disagree. |
Anonymous
| I would look at the neighborhoods close to Silver Spring |