Middle class African American DCUMers, where are you living?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP I live in PG (Brandywine) and we also have a SN child. We have been extremely happy with the services. We are on an extended ISFP through the summer will convert to an IEP when the school year starts. Can't say enough about the help we've gotten.

We also live in a great neighborhood with a lot of military retirees who are both white and AA. My DH commutes to DC but we've driven to Walter Reed for DD's medical appointments and it usually take 1.5 hours in rush hour (we have 9 am appointments).

Might be worth your while to consider southern PG also.

If you are willing to look at Brandywine, look at Waldorf about 3 miles down the road. Predominately middle and upper class AA community. My neighborhood off of 228 is 5 mins to 4 grocery stores, Target, and a sizable mall. Good school district (Charles County).

Sorry, but the resale value and appreciation is not there.

That is not one of OPs requirements, those are yours.

[Anonymous]

Logan Circle. I grew up in all-black enclaves. Saw my parent's stately home values take a massive dive in 2006 and never recover. So you will not find me in PG County or SE DC or what have you.

[Anonymous]

Lol everybody is sending you to Maryland. Go to the best neighborhood you can afford.
I'd recommend noVa.
Single AA mom

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are a single income Black family on a modest HHI looking for a decent neighborhood to put down roots. The advice I've gotten from DCUM in general is frustrating at best, as we vastly differ on what's considered "diverse", and I just don't see my family fitting in to a lot of the "preferred" areas.

The neighborhood is important, we like to talk to our neighbors and attend neighborhood events. We have one high school age kid who has autism and needs special education services, that makes finding a good district really hard to pin down, and we cannot afford private.

We want a nice, safe area with a diverse, liberal (Black, White, Asian, LGBT) middle class community with some SAHPs. We would like to walk around and not have people wonder what we're up to or if we belong in the area. We're not religious, so churches and such are not important at all.

Some of the things we are looking for:

Decent school district (I realize that my son's IEP and education issues are complicated, and we're on our own for this)
3 bed/2 bath
Some walkability, but not a huge must have. We have two cars and don't mind driving.
Relatively close to grocery stores, coffee shops, libraries, and maybe some decent restaurants.
Daily commute is to Bethesda, so we'd prefer to stay on the MD side.
Budget is $500k, but we can go to $550k if absolutely necessary.


To add, we've lived in the area before (we're military), in Damascus and we enjoyed our time there, but never felt like the community was a great fit for us. We sacrificed living in a more urban and diverse area because we had a REALLY low HHI at the time, and Damascus offered the best options for housing and schools on our income. Now that we are older and have sent our oldest off to college, we don't want to live in a neighborhood that isolated and far out.

For a commute to Bethesda, I would recommend Rockville, Forest Glenn, and Takoma Park (MD). All of these places have homes within and even below your price range, good schools, and generally meets the criteria you mentioned. Rockville would probably be the best fit, due to proximity to Bethesda, and would not require much driving if you live near metro. All are very diverse. TKPK and Rockville probably moreso.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lol everybody is sending you to Maryland. Go to the best neighborhood you can afford.
I'd recommend noVa.
Single AA mom

I lived in NoVa, didn't love it. I like MD better but I grew up in MD in MoCo. Now live in PG which I do love despite all the bad things I heard about it.

[Anonymous]

OP here, we bought our house last fall in Urbana and have been here for a year. This thread was bumped up for another AA poster -- hope he or she will find some useful information here.

@9:01, we know two dual physician couples who live in PGC, along with another couple that makes about $300k a year. You sound incredibly ignorant and classist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lol everybody is sending you to Maryland. Go to the best neighborhood you can afford.
I'd recommend noVa.
Single AA mom

Where?

[Anonymous]

We live in AU Park.

[Anonymous]

I remember hearing a lot about Alexandria growing up--I assumed there were lots of middle-class AAs there. Is that no longer the case?

I do have one AA friend who lives somewhere in Alexandria now, but that's it.

[Anonymous]

In Springfield!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I remember hearing a lot about Alexandria growing up--I assumed there were lots of middle-class AAs there. Is that no longer the case?

I do have one AA friend who lives somewhere in Alexandria now, but that's it.

I'm upper middle class in Alexandria and know several other UMC AA families who live in Alexandria (split between Alexandria city and Fairfax county). There also seem to be quite a few middle class African immigrants in the part of Alexandria closer to Landmark mall.

[Anonymous]

Forest Glen off of Georgia Ave. Oakland Terrace or Flora Singer ES.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Forest Glen off of Georgia Ave. Oakland Terrace or Flora Singer ES.

hmm ur not black so idk why you're responding

[Anonymous]

Bowie

[Anonymous]

If OP is still hanging around, I'll point out that I got a similar "THAT'S RACIST" response when asking about an inclusive, welcoming, swim club this summer.

Ignore them. You and I both know that having our kids be the "onlies" is only something minorities (or those raising minority kids) are expected to put up with. We're supposed to be so grateful that folks let us into their communities that we ignore the weirdness, the hair touching, and the shock when our kids speak standard English or get into the gifted program on their own merit.

I'd look at close-in Silver Spring and Takoma Park in MoCo. We know lots of middle class AA families as well as interracial families and families with trans-racial and trans-national adoptees in those neighborhoods.