Concerned about buying in WJ cluster because of re-zoning
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Anonymous
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For instance, this would be a far better investment than anything at a comparable price point in the Wootton district. Less than a mile to Metro, a mile to Pike and Rose, close to the Bethesda Trolley trail and you can walk to Whole Foods.
https://www.redfin.com/MD/Rockville/5832-Edson-Ln-20852/home/10528259 I think this will go a lot faster than any home at a comparable price point in Wootton. |
Anonymous
It's a great area to live in, but I'd hardly call real estate in that part of the county a great investment. There's a lot less room for appreciation compared to other areas, but it should hold it's value. |
Anonymous
All I was saying is that it's a better investment than anywhere in the Wootton district. PP was saying that you're risking a drop of $50k-$100k when Woodward opens and that Wootton was a better investment. That only works if buyers don't care about walkability, commute and proximity to Metro and amenities, which is of course not the case. |
Anonymous
WJ+Woodward --> 2000 empty seats. WJ takes 2000 kids who are not in W's then WJ scores will drop substantially. WJ and Woodward splits and takes 1000 each then both will go down in scores , but not as bad if both schools take 2000 from outside. Woodward takes 2000 kids then scores will be substantially lower than current WJ. BCC and Whitman are not really over crowded to fill those seats. BCC is even getting an extension. MCPS has clearly stated that Woodward is opening mainly to address WJ and DCC over crowding. You can check test scores of nearby schools in DCC. It's simply a case of adding 2 and 2 here. Not hard to predicts that scores will drop. Anyone saying that it's fear mongering needs to show it with hard numbers how it's even possible to not take a bit hit in test scores. I live in WJ and I don't see what benefit I will have by fear mongering here. I am just afraid that our house prices will go down in future unless we get slotted for WJ and Woodward ends of taking 2000 kids from outside. |
Anonymous
I am not the PP, but tons of family buy in this area due to proximity to Metro and amenities with current WJ reputation. If you take away WJ then I do think it changes the desirability and eventually the price of house. No way anyone can make an argument that substituting a school with a good test score to an average test scores won't make any difference. |
Anonymous
Even with the addition BCC will be several hundred over capacity by the time Woodward opens. It seems likely that it would draw around 800 from WJ, other nearby overcrowded schools like Einstien would likely fill the gap along with BCC. |
Anonymous
Not according to MCPS projections and Boundary study will be done 18 months in advance of opening Woodward. While I don't disagree that MCPS does a lousy job of projecting, but they are simply going to look at projected information and try to solve huge over crowding in DCC and WJ. BCC is not going to contribute many students. |
Anonymous
I checked MCPS numbers and they are not showing over capacity of students by several hundreds after BCC gets addition. Let's run with your scenario and assume that BCC will send 300 kids to Woodward and 800 will come from WJ. That's 1100 kids. With Woodward capacity of 2700, you are left with 1600 empty seats. Clearly, even with your scenario, 60% seats will be filled by lower performing schools in Woodward and it will have a huge impact on house prices. Anyone saying that test scores have no impact is simply avoiding this hard fact. I had never looked at numbers till now and I see the logic now. Hopefully, prices don't take too big a hit and it recovers because I am not ready to sell in the next 1-2 year. |
Anonymous
Here are MCPS growth projections which are usually very optimistic and it seems likely they're not going to leave a school anywhere near 100% when there are better options. .JPG)
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Anonymous
| It seems likely that Woodward would be populated by drawing from nearby adjoining neighborhoods like WJ, BCC and Einstein. I guess some people prefer to delude themselves by believing they'll just bus in some poor kids.... |
Anonymous
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It all seems like such an illogical way of dealing with the overcrowding issue. Enrollments are going to continue to grow. Are they going to continue to bus thousands of kids half way across the county? It just seems like it would be a disaster. I can see how it would make sense to take some kids from the closer high schools like Einstein and maybe Wheaton, but the other DCC schools seem too far away to make sense. At some point, BCC and Whitman, and probably other closer high schools will be overcrowded. Then what? And what happens when you get into sports, clubs, and other school activities. Do parents really want to have to schlep 45+ minutes to pick up their kid? I'm not sure what the answer is, and I know it all comes down to funding, but it seems like they'd be better off building another new high school to accommodate the overcrowding at the schools that are further away.
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Anonymous
There are sensible ways to address this with the current capital improvement plan (ore than just Woodward) that don't involve bussing kids across the county. There was a lengthy thread on this a few weeks ago in the MD school forum. No way to guess what they'll do but it will likely involve a few tweaks to some boundaries while leaving most in tact. |
Anonymous
Exactly. Since Wheaton HS already had a large renovation and is projected to be below capacity, the only DCC school Woodward would be pulling from would be Einstein. A lot of the area zoned for Einstein that is west of Georgia Avenue and south of University (specifically, areas zoned for Flora Singer ES, Woodlin ES, and Oakland Terrace ES) are seeing gains in home prices and are seeing more higher income families flocking to the area, not less. There are higher end condos, townhomes and commercial buildings being built around Wheaton Metro, which will continue to see economic activity based sheerly on its proximity to the mall, a vast array of restaurants and mass transit. The "worst case" scenario for a lot of the alarmists would be for some kids from gentrifying areas of the Einstein HS to be pulled along with kids from WJ to Woodward. Being that this is 3-4 years from now, and housing prices will be even higher then, I don't see why this is a nightmare scenario and worth all of this talk of doom and gloom. A more likely scenario is that the boundaries will be redrawn for other high schools before, or when, Woodward opens and BCC and WJ will pull from different areas than before. Bottom line is that the prices of real estate in the WJ zone within the Beltway and close to public transit will continue to grow based strictly off of its proximity to DC and to areas that just aren't affordable to "normal" people anymore. Prices are going to rise regardless; we're in a rapidly growing area. The WJ zone is not in Clarksburg. |
Anonymous
Wheaton had a recent renovation and is under capacity. There is no reason to rezone from Wheaton. If anything, a couple ES schools in the Einstein cluster will be rezoned to Woodward, but these will most likely be schools that are relatively good for the DCC (Flora Singer, Oakland Terrace and Woodlin). |
Anonymous
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I'm going to bookmark this thread and come back to it when 3 br homes in Garrett Park Estates are selling for $1.2M after Amazon comes to White Flint.
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