Upper NW/ Bethesda CC for Young Families

[Anonymous]

We’re looking to buy a family home (~2.5 M) budget for us and our two kids. I grew up in the south and to this day, my childhood neighbors are some of my best friends. What streets or blocks in upper NW, or close in Bethesda and CC have a culture of friendly neighbors and kids that play outside together? We have a few houses we’ve looked at in Kent and Wesley Heights but everyone seems older and there aren’t a ton of old families.

[Anonymous]

*** ton of young families

[Anonymous]

I'm so glad we did this: map out and go to the playgrounds nearest your prospective houses(s) on a weekend morning and get a feel for the crowd, or at least the playground equipment! Doing this steered us away from pockets of Bethesda where there were no kids, and toward the NWDC where even on cold days, kids and parents were out and chatty. It was a better fit for what we wanted, given the HOURS you spend at a playground with small kids, even if you have a nice back yard.

[Anonymous]

Checking out parks is a good idea but IME this is very block by block and can also change quickly. It is sort of luck when houses turn over and/or happen to have kids close in age.

[Anonymous]

Highly recommend Somerset neighborhood in close in Chevy Chase, MD.
There is a neighborhood pool and swim team that is only for the kids in the neighborhood and it’s so nice to meet other families. There is walkable elementary school, Somerset Elementary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Checking out parks is a good idea but IME this is very block by block and can also change quickly. It is sort of luck when houses turn over and/or happen to have kids close in age.

Agree with this. We lucked out in that on our street and the immediate area, all of the families had kids within a 6 year period. But now all those kids are in HS and college, so it’s no longer so great for young families,

[Anonymous]

Sumner and Westmoreland Hills are amazing neighborhoods.

Very young and social. On our street alone there are 7 couples all in their 30s and 40s with young kids

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Highly recommend Somerset neighborhood in close in Chevy Chase, MD.
There is a neighborhood pool and swim team that is only for the kids in the neighborhood and it’s so nice to meet other families. There is walkable elementary school, Somerset Elementary.

Agree with this, as well as checking out other Bethesda/CC MD communities that also have neighborhood swim clubs. Not sure if you care about the public ES, MS and then HS feeder pattern.

In Upper NW DC, Turtle Park is a big gathering area for youth baseball, community center and playground, so blocks in AU park that are an easy walk to Turtle are probably good, and then it will feed into Janney ES.

[Anonymous]

AU park, Somerset , and the pocket near Lafeyette elementary school are the safe bets. There are other smaller pockets but it can vary street by street. At that price point and for these areas there is a good chance you might end up in a pretty dead pocket with all boomers or older empty nester.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm so glad we did this: map out and go to the playgrounds nearest your prospective houses(s) on a weekend morning and get a feel for the crowd, or at least the playground equipment! Doing this steered us away from pockets of Bethesda where there were no kids, and toward the NWDC where even on cold days, kids and parents were out and chatty. It was a better fit for what we wanted, given the HOURS you spend at a playground with small kids, even if you have a nice back yard.

This is great advice OP. a friend bought in CCMD couple of years ago and did this at the near park right behind the Geico parking lot in FH. It was dead both during weekends and week day afternoons even though she heard the neighborhood was family friendly. She ended up buying in another pocket nearby and the demographics were noticeably different, with much higher foot traffic at the neighborhood park.

[Anonymous]

Cleveland Park

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Checking out parks is a good idea but IME this is very block by block and can also change quickly. It is sort of luck when houses turn over and/or happen to have kids close in age.

Agree. Almost every house in our immediate vicinity has changed in the 10 years we have lived here. Our kids definitely had great neighborhood friends along the way, but the relationships changed over the years, people moved or switched schools, and my favorite/best neighbors have actually turned out to be some of the retirees rather than young families.

[Anonymous]

Kent and Wesley Heights are beautiful, but so many of the houses are so big that there are less young families. AU Park, Spring Valley, Westmorland Hills, Chevy Chase DC and MD will have lots of young families. We spent hours at Turtle Park when the kids were really little.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sumner and Westmoreland Hills are amazing neighborhoods.

Very young and social. On our street alone there are 7 couples all in their 30s and 40s with young kids

+1. I recommend 20816 (Bethesda, MD), which is close to the DC/MD border.

Join your neighborhood pool club, or a country club.

The problem with Upper NW is that so many kids go to private school, and so it's more difficult to get to make neighborhood friends. In contrast, in Bethesda, tons of kids go to public school (at least for K-5) and so it's easy to make neighborhood friends.

Here is a great option:

https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/5013-Nahant-St_Bethesda_MD_20816_M68179-42339

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Checking out parks is a good idea but IME this is very block by block and can also change quickly. It is sort of luck when houses turn over and/or happen to have kids close in age.

You're not wrong but just to be clear the baseline for "block to block" in the entire Upper NW/BCC area is good/great, with the "better" blocks being excellent/elite. It's not "block to block" like, for instance, Columbia Heights where that means some blocks are practically Mayberry while others still have corner boys selling drugs.