Affordable home in good school district?

[Anonymous]

I would look at north potomac/gaithersburg. You could get a town house for that price and it would put you in the quince orchard cluster. We sold our townhouse for that and we fed into Rachel Carson Elem. School.

You can drive to Shady grove metro.

[Anonymous]

I almost fell out of my chair when I read 270 as a barrier. Isn't Chevy Chase to the east of 270? Somerset? Seriously, use 270 as your dividing line? That's absurd.

Oakland Terrace is a great elementary school and about to get smaller when a new school opens in the fall of 2012. Look around the Forest Glen metro station and you should be able to find something in your price range.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would avoid the east side of the county. Basically use 270 as your barrier. If you choose the east side your schools might be Kennedy, Einstein, or Springbrook. Each is filled with thugs and not a day goes by without a big fight. Sometimes three or four a day.

There are many neighborhoods on the east side of the county where you are lucky to hear English spoken. Its not going to get any better and a lot of the homes are rentals.

I teach at Springbrook, and your use of "thugs" clearly oozes with racism. I work closely with administration, and I have yet to hear of "three or four" fights a day.

Please don't cash in the race card just because someone uses the term "thugs." Your bank called to let us know that there isn't any more credit for this purchase. A thug, is a thug, is a thug.

Springbrook was becoming a tough school when I was growing up, and that was in the 1980s. I can only imagine what it's up to these days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I almost fell out of my chair when I read 270 as a barrier. Isn't Chevy Chase to the east of 270? Somerset? Seriously, use 270 as your dividing line? That's absurd.

Oakland Terrace is a great elementary school and about to get smaller when a new school opens in the fall of 2012. Look around the Forest Glen metro station and you should be able to find something in your price range.

I have to agree. In fact, technically speaking it's neither east nor west, but SOUTH of 270 all together. Now, on that note, there are some families that have been afflicted by MCPS administration with School Busing, or watching their children split up and sent to different schools even at the elementary level (read the thread on Rosemary Hills).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Please don't move to Wheaton - it is unsafe, our friends got their car stolen at gunpoint in broad daylight near Westfield mall/Metro station there (they had their young children with them, too!).

Kensington townhouse or rundown small 3 bedroom.
Silver Spring further out.
Takoma Park, but not the nicest side.

At the middle to high school level in the areas mentioned above, safety and quality of education become increasingly problematic.

Personally, and unless I could put down more money, I would rent in a better school district such as Bethesda-Chevy Chase, or buy further out west.

This advice/fear is overblown. I commute every day using the Wheaton metro. It is full of regular DC commuters (including many Yuppies) during rush hour and is easily accessible by car from many nice areas. IMO, mall parking lots are pretty unsafe in general, especially during busy/high theft times.

[Anonymous]

I live in the general SS area, PP and I think the answer is no if you are looking past elementary schools. There are some neighborhoods (thinking Forest Glen or other parts of the Northeast SS area, but even there I think the price point is likely a bit higher than what you suggested) that are ok for elementary school, but the middle and high school choices on the eastern side are really not so great. it's too bad. If MoCo would allow charters maybe more families wouldn't feel such pressure to move or do private in so many eastern county areas (where I live).

[Anonymous]

Sorry - that last point meant to be addressed to the OP, not the PP.

[Anonymous]

Get a good buyer's agent who knows MoCo. We bought a 3/1.5 SFH in Takoma Park 2.5 years ago (TPES, TPMS, Blair cluster) for less than $350k and are VERY happy. FWIW, our home is holding its value, too. There is a lot of variety in home prices in the area; do some research and be persistent. We did, and it paid off.

[Anonymous]

All the professionals I know who live in Takoma Park send their kids to privates. Do any well educated professionals who live in TP go public or is it just assumed that you'll go private?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All the professionals I know who live in Takoma Park send their kids to privates. Do any well educated professionals who live in TP go public or is it just assumed that you'll go private?

I don't live in TP, but I know several professionals who do - lawyers, economists, engineers - they all send their kids to public school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All the professionals I know who live in Takoma Park send their kids to privates. Do any well educated professionals who live in TP go public or is it just assumed that you'll go private?

Live in TP and my husband and I are attorneys. Our kids go to public schools and have had a wonderful experience. Friends in the area (also professionals) all send their kids to public schools too. In fact, cannot think of anyone I know in our area sending their kids to privates .... Most of us are very happy with the local public schools.

[Anonymous]

Our friends who live in TP are Ivy League-educated professionals with 2 kids who went K-12 MCPS and are attending great colleges. One went to magnets for MS and HS, but the other did not. We live in CC and know a number of kids who were involved in the recent mayhem -- drinking, fighting, vandalism -- associated with Homecoming at BCC HS. Good kids; just doing stupid, impulsive things typical of teens. It can happen anywhere, and no, I don't have a dog in this fight -- we live in CC, but our kids are in DC independent schools for MS and HS after attending MCPS for ES.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All the professionals I know who live in Takoma Park send their kids to privates. Do any well educated professionals who live in TP go public or is it just assumed that you'll go private?

My son at Takoma Park MS recently told me that he is embarrassed to tell his friends what I do (I'm a lawyer) because all of their parents are PhDs and the like and have far more interesting jobs than I.

My DH and I are highly-educated professionals as are most of our friends and we all send our kids to public schools in TP. We don't know anyone with kids in privates.

[Anonymous]

Kids are in TPES and PBES in Takoma Park. Agree with others. Lots of well-educated parents are sending children to these schools.

[Anonymous]

Same here in SS. We and many of our neighbors have advanced degrees and kids have gone through a combination of magnet and local school in the Blair cluster K-12. Numerous parents of kids' classmates in TKPK and SS are university professors like DH - AU, UMCP, etc. We may not be maximizing our incomes but kids are thriving. I'd choose it all over again vs. surrounding kids with affluence and the issues that go with that. But to each his own.