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Neighborhoods on the east side of Rock Creek Park
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Anonymous
Personally, I'd chalk it up to the schools. We were willing to pay a lot more--or, more accurately, get a lot less house--for being in a school zone we felt great about. |
Anonymous
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OP, I'm not trying to be contentious here, but I think you should recalculate the home values for Colonial Village vs. the parts of Chevy Chase DC that are closest to the park, that is, the eastern part of 20015 where you "can't walk to much." (I agree, you can't walk to much and the neighborhoods are really similar in feel).
These two batches of homes are similar in price, and I disagree that you get so much more in 20012/Colonial Village than you get in way east 20015/Chevy Chase DC. Those 20015 homes feed into Lafayette, which many people think is a good thing. |
Anonymous
Yes, but have you seen the size of most of the Colonial Village homes? They are really huge!! (Not OP by the way). |
Anonymous
OP here--I agree that the prices in Colonial Village are also expensive but in comparison to Chevy Chase DC, you get a lot more house for the money. For example, in the 750K to 800K range, almost all the houses I saw in Colonial Village had 4 bedrooms, a master bathroom, nicely renovated kitchen, and more often than not a garage! In Chevy Chase, it was very difficult to get the same level of a nicely renovated house in the under 800K price range. And, I'm also not trying to be argumentative, I am just genuinely curious about the price differential. |
Anonymous
OP here--the school difference definitely makes sense. I think I initially wondered how much difference the schools made because almost everyone I know who lives in DC with school aged children above Kindergarten sends their kids to private school. (Note: These are mostly BigLaw attorneys so it could be that my sampling of people is skewed). The people in DC I know who can't afford private schools seem to move out to the close in suburbs when schools are an issue. I think because schools won't be an issue for us for another 6 years or so, I am reluctant to pay the Chevy Chase premium if there is another neighborhood that is similar in feel but lower in price. |
Anonymous
| I am a brightwood booster, but my kids are in charters: incidentally, I picked this home shortly after the Great DC Blizzard, so I could walk to grocery stores, pharmacies and post offices... |
Anonymous
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We are WAY east of the park, in Michigan Park. We could not love our home more. I know there was at least one other poster considering a move here, wondering if he / she ever made the move. The best thing about our neighborhood is EVERYTHING! We have a huge front yard, a huge backyard, a driveway, fully modern and beautifully renovated 3 bedroom 2 bath home with finished basement and paid less than 500K for it. The crime in our neighborhood is virtually nonexistent, and the homes and lawns of the neighborhood are immaculately kept. The only reason this place is still "undiscovered" is that it is predominantly black (we are white). If you're the type of person who thinks that's a drawback, well, what can I say? This neighborhood is not for you. But if you think people are people and want a safe place to raise your kids, check out Michigan Park. Homes hold their value well but you can buy a TON of home for your money. With our son being an infant we have some time to think about schools. The elementary schools are OK but nothing special -- I'm planning to try to put some effort into the public schools (where my heart is) but we've saved enough money on our home that we can now easily afford private if we need to. Walkability is not great, but I wouldn't think it would be much different from living in Foxhall or something on that front (though, ha ha, different in many other ways, obviously). But if you don't think a half mile is too far to walk, there is the Brookland area (which continues to attract new businesses and development) and there is the Fort Totten metro as well, about a mile away.
Anyway, shameless plug for my 'hood. When you're thinking "East," OP, be sure to think WAY east! |
Anonymous
I agree with some of what you say, but back in the day this east of the park west of the park business didn't exist and I consider it to be total bull*hit that real estate agents made up to be a code word for black vs. white. I really can't stand it. In the 70s my parents looked at homes on both sides of the park and settled in Hawthorne (which even back then had a fair amount of black people), but we had friends from all over and traveled all over the city for our activities. I think the labeling totally sucks. |
Anonymous
An interesting perspective, but here is a list of very existent crimes for Michigan Park: http://dc.everyblock.com/crime/locations/neighborhoods/michigan-park/. On the other hand, collected police reports are always scary, so it may not compare so badly with more popular neighborhoods. After all, muggings follow pedestrians with money... but I wouldn't want to live anywhere that didn't boast a healthy crop of pedestrians with money. Location, location, location... |
Anonymous
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To the people considering private schools - are you worried about the commute? Or maybe people who can afford private have one parent at home. We are in SS and love our neighborhood and hear wonderful things about our elementary school, but are not impressed beyond that with the schools. We too have a good 10 years before we need to worry about that, but in considering private, I'm not sure how that would add to our commute.
The main reason we moved here was we both have awesome commutes (among other things like the neighborhood, walkability, fell in love with the house, etc.) - so that is a real factor for me. But maybe people do car pools? In looking ahead we can likely consider the cost of private but not sure I'd be willing to factor in the quality of life commuting factor. Beauty of public schools - they are always nearby since they are based on location. |
Anonymous
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Race/class isn't the issue so much, at least not directly. The major challenges are:
1. crime, crime, crome 2. did I mention crime? |
Anonymous
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Michigan Park here. OK, crime not nonexistent, but here are some comparisons to the other East of the park neighborhoods mentioned. As you can see, we're doing a lot better than most of them! And most of the crime here, with VERY few exceptions, is targeted (i.e. not random or robbery but vengeance, etc) and much of this is on Eastern Ave, not near my home at all. I also threw in a few of the "nicer" areas of town for comparison. Michigan Park does very well compared to almost any reasonable neighborhood in town and better than many (especially on violent crime), including Georgetown, Tenleytown, and Capitol Hill. We do better than Dupont Circle. We do about the same as Cleveland Park. We do waaaay better than Penn Quarter, Adams Morgan. I won't even compare it to truly high crime places like Columbia Heights or H Street Corridor, because it's light years away from those places. Colonial Village has low crime, but there were about the same number of violent crimes (assaults with gun, deadly weapons, carjackings, etc) in the past few months as there have been in Michigan Park. Brightwood has higher crime (both violent and nonviolent) than Michigan Park.
I mention all of this not to put any other neighborhoods down but for two other reasons: first, to remind folks that we are, after all, in a city. Crime is everywhere, even if we (including me) like to think it is nonexistent in our neighborhoods. But when you really start comparing neighborhoods, Michigan Park holds its own against most neighborhoods both east and west of the park. Not that I'm on the Michigan Park tourism board or anything! 
http://dc.everyblock.com/crime/locations/neighborhoods/capitol-hill/ http://dc.everyblock.com/crime/locations/neighborhoods/brightwood/ http://dc.everyblock.com/crime/locations/neighborhoods/crestwood/ http://dc.everyblock.com/crime/locations/neighborhoods/colonial-village/ http://dc.everyblock.com/crime/locations/neighborhoods/shepherd-park/ http://dc.everyblock.com/crime/locations/neighborhoods/georgetown/ |
Anonymous
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oops, left off tenleytown:
http://dc.everyblock.com/crime/locations/neighborhoods/tenleytown/ |
Anonymous
Yes, but again, you do "way better" because it isn't a target-rich environment for muggers. If large numbers of DCUMs do actually follow you to the Far East, I would expect this to change. In this town, confrontational robberies increase as neighborhoods gentrify. Those of us in areas full of pedestrians thugs would like to rob don't need to be reminded that we're in a city, because we're always careful to be somewhat on guard but also because we make full use of the city's benefits. I can't speak to crime comparisons with Brightwood and Colonial Village. |
Anonymous
| I don't really get how loads of DCUMs moving into my neighborhood would gentrify it unless gentrify ONLY means white-if-y (and then only if you're assuming that most DCUMs are white or somehow more well-heeled than my neighbors). It's already very nice. Pedestrians walking around here (most of them walking their kids or dogs) already have money and i-pods. Our cars have GPS systems. Our homes have flat screen televisions. The crime that DOES take place here is almost always (and I am talking about 99 percent) comes from across the border in MD or possibly Brookland kids. I'm not talking about Trinidad here, I'm talking about a very nice neighborhood filled with professional and hardworking families. We are never going to become a Georgetown, because there's not much commerce here. But there are certainly people with valuables walking around. |