Capitol Hill families - If you moved to NW or burbs for school, do you have any regrets?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Simple. If you’re very unhappy with your DC public middle school options and can’t afford a private you move out of DC. Maybe you will need to live in a modest condo in the near burbs as a result, or go far out in the burbs to find a decent house. Perhaps you will even need to move to a different part of the country or abroad. Some of us bought fixers on the Hill 10 or 15 years ago, then put a ridiculous amount of sweat equity into them to afford to stay with older kids and teens. Our real estate choices have enabled us to swing parochial school if our MS charter options aren’t too hot. Our sympathy for those who didn’t plan as well only extends so far.

Look, I'm fine with moving for schools, but the idea that you can't have sympathy for people who maybe were not in a position to "buy fixers on the Hill 10 or 15 years ago" is absurd. People who could afford to buy fixer upper row homes on Capitol Hill in 2007-2002 hit a sweet spot of lower prices and higher inventory (due to the subprime collapse) followed by 15 years of unprecedented price increases. You bought a house you could afford when you could afford it, and it turned out in retrospect to have been the last moment on the Hill when you could do what you did. You got lucky, you aren't a genius.

Being smug about it is gross, but on the other hand, encountering people like you on the Hill is precisely why I don't really mind moving for schools. My kid will get to go to a decent public school with a short commute without having to stress annually about the lottery, and BONUS I no longer have to make small talk with jagoffs like you when I run into you at Eastern Market on the weekends.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Simple. If you’re very unhappy with your DC public middle school options and can’t afford a private you move out of DC. Maybe you will need to live in a modest condo in the near burbs as a result, or go far out in the burbs to find a decent house. Perhaps you will even need to move to a different part of the country or abroad. Some of us bought fixers on the Hill 10 or 15 years ago, then put a ridiculous amount of sweat equity into them to afford to stay with older kids and teens. Our real estate choices have enabled us to swing parochial school if our MS charter options aren’t too hot. Our sympathy for those who didn’t plan as well only extends so far.

Look, I'm fine with moving for schools, but the idea that you can't have sympathy for people who maybe were not in a position to "buy fixers on the Hill 10 or 15 years ago" is absurd. People who could afford to buy fixer upper row homes on Capitol Hill in 2007-2002 hit a sweet spot of lower prices and higher inventory (due to the subprime collapse) followed by 15 years of unprecedented price increases. You bought a house you could afford when you could afford it, and it turned out in retrospect to have been the last moment on the Hill when you could do what you did. You got lucky, you aren't a genius.

Being smug about it is gross, but on the other hand, encountering people like you on the Hill is precisely why I don't really mind moving for schools. My kid will get to go to a decent public school with a short commute without having to stress annually about the lottery, and BONUS I no longer have to make small talk with jagoffs like you when I run into you at Eastern Market on the weekends.

+1
I'm the PP also calling the same post gross.
Although our disgust/offense reactions made me realize that was likely a troll post.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd go sooner rather than waiting til the last minute. A big part of our social life in the burbs involves families we've met in rec activities. We've met more neighbors this way than almost any other way (except school). My youngest and now 3rd-grader has been on teams/done activities with many of the same children for 2 years now, so we've really built a village. That's harder as kids get older and rely on parents to get them to activities less.

Meh. Those villages you built kind of disappear as kids get older and settle into friend groups that then change a few times.

This is very true. The dynamic shifts when kids start driving the decision about who they want to spend time with versus their parents’ friends’ kids. Theres often a significant difference.
Can we also just retire the “village” messaging?!

Yes but by that time the kids aren’t really hanging out with their parents’ friends anyway-they’re doing their own thing. But the “supportive, family-like friend group” (or whatever you’d rather call the “village”, since you retired the term) of adults still exists. At least that’s how it’s been for us.

This is what happened for us. The kids have other friends now, but the parents still hang out. The kids politely tolerate each other when we're together.

+2. Why would you lose your friends just because your kids are making new ones? It's actually easier to maintain these friendships as kids get older because you can meet up in the evenings while the kids are at home, or taking themselves to practice, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Simple. If you’re very unhappy with your DC public middle school options and can’t afford a private you move out of DC. Maybe you will need to live in a modest condo in the near burbs as a result, or go far out in the burbs to find a decent house. Perhaps you will even need to move to a different part of the country or abroad. Some of us bought fixers on the Hill 10 or 15 years ago, then put a ridiculous amount of sweat equity into them to afford to stay with older kids and teens. Our real estate choices have enabled us to swing parochial school if our MS charter options aren’t too hot. Our sympathy for those who didn’t plan as well only extends so far.

Look, I'm fine with moving for schools, but the idea that you can't have sympathy for people who maybe were not in a position to "buy fixers on the Hill 10 or 15 years ago" is absurd. People who could afford to buy fixer upper row homes on Capitol Hill in 2007-2002 hit a sweet spot of lower prices and higher inventory (due to the subprime collapse) followed by 15 years of unprecedented price increases. You bought a house you could afford when you could afford it, and it turned out in retrospect to have been the last moment on the Hill when you could do what you did. You got lucky, you aren't a genius.

Being smug about it is gross, but on the other hand, encountering people like you on the Hill is precisely why I don't really mind moving for schools. My kid will get to go to a decent public school with a short commute without having to stress annually about the lottery, and BONUS I no longer have to make small talk with jagoffs like you when I run into you at Eastern Market on the weekends.

NP. You sound jealous, lady, very envious. Right, the Hill is expensive now, wasn't in the early 2000s. There was exactly a sweet spot of lower prices and higher inventory for the thousands of ordinary middle-class Hill families who bought dungeons in those years. These folks turned crumbling brick houses into lovely residences after a scores of trips to the DCRA permitting office, Home Depot and Lowe's. They also did a crazy amount of clean-up, tiling, caulking, landscaping, painting etc.

That's the way the cookie crumbles.

If you're OK with moving for schools, great. The point that you might have....seen this problem coming a mile away is still a fair one. It's a no-brainer that those who expect sympathy on the threads for having to reinvent their lives in the burbs are going to meet with pushback from families who can stay due less to luck than an investment mainly paid for in risk-taking and hard work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Simple. If you’re very unhappy with your DC public middle school options and can’t afford a private you move out of DC. Maybe you will need to live in a modest condo in the near burbs as a result, or go far out in the burbs to find a decent house. Perhaps you will even need to move to a different part of the country or abroad. Some of us bought fixers on the Hill 10 or 15 years ago, then put a ridiculous amount of sweat equity into them to afford to stay with older kids and teens. Our real estate choices have enabled us to swing parochial school if our MS charter options aren’t too hot. Our sympathy for those who didn’t plan as well only extends so far.

Look, I'm fine with moving for schools, but the idea that you can't have sympathy for people who maybe were not in a position to "buy fixers on the Hill 10 or 15 years ago" is absurd. People who could afford to buy fixer upper row homes on Capitol Hill in 2007-2002 hit a sweet spot of lower prices and higher inventory (due to the subprime collapse) followed by 15 years of unprecedented price increases. You bought a house you could afford when you could afford it, and it turned out in retrospect to have been the last moment on the Hill when you could do what you did. You got lucky, you aren't a genius.

Being smug about it is gross, but on the other hand, encountering people like you on the Hill is precisely why I don't really mind moving for schools. My kid will get to go to a decent public school with a short commute without having to stress annually about the lottery, and BONUS I no longer have to make small talk with jagoffs like you when I run into you at Eastern Market on the weekends.

NP. You sound jealous, lady, very envious. Right, the Hill is expensive now, wasn't in the early 2000s. There was exactly a sweet spot of lower prices and higher inventory for the thousands of ordinary middle-class Hill families who bought dungeons in those years. These folks turned crumbling brick houses into lovely residences after a scores of trips to the DCRA permitting office, Home Depot and Lowe's. They also did a crazy amount of clean-up, tiling, caulking, landscaping, painting etc.

That's the way the cookie crumbles.

If you're OK with moving for schools, great. The point that you might have....seen this problem coming a mile away is still a fair one. It's a no-brainer that those who expect sympathy on the threads for having to reinvent their lives in the burbs are going to meet with pushback from families who can stay due less to luck than an investment mainly paid for in risk-taking and hard work.

You have fallen into a basic psychological trap. When things are going well, people tend to overvalue their own efforts and undervalue random luck and timing. You are a textbook example of Psychology 101.
I don’t live in CH and never have but we bought our house in 2004 in AU Park. I feel bad as I don’t know how anyone without family money can buy in AU Park anymore. Prices are so high. It is a depressing situation.

[Anonymous]

Not buying it. Believe me, nobody who renovated a decrepit, gutted shell of a Hill row house 15 years ago, then got their own construction permits after the renovation budget didn't extend for a contractor or permit facilitator to do it for them, is overvaluing their efforts.

Things exactly weren't "going well" for most of us for 5 or 10 years after we bought. There was far more crime on the Hill in the early 2000s than there is now. Our house was burgled twice between 2008 and 2010. Even the best of the DCPS Hill elementary schools were still iffy in those days. At that time, in-bound parents of babies and toddlers would sometimes get involved in PTAs, even before the ECE years, to try to improve the schools.

What I see happening these days is parents who don't do nearly enough research, realistic thinking or back-up planning having a tendency to hit a wall on middle school if they lack lottery luck at BASIS or Latin. We've been putting money away for a back-up parochial middle school for a decade and went to a lot of hassle and test prep to prepare to apply to half a dozen. We're not wealthy--we earn 150K between us--but we planned to stay and have.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not buying it. Believe me, nobody who renovated a decrepit, gutted shell of a Hill row house 15 years ago, then got their own construction permits after the renovation budget didn't extend for a contractor or permit facilitator to do it for them, is overvaluing their efforts.

Things exactly weren't "going well" for most of us for 5 or 10 years after we bought. There was far more crime on the Hill in the early 2000s than there is now. Our house was burgled twice between 2008 and 2010. Even the best of the DCPS Hill elementary schools were still iffy in those days. At that time, in-bound parents of babies and toddlers would sometimes get involved in PTAs, even before the ECE years, to try to improve the schools.

What I see happening these days is parents who don't do nearly enough research, realistic thinking or back-up planning having a tendency to hit a wall on middle school if they lack lottery luck at BASIS or Latin. We've been putting money away for a back-up parochial middle school for a decade and went to a lot of hassle and test prep to prepare to apply to half a dozen. We're not wealthy--we earn 150K between us--but we planned to stay and have.

Having been there, that part just wasted everyone's time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not buying it. Believe me, nobody who renovated a decrepit, gutted shell of a Hill row house 15 years ago, then got their own construction permits after the renovation budget didn't extend for a contractor or permit facilitator to do it for them, is overvaluing their efforts.

Things exactly weren't "going well" for most of us for 5 or 10 years after we bought. There was far more crime on the Hill in the early 2000s than there is now. Our house was burgled twice between 2008 and 2010. Even the best of the DCPS Hill elementary schools were still iffy in those days. At that time, in-bound parents of babies and toddlers would sometimes get involved in PTAs, even before the ECE years, to try to improve the schools.

What I see happening these days is parents who don't do nearly enough research, realistic thinking or back-up planning having a tendency to hit a wall on middle school if they lack lottery luck at BASIS or Latin. We've been putting money away for a back-up parochial middle school for a decade and went to a lot of hassle and test prep to prepare to apply to half a dozen. We're not wealthy--we earn 150K between us--but we planned to stay and have.

If this is really true, then the fact that you have no sympathy for folks who are in your exact position and couldn't possibly do what you did is even grosser. It wasn't about planning, it was about lucking in to the softest real estate market that a remotely live-able central DC locale has had since the crack epidemic. Like, it definitely sounds like you worked for what you have now, but that doesn't mean that option is open to others who "plan" well. (And for the record, we bought in Hill East in the early 2010s when 600K was a feasible budget and parlayed that into an inner Hill $1 million++ house less than a decade later... so I guess we "planned" well too. Only we didn't. We got incredibly lucky because of sky rocketing real estate prices, development-possible real estate just outside the Capitol Hill historic district suddenly being super desirable and historically low interest rates. None of which had anything to do with our planning. In fact, we planned kind of badly, because we didn't realize the vast chasm between the house we bought and one zoned for Maury a block away schools-wise.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not buying it. Believe me, nobody who renovated a decrepit, gutted shell of a Hill row house 15 years ago, then got their own construction permits after the renovation budget didn't extend for a contractor or permit facilitator to do it for them, is overvaluing their efforts.

Things exactly weren't "going well" for most of us for 5 or 10 years after we bought. There was far more crime on the Hill in the early 2000s than there is now. Our house was burgled twice between 2008 and 2010. Even the best of the DCPS Hill elementary schools were still iffy in those days. At that time, in-bound parents of babies and toddlers would sometimes get involved in PTAs, even before the ECE years, to try to improve the schools.

What I see happening these days is parents who don't do nearly enough research, realistic thinking or back-up planning having a tendency to hit a wall on middle school if they lack lottery luck at BASIS or Latin. We've been putting money away for a back-up parochial middle school for a decade and went to a lot of hassle and test prep to prepare to apply to half a dozen. We're not wealthy--we earn 150K between us--but we planned to stay and have.

These posts are hilarious because I don't think you could make a better argument for moving away from Capitol Hill than this person. Run! Run away! These people are smug a$$holes!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not buying it. Believe me, nobody who renovated a decrepit, gutted shell of a Hill row house 15 years ago, then got their own construction permits after the renovation budget didn't extend for a contractor or permit facilitator to do it for them, is overvaluing their efforts.

Things exactly weren't "going well" for most of us for 5 or 10 years after we bought. There was far more crime on the Hill in the early 2000s than there is now. Our house was burgled twice between 2008 and 2010. Even the best of the DCPS Hill elementary schools were still iffy in those days. At that time, in-bound parents of babies and toddlers would sometimes get involved in PTAs, even before the ECE years, to try to improve the schools.

What I see happening these days is parents who don't do nearly enough research, realistic thinking or back-up planning having a tendency to hit a wall on middle school if they lack lottery luck at BASIS or Latin. We've been putting money away for a back-up parochial middle school for a decade and went to a lot of hassle and test prep to prepare to apply to half a dozen. We're not wealthy--we earn 150K between us--but we planned to stay and have.

These posts are hilarious because I don't think you could make a better argument for moving away from Capitol Hill than this person. Run! Run away! These people are smug a$$holes!

Also imagine paying current Hill prices to live next door to this person, who lucked into a row house for 600k 15 years ago and is convinced that this makes them a superior human being who can't extend an ounce of empathy to anyone who is not exactly like them in ever way.

I would rather live in tract housing in a soulless suburbs of Houston than next door to this person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Simple. If you’re very unhappy with your DC public middle school options and can’t afford a private you move out of DC. Maybe you will need to live in a modest condo in the near burbs as a result, or go far out in the burbs to find a decent house. Perhaps you will even need to move to a different part of the country or abroad. Some of us bought fixers on the Hill 10 or 15 years ago, then put a ridiculous amount of sweat equity into them to afford to stay with older kids and teens. Our real estate choices have enabled us to swing parochial school if our MS charter options aren’t too hot. Our sympathy for those who didn’t plan as well only extends so far.

Look, I'm fine with moving for schools, but the idea that you can't have sympathy for people who maybe were not in a position to "buy fixers on the Hill 10 or 15 years ago" is absurd. People who could afford to buy fixer upper row homes on Capitol Hill in 2007-2002 hit a sweet spot of lower prices and higher inventory (due to the subprime collapse) followed by 15 years of unprecedented price increases. You bought a house you could afford when you could afford it, and it turned out in retrospect to have been the last moment on the Hill when you could do what you did. You got lucky, you aren't a genius.

Being smug about it is gross, but on the other hand, encountering people like you on the Hill is precisely why I don't really mind moving for schools. My kid will get to go to a decent public school with a short commute without having to stress annually about the lottery, and BONUS I no longer have to make small talk with jagoffs like you when I run into you at Eastern Market on the weekends.

NP. You sound jealous, lady, very envious. Right, the Hill is expensive now, wasn't in the early 2000s. There was exactly a sweet spot of lower prices and higher inventory for the thousands of ordinary middle-class Hill families who bought dungeons in those years. These folks turned crumbling brick houses into lovely residences after a scores of trips to the DCRA permitting office, Home Depot and Lowe's. They also did a crazy amount of clean-up, tiling, caulking, landscaping, painting etc.

That's the way the cookie crumbles.

If you're OK with moving for schools, great. The point that you might have....seen this problem coming a mile away is still a fair one. It's a no-brainer that those who expect sympathy on the threads for having to reinvent their lives in the burbs are going to meet with pushback from families who can stay due less to luck than an investment mainly paid for in risk-taking and hard work.

Home Depot and the DCRA permitting office??!! Tiling and caulking??? All to build up equity in your house that has more then doubled in value even without any effort on your part?

Someone let the Nobel committee know. We have a certified HERO on the thread.

[Anonymous]

I'm tired of hearing 4th grade parents we've come up through Brent with expressing shock and dismay (and more shock and dismay) that they're way down on the BASIS and Latins waiting lists.

If you don't like being around CH parents who planned ahead for middle school, who made Plan B, for goodness sakes, move. Find your own kind elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not buying it. Believe me, nobody who renovated a decrepit, gutted shell of a Hill row house 15 years ago, then got their own construction permits after the renovation budget didn't extend for a contractor or permit facilitator to do it for them, is overvaluing their efforts.

Things exactly weren't "going well" for most of us for 5 or 10 years after we bought. There was far more crime on the Hill in the early 2000s than there is now. Our house was burgled twice between 2008 and 2010. Even the best of the DCPS Hill elementary schools were still iffy in those days. At that time, in-bound parents of babies and toddlers would sometimes get involved in PTAs, even before the ECE years, to try to improve the schools.

What I see happening these days is parents who don't do nearly enough research, realistic thinking or back-up planning having a tendency to hit a wall on middle school if they lack lottery luck at BASIS or Latin. We've been putting money away for a back-up parochial middle school for a decade and went to a lot of hassle and test prep to prepare to apply to half a dozen. We're not wealthy--we earn 150K between us--but we planned to stay and have.

Having been there, that part just wasted everyone's time.

NP who doesn't know what you're getting us. DCPS elementary schools will take in-boundary volunteers where they can find them. To my knowledge, the parents of toddlers were the ones who got the ball rolling on major change at Brent 20 years ago, Maury 15 years ago, Ludlow 5 years ago. Good for them. Yes, if you don't want to move to the burbs for schools eventually, you do what you can to stay, starting now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not buying it. Believe me, nobody who renovated a decrepit, gutted shell of a Hill row house 15 years ago, then got their own construction permits after the renovation budget didn't extend for a contractor or permit facilitator to do it for them, is overvaluing their efforts.

Things exactly weren't "going well" for most of us for 5 or 10 years after we bought. There was far more crime on the Hill in the early 2000s than there is now. Our house was burgled twice between 2008 and 2010. Even the best of the DCPS Hill elementary schools were still iffy in those days. At that time, in-bound parents of babies and toddlers would sometimes get involved in PTAs, even before the ECE years, to try to improve the schools.

What I see happening these days is parents who don't do nearly enough research, realistic thinking or back-up planning having a tendency to hit a wall on middle school if they lack lottery luck at BASIS or Latin. We've been putting money away for a back-up parochial middle school for a decade and went to a lot of hassle and test prep to prepare to apply to half a dozen. We're not wealthy--we earn 150K between us--but we planned to stay and have.

Having been there, that part just wasted everyone's time.

NP who doesn't know what you're getting us. DCPS elementary schools will take in-boundary volunteers where they can find them. To my knowledge, the parents of toddlers were the ones who got the ball rolling on major change at Brent 20 years ago, Maury 15 years ago, Ludlow 5 years ago. Good for them. Yes, if you don't want to move to the burbs for schools eventually, you do what you can to stay, starting now.

This whole line of argument is so absurd. The point here is not “what kind of random machination can someone do to stay on the Hill” but rather what the bulk of normal people have as dependable options. Useless suggestions include:

- plan to be rich and buy a $1+ house in N Arlington
- plan to have the money to send kids to private MS and HS (and of course plan to have your kids admitted)
- plan for your housing equity to double
- volunteer at the HS and MS starting when your child is 2, and plan for that to turnaround the schools in 10 years
- plan to get a spot at Latin or Basis

[Anonymous]

I don't get why people who move, feel this strong urge to justify their actions. Move on, do your thing, no need to beat ones who chose not to, instead focus on improving schools you picked.