Tradeoffs when purchasing a rowhome

[Anonymous]

We never heard a thing from either side in our Logan rowhouse. We lived in the area until our kid was 4 and I am glad we moved just before the pandemic. We actually went to Gtown and our kid attends a close by private. Gtown is not all super wealthy. You have students, you have many expats working IO jobs and there are a good number of families. The access to parks is great and it is also easy to drive out of there (unless you are all the way in the north corner) for a weekend out of town. OP, I assume you are targeting the Western part of Dupont and the kid will attend the school without walls? That should be the better part of Dupont to live at with decent access to Rose Park and Rock Creek and all the amenities. I am not sure how easy it is to establish a circle of friends in that area, but for us one of the reasons we left Logan is that while there were many babies, everyone moved away by school age. But our school would have been Garrison.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Dupont is great because there is a lot to offer. With a preschool kid, however, the school situation will get complicated quickly if you stay in the DC area. Before you know it, you're going to be thinking about middle schools and high schools. If you're considering independent schools, I strongly recommend looking at upper NW and Bethesda now. I know that some of these neighborhoods seem soul sucking but travel time is VERY real. If you're thinking public or charter for middle and high school, also look carefully at the options and what the daily commute would look like.

If we stick with our in-bounds school, we'll stay there through middle school but agree on high school. We don't have a game plan, a lot is going to depend on our kid to some extent and where they will do best. Having the same school for K-Middle seems like a good thing, but we'll see.

if HS solution is not immediately apparent you need to through the options now. we made the mistake of "we will figure it out later" with our 3 and a newborn at the time, and it turned out, the only solution was to move. we felt like there would be a lot of time to figure things out but actually 1) the passage of time didn't solve anything; no new HS options appeared; if anything what we loosely assumed could be options turned out not to be 2) we started getting anxious about the HS much earlier than we anticipated. you are not going to live at peace for the next 7 or 8 years. you won't hit a middle school before you start obsessing about what to do with HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're ready to put an offer in on a Dupont rowhome; trading off space to be near to everything and in-bounds for the school we want (2 adults 1 preschool aged kid).

The only thing that makes this a tough pill to swallow is seeing the giant, newly renovated homes in other neighborhoods (Capitol Hill, Columbia Heights, etc) for the same or less. We tried to love Georgetown but preferred Dupont/Foggy Bottom/West End more.

At the end, we feel the tradeoff for being in the neighborhood we want/near everything makes up for the lack of space, but maybe it's a mistake - anyone been through this?
I keep telling myself we're being picky - this house is well within 'normal' size; everyone lived in smaller homes and managed just fine, etc. etc.

Current owners are moving to the suburbs with 3 kids, meanwhile.

You could also got a five bedroom in the suburbs for the same money but do you actually want to live there?? Don’t compare yourself to others or do what you think you’re “supposed” to do.

+1. I also don't know if the cost/ space tradeoff is that stark - maybe if you're looking at more isolated parts of upper NW, but the ones close to the Metro (like actually close so you would use it all the time - <.5 miles) are still very expensive for small homes. We moved to upper NW from Dupont, and I think what we ended up paying could have gotten us a somewhat comparable rowhouse property in Dupont - smaller lot for sure, and likely smaller yard and a bit less square footage, but not dramatically so. We decided to move but I think it would have been a reasonable choice to stay in Dupont.

One of the reasons we moved was we wanted to feel settled and able to stay here through middle school etc with roughly the same neighbors. I also felt like Dupont was very transient and many of the pre-kids amenities weren't attractive anymore. I know they just renovated a playground in Dupont, but there are so many great options up here - we sometimes go to several playgrounds in one day, go to RCP and Glover Park regularly, Hearst Pool, Wilson Pool (when it was open, rrr), etc. The lack of a library was also annoying - we use the one by us all the time. There are lots of block parties where we are now, which is a perk I didn't think of before. But again, totally reasonable to stay in Dupont and decide later if you want to move. You'll also be able to find more urbanist value type families if you stay there - it's a bit of a mix where we are now (people that like to do city/museum/public transit-accessed activities, vs those that drive everywhere and aren't really out and about in the neighborhood).

But I wouldn't say it comes down to the cost/sq footage tradeoff, unless you're talking about an isolated more suburban house in Barnaby Woods or Palisades/ Spring Valley or whatever (which is a different conversation, and we didn't consider those). AU Park used to be relatively cheaper per sqft, but that's starting to change - many properties seem to go for Cleveland Park/ Tenleytown prices now, esp those east of 46th Street. If you're ok with the area near the FH metro, those properties do tend to be priced lower.

[Anonymous]

During our search we looked at homes in Cleveland Park/Woodley Park/Glover Park/Burleith/Foggy Bottom/Georgetown/Dupont. We didn’t want to go further north and preferred metro access but that wasn’t a deal breaker.

Dupont was initially further down the list, but after a while it moved up just due to convenience and proximity to everything we needed. Got into a bidding war in GP and lost, that home didn’t have a yard either and neither did the one we looked at in CP. Yes, we’re prepared to move again if HS access becomes a problem, but for now - fingers crossed! - we hope we are making a good choice that will improve our family’s ability to spend more time together and less time shuttling around to commute/school/etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you typically near neighbors through the walls of a row home in DC?

In the three rowhomes I have live in dc (all between 150-110 years old), no.

In a brand new “luxury” building? Absolutely.

This is so good to know. I've been attracted to rowhouses, but always ruled them out, even though they seem perfect for me, because of horrible experiences sharing walls in apartment buildings. Noise issues.

Our rowhouse is basically silent. I guess if real partiers or screamers lived next store it could get annoying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I used to live exactly at the south dupont / west end / foggy bottom and agree it is the best area. Super easy to access pretty much the whole city, two subway lines, lots of buses, a tj, wf, library. Its dreamy.

The streetscape is butt ugly though, and there is no sense of community for children.

It's perfect for the single 32 year old economist who wants a walkable commute to his WB job

[Anonymous]

row house is what you buy when you are single, you should look into mclean or bethesda, its much better for families

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you typically near neighbors through the walls of a row home in DC?

In the three rowhomes I have live in dc (all between 150-110 years old), no.

In a brand new “luxury” building? Absolutely.

+1
In our new build Logan condo and townhome, yes. In any of the historic townhouses we have lived in, no. The original construction is unlike anything they do today / much thicker party walls, then lathes over the brick and a thick layer of plaster. We lived in one that was so old, it had horsehair mixed into the I side most layer of plaster. We never heard a thing.