where to look for $400K in MoCo?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Hm. Where is this Kensington neighborhood where the average home price is $1 million? I can't picture it.

PP is probably talking about Chevy Chase View or Rock Creek Hills. I still think she's exaggerating, though. But not by much.

I just looked at a nice house in that neighborhood for $650k. And it looked like all the rest of them. I'm sure there are ones that have Vikings etc. and go for me, but the million dollar home has to be rare. There's no neighborhood that I am aware of in Kensington that would average $750k to $1mill. Maybe a few streets of a larger grouping. Too many homes in Kensington not redone or renovated for that. Almost all areas are a mixed bag. My friend lives in Rock Creek Hills and she bought a crappy house at the height of the market for $850k and put in $150k to renovate (just the interior; no walls moved etc.) and her house probably could list for maybe the $850k today. It is no looker either. Nice location and good place to raise a kid and good schools but visually unappealing for the most part in my view. Mostly ugly houses.

[Anonymous]

Woodmoor is a good option for me, but the public elementary school appears to be uber sucky.

Takoma Park is a good option as well but I find the streets in and around it very congested and find it harder than you would think to get into DC and out to the beltway (driving).

I too am struggling with finding the perfect neighborhood. Ideally I'd like to find a historic looking home - so sick of the ugly brick things all over Bethesda and Kensington that are affordable (aka under $650k).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Woodmoor is a good option for me, but the public elementary school appears to be uber sucky.

Takoma Park is a good option as well but I find the streets in and around it very congested and find it harder than you would think to get into DC and out to the beltway (driving).

I too am struggling with finding the perfect neighborhood. Ideally I'd like to find a historic looking home - so sick of the ugly brick things all over Bethesda and Kensington that are affordable (aka under $650k).

Montgomery Knolls and Pinecrest are both strong elems...not sure what makes them appear "uber-sucky". Agree with you on TP traffic. If you're looking for Victorian homes, downtown Rockville is another option, otherwise yes most of close-in MoCo is filled with 1930's brick colonials and capes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks for all the replies. We wouldn't be able to afford private school if we bought for $400K. We're currently living in DC in a neighborhood with terrible schools and daunting odds of getting into a good charter or out-of-boundary school. I'm honestly not sure how high my standards are for middle school and high school, partially because our DS isn't even in kindergarden yet. On the one hand, I feel like just about anything would be better than our current school prospects. On the other hand, I really would hate to get to middle school or high school and feel like we made a big mistake. We definitely don't need the best middle school or high school in MoCo--while we would go for that if we could afford it, I know we can't. What are the "worst" MoCo high schools? Are they only bad in comparison to other MoCo (and similarly wealthy suburban) high schools?

My non-driving wife currently works in Silver Spring, but may take a new job at some point, so somewhere that offers public transportation to a variety of places would be good. We don't need to live near somewhere where we can walk to do errands, although that is nice of course. I could drive to work if necessary.

OP here. I guess I wasn't clear that by "worst" high schools I was trying to get a sense of whether all MoCo high schools are actually good--i.e., that the ones that aren't in very wealthy areas are actually quite good in spite of naysayers that only the ones in very wealthy or far-out areas are decent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

OP here. I guess I wasn't clear that by "worst" high schools I was trying to get a sense of whether all MoCo high schools are actually good--i.e., that the ones that aren't in very wealthy areas are actually quite good in spite of naysayers that only the ones in very wealthy or far-out areas are decent.

I think you should:
-look at the SAT scores, comparing them to MD and Nat'l averages
-Get some real world experiences/opinions that are NOT the parents from the wealthiest schools shitting all over the lower ranked schools
-look at the subgroup scores on the MD state tests

I'm not in MD, but when we were looking in a similar price range in Fairfax, we had to be realistic about what HS district we could reasonably afford. Once you know that the top neighborhoods just aren't financially feasible, then you need to find other ways to compare schools. We came down to 2 school districts that were in the middle of the pack as far as Fairfax goes, but well above the state and national averages. Honestly, we love the neighborhood we wound up in because we can walk to all 3 levels of school, a decent shopping center with all the staples we need, parks and the library.

[Anonymous]

I live in Four Corners and the neighborhood high schoolers all go to Blair. (My kids are in younger ...) These are parents with professional careers and advanced degrees who are have high expectations in terms of education.

We talk about schools a lot and I have never heard anyone say anything but praise for Blair. Sure, there are thousands of kids there and not all of them are kids you want your child to hang out with. But these neighborhood kids take academically challenging classes, participate in lots of activities (sports, award-winning school paper, theater, academic clubs/teams, etc.). One kid that I know takes Arabic. I hear similar things about Einstein.

These same kids all went to Silver Spring International Middle School (SSIMS) and, the usual middle-school stuff aside, parents were also generally happy with academic opportunities there.

In any MCPS school, if your child needs very advanced content, you will have to fight for it, particularly in ES and MS. But that's kind of a different issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I live in Four Corners and the neighborhood high schoolers all go to Blair. (My kids are in younger ...) These are parents with professional careers and advanced degrees who are have high expectations in terms of education.

We talk about schools a lot and I have never heard anyone say anything but praise for Blair. Sure, there are thousands of kids there and not all of them are kids you want your child to hang out with. But these neighborhood kids take academically challenging classes, participate in lots of activities (sports, award-winning school paper, theater, academic clubs/teams, etc.). One kid that I know takes Arabic. I hear similar things about Einstein.

These same kids all went to Silver Spring International Middle School (SSIMS) and, the usual middle-school stuff aside, parents were also generally happy with academic opportunities there.

In any MCPS school, if your child needs very advanced content, you will have to fight for it, particularly in ES and MS. But that's kind of a different issue.

+1 on all of this. I would also add that there are bad elements at all MCPS high schools, even Whitman and Churchill. There are plenty of ways to get into trouble for any kid at any school, just like a smart kid can get into Harvard/Hamilton from any MCPS school. The home part of education will always be more important than the name on the outside of your child's high school.

[Anonymous]

What about Rockville near the town center? It's close to metro and walkable and good schools. Not sure about the commute to silver spring though.

http://www.redfin.com/MD/Rockville/618-Monroe-St-20850/home/10511925

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Hm. Where is this Kensington neighborhood where the average home price is $1 million? I can't picture it.

PP is probably talking about Chevy Chase View or Rock Creek Hills. I still think she's exaggerating, though. But not by much.

I just looked at a nice house in that neighborhood for $650k. And it looked like all the rest of them. I'm sure there are ones that have Vikings etc. and go for me, but the million dollar home has to be rare. There's no neighborhood that I am aware of in Kensington that would average $750k to $1mill. Maybe a few streets of a larger grouping. Too many homes in Kensington not redone or renovated for that. Almost all areas are a mixed bag. My friend lives in Rock Creek Hills and she bought a crappy house at the height of the market for $850k and put in $150k to renovate (just the interior; no walls moved etc.) and her house probably could list for maybe the $850k today. It is no looker either. Nice location and good place to raise a kid and good schools but visually unappealing for the most part in my view. Mostly ugly houses.

Aren't you special?

[Anonymous]

12:52

Maybe they are ugly to you but obviously people are paying for them. Are they CC Section 5 - no. Are they Chevy Chase D.C. - no. Are they Cleveland Park - no. Are they Kenwood - no. But they are way nicer than many of the houses in North Chevy Chase and tons of the the houses in Bethesda.

You also don't know what you're talking about. There are very few houses in RCH that haven't been redone - the exception may be the houses east of the Mormon Temple.

Click on the link for sold price info and for photos. I wouldn't call these houses ugly.

http://www.zillow.com/homes/Rock-Creek-Hills,-MD_rb/

OP I don't want to hijack your thread so I won't comment further but I didn't want this post to go unchallenged. Hope the poster's "friend" in RCH doesn't read DCUM.

[Anonymous]

Chevy chase view in Kensington (where holy redeemer parish is) has the million dollar homes. And some tear downs in parkwood have been replaced by pricey McMansions.

[Anonymous]

PP here, go to http://homesdatabase.com and put in 400,000 for max price and these two zip codes 20901, 20910

BTW, there is one house 399,000 in Seven Oaks and several in Sligo Hills. There was one last month in Woodmoor, but it sold.

Find a house.
Find the school in the school locator:
http://gis.mcpsmd.org/gis/Publiclocator.asp

Go look at the school and demographics and scores etc.
http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schools/#tabs

You will just have to start looking.

[Anonymous]

OP, to answer your question about schools, with respect to the schools in SS, the conventional wisdom is that Blair, Einstein, and maybe Northwood (it's newer, so not sure of its rep, but should be similar to Blair and Einstein) are the more desirable high schools. Wheaton and Kennedy (the other SS high schools) are to be avoided. I have no idea what it's actually like at any of those schools, but those are the reputations.

[Anonymous]

Teach your wife how to drive

[Anonymous]

OP, stay put in DC until your DC starts pre-K. Go through the lottery process before moving to the suburbs. You are better off playing the lottery than moving to a county where there is no public pre-K option.