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

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Most people on CH can’t afford to move or go private, so they are really stuck. However there are more charter high schools than the ones DCUM finds acceptable and many families I know send their kids to these high schools.

Total BS. Whether a family rents or buys on CH, the same money spent on rent and equity/mortgage payments could be spent on housing in the DC burbs. No middle-class family is stuck with mediocre or bad schooling options in Ward 6.

No, housing is relatively cheaper on the Hill. Many of us can’t trade up that easily.

Cheaper as compared to where? North and Central Arlington 3-bedroom houses and Hill houses are priced comparably (we've done lots of searching). Same with 3-bedroom rentals. Almost all of Fairfax and Falls Church and at least half of MoCo are cheaper than the Hill.

Not for schools that are clearly better.

NW DC, Arlington, Falls Church and MoCo zoned for the “good” schools have almosr nothing under $1m. 20002/20003 currently have 150+ 2br+ properties for under $1 mil. Fairfax is better but you start getting really deep into the burbs and trading off time for money.

This leaves families contemplating a move to the DCC or Richard Montgomery HS. At that point many Hill families will stick it out a bit longer to hope that Walls or McKinley or a cheaper Catholic HS will work out.

You keep saying this. But you've been told over and over again that things sell quickly in these areas so you just won't ever see lots of inventory at any price point. (At least not in the 7 years I've lived in Arlington.) There are never ever 150+ properties on the market in a single price range. You have to watch when things come up and pounce. It doesn't mean that there aren't options. It just means that they don't sit around.

This is not even remotely limited to Arlington. Houses in the Dc area sell fast. And i don’t know where you’re finding homes under 1 million on Capitol Hill. They don’t really exist.

As a final note- Arlington middle schools are not good.

There's some poster who is convinced there are >150 properties on the Hill for sale for less than $1m. That doesn't seem right to me, but I'm not going to waste my time checking. She has some crazy notion that there are endless cheap options on the Hill, but nothing at all is affordable in Arlington. (Of course her reference for Arlington is that nothing is listed the last week of July--literally the worst time to look for real estate in the DMV.).

“I don’t believe you and I’m not going to check but you’re wrong for sure.”

truly amazing

I checked. There is exactly 1 (one) 3 bedroom home on Capitol Hill under a million dollars. One. And the reason for the low price has mostly to do with the condition of the home. If you remove the filter for 3 bedrooms and choose 2 bedrooms and up, there are 5 homes for sale, and 4 of them are condos.

So whoever you are, stop being crazy and pretending there are tons of homes on the hill for sale for under a million. I wish there were- I would happily buy one!

Huh? You’re not using Redfin correctly or you have a very restricted definition of Capitol Hill. Try again because you’re wrong.

Signed, someone who will be selling a Maury-zoned house soon for around 900k.

NP. Out of morbid curiosity, I just looked on Redfin for 3 beds 2 bath on the Hill sold for under $1 million in the last 6 months. I came up with 7 properties, four of which sold for over $950k.

Who said we all live in 3br/2ba homes? And you’re probably not searching the entire SH/EH cachement (an extended definition of the Hill).

The reason this line of discussion came up here is to point out that “move to N Arlington where the schools are better” is not financially feasible for many Hill families facing down MS/HS (or upper elementary in the case of some schools). Many of us do not live in $1mil houses. Cashing out our home equity means either a) moving way out to Fairfax to get “good” schools or b) making a trade up to MoCo where it’s arguable whether the DCC HS are that much of an upgrade over waiting to see if something works out in DC.

The DCC HS contingent is very much an upgrade over CH - at least in my opinion. Have you even visited any school open houses there? I’m pretty sure your kid can do a shadow day if you ask for it

Genuinely asking—why are people negative on DCC? I don’t get why it’s not popular. I’m considering it, but the anti posts make me feel like maybe I am missing something. At Blair, seems like you can take amazing classes even if you aren’t in the magnet. Parents on high achievers in the DCC seem pretty happy. What am I missing?

Because DCUM is not real life and this forum is mostly dominated by white women from Bethesda, NW DC and NoVa. They are negatives of any area that's not theirs. Most DCC parents don't care to post on DCUM.
More parents in real life move to the DCC than Bethesda, Potomac and Chevy Chase combined.

What is DCC?

Then Downcounty Consortium of schools in MoCo. It's a cluster of schools where students are IB for a specific triangle but there are opportunities to apply for and attend magnet programs throughout the consortium.

https://www2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/school-info/Downcounty/

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Most people on CH can’t afford to move or go private, so they are really stuck. However there are more charter high schools than the ones DCUM finds acceptable and many families I know send their kids to these high schools.

Total BS. Whether a family rents or buys on CH, the same money spent on rent and equity/mortgage payments could be spent on housing in the DC burbs. No middle-class family is stuck with mediocre or bad schooling options in Ward 6.

No, housing is relatively cheaper on the Hill. Many of us can’t trade up that easily.

Cheaper as compared to where? North and Central Arlington 3-bedroom houses and Hill houses are priced comparably (we've done lots of searching). Same with 3-bedroom rentals. Almost all of Fairfax and Falls Church and at least half of MoCo are cheaper than the Hill.

Not for schools that are clearly better.

NW DC, Arlington, Falls Church and MoCo zoned for the “good” schools have almosr nothing under $1m. 20002/20003 currently have 150+ 2br+ properties for under $1 mil. Fairfax is better but you start getting really deep into the burbs and trading off time for money.

This leaves families contemplating a move to the DCC or Richard Montgomery HS. At that point many Hill families will stick it out a bit longer to hope that Walls or McKinley or a cheaper Catholic HS will work out.

You keep saying this. But you've been told over and over again that things sell quickly in these areas so you just won't ever see lots of inventory at any price point. (At least not in the 7 years I've lived in Arlington.) There are never ever 150+ properties on the market in a single price range. You have to watch when things come up and pounce. It doesn't mean that there aren't options. It just means that they don't sit around.

This is not even remotely limited to Arlington. Houses in the Dc area sell fast. And i don’t know where you’re finding homes under 1 million on Capitol Hill. They don’t really exist.

As a final note- Arlington middle schools are not good.

There's some poster who is convinced there are >150 properties on the Hill for sale for less than $1m. That doesn't seem right to me, but I'm not going to waste my time checking. She has some crazy notion that there are endless cheap options on the Hill, but nothing at all is affordable in Arlington. (Of course her reference for Arlington is that nothing is listed the last week of July--literally the worst time to look for real estate in the DMV.).

“I don’t believe you and I’m not going to check but you’re wrong for sure.”

truly amazing

I checked. There is exactly 1 (one) 3 bedroom home on Capitol Hill under a million dollars. One. And the reason for the low price has mostly to do with the condition of the home. If you remove the filter for 3 bedrooms and choose 2 bedrooms and up, there are 5 homes for sale, and 4 of them are condos.

So whoever you are, stop being crazy and pretending there are tons of homes on the hill for sale for under a million. I wish there were- I would happily buy one!

Huh? You’re not using Redfin correctly or you have a very restricted definition of Capitol Hill. Try again because you’re wrong.

Signed, someone who will be selling a Maury-zoned house soon for around 900k.

NP. Out of morbid curiosity, I just looked on Redfin for 3 beds 2 bath on the Hill sold for under $1 million in the last 6 months. I came up with 7 properties, four of which sold for over $950k.

Who said we all live in 3br/2ba homes? And you’re probably not searching the entire SH/EH cachement (an extended definition of the Hill).

The reason this line of discussion came up here is to point out that “move to N Arlington where the schools are better” is not financially feasible for many Hill families facing down MS/HS (or upper elementary in the case of some schools). Many of us do not live in $1mil houses. Cashing out our home equity means either a) moving way out to Fairfax to get “good” schools or b) making a trade up to MoCo where it’s arguable whether the DCC HS are that much of an upgrade over waiting to see if something works out in DC.

The DCC HS contingent is very much an upgrade over CH - at least in my opinion. Have you even visited any school open houses there? I’m pretty sure your kid can do a shadow day if you ask for it

Genuinely asking—why are people negative on DCC? I don’t get why it’s not popular. I’m considering it, but the anti posts make me feel like maybe I am missing something. At Blair, seems like you can take amazing classes even if you aren’t in the magnet. Parents on high achievers in the DCC seem pretty happy. What am I missing?

Blair intimidates me because it is so giant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We moved to SS from DC (not CH)when my DC was starting 8th. Now she is at Einstein. Is it perfect? No. But she has been able to participate on two school sports teams and made a good group of friends. We moved due to rising crime in our DC neighborhood.

That's great. Glad to hear it.

No school situation is perfect. Some are better than others.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:To the renting in Hill East poster (and to the lesser degree to the OP), if you overall really like the neighborhood, why not just stay? Leave if and when it actually stops working. Its maybe kind of like the observation in the Lean In book - people get worried about middle and high school and not having a rock solid next 5-10 year plan but then they leave far before it actually stops working.

Not OP or the Hill East poster, but the reason we are thinking of leaving before it "stops working" is that we'd like to avoid a situation where our kid is 12 or 13, we have run out of options on the Hill, and we have to uproot them not only form our neighborhood and school, but also their extra-curricular activities and non-school friends.

It's easier to move a kid at 7 or 8 than once they've started MS. That's why even people who would be okay with SH or EH for middle still sometimes move pre-emptively, because if you bank on Walls or Banneker (or even private) for HS and it doesn't work out as you hoped, moving for high school is going to be more painful than moving when your kid is in 4th or 5th grade and there is still time for them to establish new friend groups and extra-curriculars in another community before they are totally entrenched.

Lot of people move kids to elite privates, boarding and magnets in 9th grade.

In Upper NW maybe, but not from Capitol Hill. The Hill families we know who "went private" mostly enrolled in parochial high schools in VA or MD. What do you mean by magnets? Banneker or Walls? They're certainly not like magnets in MoCo or the one I attended in NYC as a teen (Stuyvesant). Kids can't apply to suburban magnets from DC, or past 8th grade in the burbs.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I don't the angst expressed in this long thread. If you know that you won't have the money/resources to enjoy life on the Hill with older kids without serious MS lottery luck, why not simply put roots down in the burbs in the first place? If you can afford good public schools for your kids in the burbs but not in DC, live in the burbs, no brainer, no regrets.

Why should any of us who've figured out to stay on CH comfortably in the absence of lottery luck bother to offer advice when we're slammed for suggesting this and that? What use is the envy, the accusations of smugness on the part of "jackasses?" Why not simply applaud all the families who found solutions that worked, wherever they landed.

This thread has become a waste of time. Sore losers, be gone.

The topic of this thread is "for people who have moved out of CH to NW or burbs, do you have regrets/what are your feelings?"

But for some reason, you (a person who has not moved out of CH) has made this thread entirely about your choices and your feelings about people who STAY in CH. No one asked!

Literally every one of your comments is a waste of time and a distraction from the actual topic of the thread, but you are so self-centered and myopic that it doesn't even occur to you that this thread simply is not for you. If you want a thread in which people congratulate you on your good planning for MS/HS on the Hill, you are more than welcome to start that thread, and watch as no one posts in in because NO ONE CARES ABOUT YOU.

For someone who prides themselves on being smarter than everyone else, you keep demonstrating your basic lack of common sense and reading comprehension. Hope your kid's private does a better job teaching them those skills, since obviously they aren't getting it from you.

You're coming at the wrong poster. I've only posted a couple times and my posts were quite brief and pretty benign. Many families who stay think hard about leaving over schools. We certainly have.

If you are the immediate PP who said "Sore losers, be gone," then no, I'm directing my comments at the correct poster. That's not "benign." It's antagonizing, and you know it.

If you're bothered by a mild refernce to sore losers, the PP above touched a nerve for a reason. Sorry that you have to leave Capitol Hill. Don't worry, things will work out.

Uh, calling people names is not "a mild reference to sore losers." It's literally calling people who are upset about their lottery results "sore losers." It's rude. You can't twist it to make it normal.

I'm guessing it's the same person who earlier in the thread said "go find your own kind." We get it. You want people who can't afford private school to leave Capitol Hill. Point made. It doesn't make these comments "mild."

NP who thinks PP above should focus on finding a way forward on schools for HER FAMILY rather than lashing out with thin-skinned nonsense in a generalized way.

We were also upset about our 4th grade lottery results, for a few days. We quickly went into plan-making mode. We decided to stay for 5th at the DCPS school where we started in K, which worked out OK, with help from Mathnasium and Capitol Teachers tutors.

We lotteried into DCI for 6th. We've made the program work, although we don't love it. The long commute is a drag and our bright kid isn't pushed by the curriculum. We're planning to apply to Walls, MacArthur, Banneker and private high schools. We're not planning to leave the Hill. Good luck, all.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I don't the angst expressed in this long thread. If you know that you won't have the money/resources to enjoy life on the Hill with older kids without serious MS lottery luck, why not simply put roots down in the burbs in the first place? If you can afford good public schools for your kids in the burbs but not in DC, live in the burbs, no brainer, no regrets.

Why should any of us who've figured out to stay on CH comfortably in the absence of lottery luck bother to offer advice when we're slammed for suggesting this and that? What use is the envy, the accusations of smugness on the part of "jackasses?" Why not simply applaud all the families who found solutions that worked, wherever they landed.

This thread has become a waste of time. Sore losers, be gone.

The topic of this thread is "for people who have moved out of CH to NW or burbs, do you have regrets/what are your feelings?"

But for some reason, you (a person who has not moved out of CH) has made this thread entirely about your choices and your feelings about people who STAY in CH. No one asked!

Literally every one of your comments is a waste of time and a distraction from the actual topic of the thread, but you are so self-centered and myopic that it doesn't even occur to you that this thread simply is not for you. If you want a thread in which people congratulate you on your good planning for MS/HS on the Hill, you are more than welcome to start that thread, and watch as no one posts in in because NO ONE CARES ABOUT YOU.

For someone who prides themselves on being smarter than everyone else, you keep demonstrating your basic lack of common sense and reading comprehension. Hope your kid's private does a better job teaching them those skills, since obviously they aren't getting it from you.

You're coming at the wrong poster. I've only posted a couple times and my posts were quite brief and pretty benign. Many families who stay think hard about leaving over schools. We certainly have.

If you are the immediate PP who said "Sore losers, be gone," then no, I'm directing my comments at the correct poster. That's not "benign." It's antagonizing, and you know it.

If you're bothered by a mild refernce to sore losers, the PP above touched a nerve for a reason. Sorry that you have to leave Capitol Hill. Don't worry, things will work out.

Uh, calling people names is not "a mild reference to sore losers." It's literally calling people who are upset about their lottery results "sore losers." It's rude. You can't twist it to make it normal.

I'm guessing it's the same person who earlier in the thread said "go find your own kind." We get it. You want people who can't afford private school to leave Capitol Hill. Point made. It doesn't make these comments "mild."

NP who thinks PP above should focus on finding a way forward on schools for HER FAMILY rather than lashing out with thin-skinned nonsense in a generalized way.

We were also upset about our 4th grade lottery results, for a few days. We quickly went into plan-making mode. We decided to stay for 5th at the DCPS school where we started in K, which worked out OK, with help from Mathnasium and Capitol Teachers tutors.

We lotteried into DCI for 6th. We've made the program work, although we don't love it. The long commute is a drag and our bright kid isn't pushed by the curriculum. We're planning to apply to Walls, MacArthur, Banneker and private high schools. We're not planning to leave the Hill. Good luck, all.

I'm the PP and I already have a plan for my kid and we don't even intend to lottery for Latin or BASIS. My family's doing great, thanks. We bought a house last summer zoned for Eastern/Blair and are going to fix it up over the next two years while DC finishes out elementary, then move and sell our condo on the Hill. We are fortunate to have gotten some help with the down payment on that house which is enabling us to swing two mortgages while we make this transition. I understand this solution is not available to everyone and is pretty specific to our situation.

I still think the people whining about CH neighbors who "failed to plan" or are "sore losers" or who should "go find their own kind" are gross. It's just gross language and it's disappointing to find it in a thread about a common issue among CH families. Even if you've sorted this out and are happy with your options and decisions, as we are, there is absolutely no reason not to have empathy for people who are still struggling. And it's especially ridiculous to refuse to acknowledge that not everyone has the same options or resources.

If anyone wants to come complain to me about their lottery results or their feelings about MS/HS options from the Hill, I'll listen and commiserate. I get it and I also understand that people who haven't done exactly what I've done aren't stupid or lazy.

These comments on this thread have honestly just made me glad we're leaving the Hill. There are great people here but there are also some smug jerks and I'm happy to leave them behind. CH is great but it's not the last good place. It doesn't even have a decent HS! it's obviously not perfect.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To the renting in Hill East poster (and to the lesser degree to the OP), if you overall really like the neighborhood, why not just stay? Leave if and when it actually stops working. Its maybe kind of like the observation in the Lean In book - people get worried about middle and high school and not having a rock solid next 5-10 year plan but then they leave far before it actually stops working.

Not OP or the Hill East poster, but the reason we are thinking of leaving before it "stops working" is that we'd like to avoid a situation where our kid is 12 or 13, we have run out of options on the Hill, and we have to uproot them not only form our neighborhood and school, but also their extra-curricular activities and non-school friends.

It's easier to move a kid at 7 or 8 than once they've started MS. That's why even people who would be okay with SH or EH for middle still sometimes move pre-emptively, because if you bank on Walls or Banneker (or even private) for HS and it doesn't work out as you hoped, moving for high school is going to be more painful than moving when your kid is in 4th or 5th grade and there is still time for them to establish new friend groups and extra-curriculars in another community before they are totally entrenched.

Lot of people move kids to elite privates, boarding and magnets in 9th grade.

In Upper NW maybe, but not from Capitol Hill. The Hill families we know who "went private" mostly enrolled in parochial high schools in VA or MD. What do you mean by magnets? Banneker or Walls? They're certainly not like magnets in MoCo or the one I attended in NYC as a teen (Stuyvesant). Kids can't apply to suburban magnets from DC, or past 8th grade in the burbs.

Oh god the NYC magnet troll has arrived.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't the angst expressed in this long thread. If you know that you won't have the money/resources to enjoy life on the Hill with older kids without serious MS lottery luck, why not simply put roots down in the burbs in the first place? If you can afford good public schools for your kids in the burbs but not in DC, live in the burbs, no brainer, no regrets.

Why should any of us who've figured out to stay on CH comfortably in the absence of lottery luck bother to offer advice when we're slammed for suggesting this and that? What use is the envy, the accusations of smugness on the part of "jackasses?" Why not simply applaud all the families who found solutions that worked, wherever they landed.

This thread has become a waste of time. Sore losers, be gone.

The topic of this thread is "for people who have moved out of CH to NW or burbs, do you have regrets/what are your feelings?"

But for some reason, you (a person who has not moved out of CH) has made this thread entirely about your choices and your feelings about people who STAY in CH. No one asked!

Literally every one of your comments is a waste of time and a distraction from the actual topic of the thread, but you are so self-centered and myopic that it doesn't even occur to you that this thread simply is not for you. If you want a thread in which people congratulate you on your good planning for MS/HS on the Hill, you are more than welcome to start that thread, and watch as no one posts in in because NO ONE CARES ABOUT YOU.

For someone who prides themselves on being smarter than everyone else, you keep demonstrating your basic lack of common sense and reading comprehension. Hope your kid's private does a better job teaching them those skills, since obviously they aren't getting it from you.

You're coming at the wrong poster. I've only posted a couple times and my posts were quite brief and pretty benign. Many families who stay think hard about leaving over schools. We certainly have.

If you are the immediate PP who said "Sore losers, be gone," then no, I'm directing my comments at the correct poster. That's not "benign." It's antagonizing, and you know it.

If you're bothered by a mild refernce to sore losers, the PP above touched a nerve for a reason. Sorry that you have to leave Capitol Hill. Don't worry, things will work out.

Uh, calling people names is not "a mild reference to sore losers." It's literally calling people who are upset about their lottery results "sore losers." It's rude. You can't twist it to make it normal.

I'm guessing it's the same person who earlier in the thread said "go find your own kind." We get it. You want people who can't afford private school to leave Capitol Hill. Point made. It doesn't make these comments "mild."

NP who thinks PP above should focus on finding a way forward on schools for HER FAMILY rather than lashing out with thin-skinned nonsense in a generalized way.

We were also upset about our 4th grade lottery results, for a few days. We quickly went into plan-making mode. We decided to stay for 5th at the DCPS school where we started in K, which worked out OK, with help from Mathnasium and Capitol Teachers tutors.

We lotteried into DCI for 6th. We've made the program work, although we don't love it. The long commute is a drag and our bright kid isn't pushed by the curriculum. We're planning to apply to Walls, MacArthur, Banneker and private high schools. We're not planning to leave the Hill. Good luck, all.

I'm the PP and I already have a plan for my kid and we don't even intend to lottery for Latin or BASIS. My family's doing great, thanks. We bought a house last summer zoned for Eastern/Blair and are going to fix it up over the next two years while DC finishes out elementary, then move and sell our condo on the Hill. We are fortunate to have gotten some help with the down payment on that house which is enabling us to swing two mortgages while we make this transition. I understand this solution is not available to everyone and is pretty specific to our situation.

I still think the people whining about CH neighbors who "failed to plan" or are "sore losers" or who should "go find their own kind" are gross. It's just gross language and it's disappointing to find it in a thread about a common issue among CH families. Even if you've sorted this out and are happy with your options and decisions, as we are, there is absolutely no reason not to have empathy for people who are still struggling. And it's especially ridiculous to refuse to acknowledge that not everyone has the same options or resources.

If anyone wants to come complain to me about their lottery results or their feelings about MS/HS options from the Hill, I'll listen and commiserate. I get it and I also understand that people who haven't done exactly what I've done aren't stupid or lazy.

These comments on this thread have honestly just made me glad we're leaving the Hill. There are great people here but there are also some smug jerks and I'm happy to leave them behind. CH is great but it's not the last good place. It doesn't even have a decent HS! it's obviously not perfect.

Good for you. Seems like a good plan. I think it will work out well. You will also have good state university options

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Most people on CH can’t afford to move or go private, so they are really stuck. However there are more charter high schools than the ones DCUM finds acceptable and many families I know send their kids to these high schools.

Total BS. Whether a family rents or buys on CH, the same money spent on rent and equity/mortgage payments could be spent on housing in the DC burbs. No middle-class family is stuck with mediocre or bad schooling options in Ward 6.

No, housing is relatively cheaper on the Hill. Many of us can’t trade up that easily.

Cheaper as compared to where? North and Central Arlington 3-bedroom houses and Hill houses are priced comparably (we've done lots of searching). Same with 3-bedroom rentals. Almost all of Fairfax and Falls Church and at least half of MoCo are cheaper than the Hill.

Not for schools that are clearly better.

NW DC, Arlington, Falls Church and MoCo zoned for the “good” schools have almosr nothing under $1m. 20002/20003 currently have 150+ 2br+ properties for under $1 mil. Fairfax is better but you start getting really deep into the burbs and trading off time for money.

This leaves families contemplating a move to the DCC or Richard Montgomery HS. At that point many Hill families will stick it out a bit longer to hope that Walls or McKinley or a cheaper Catholic HS will work out.

You keep saying this. But you've been told over and over again that things sell quickly in these areas so you just won't ever see lots of inventory at any price point. (At least not in the 7 years I've lived in Arlington.) There are never ever 150+ properties on the market in a single price range. You have to watch when things come up and pounce. It doesn't mean that there aren't options. It just means that they don't sit around.

This is not even remotely limited to Arlington. Houses in the Dc area sell fast. And i don’t know where you’re finding homes under 1 million on Capitol Hill. They don’t really exist.

As a final note- Arlington middle schools are not good.

There's some poster who is convinced there are >150 properties on the Hill for sale for less than $1m. That doesn't seem right to me, but I'm not going to waste my time checking. She has some crazy notion that there are endless cheap options on the Hill, but nothing at all is affordable in Arlington. (Of course her reference for Arlington is that nothing is listed the last week of July--literally the worst time to look for real estate in the DMV.).

“I don’t believe you and I’m not going to check but you’re wrong for sure.”

truly amazing

I checked. There is exactly 1 (one) 3 bedroom home on Capitol Hill under a million dollars. One. And the reason for the low price has mostly to do with the condition of the home. If you remove the filter for 3 bedrooms and choose 2 bedrooms and up, there are 5 homes for sale, and 4 of them are condos.

So whoever you are, stop being crazy and pretending there are tons of homes on the hill for sale for under a million. I wish there were- I would happily buy one!

Huh? You’re not using Redfin correctly or you have a very restricted definition of Capitol Hill. Try again because you’re wrong.

Signed, someone who will be selling a Maury-zoned house soon for around 900k.

NP. Out of morbid curiosity, I just looked on Redfin for 3 beds 2 bath on the Hill sold for under $1 million in the last 6 months. I came up with 7 properties, four of which sold for over $950k.

Who said we all live in 3br/2ba homes? And you’re probably not searching the entire SH/EH cachement (an extended definition of the Hill).

The reason this line of discussion came up here is to point out that “move to N Arlington where the schools are better” is not financially feasible for many Hill families facing down MS/HS (or upper elementary in the case of some schools). Many of us do not live in $1mil houses. Cashing out our home equity means either a) moving way out to Fairfax to get “good” schools or b) making a trade up to MoCo where it’s arguable whether the DCC HS are that much of an upgrade over waiting to see if something works out in DC.

The DCC HS contingent is very much an upgrade over CH - at least in my opinion. Have you even visited any school open houses there? I’m pretty sure your kid can do a shadow day if you ask for it

Genuinely asking—why are people negative on DCC? I don’t get why it’s not popular. I’m considering it, but the anti posts make me feel like maybe I am missing something. At Blair, seems like you can take amazing classes even if you aren’t in the magnet. Parents on high achievers in the DCC seem pretty happy. What am I missing?

I agree with the PP that some of the negativity about the DCC is coming from people who live in Bethesda or N. Arlington and who simply would never consider a school where it is possible to buy IB for less than 800k, so despite knowing little about the DCC schools, they assume they are "bad" compared to the schools in their boundary.

But I think for DC families looking to move, it's not so much negativity about DCC schools as familiarity. We are a Hill family looking at Silver Spring as a solid and affordable option for us (we have one kid in early elementary). Blair I have a good handle on, but it's also the toughest boundary for us in terms of buying (we are likely priced out of Takoma Park, I like Woodmoor/Franklin Knolls but my DH thinks it's too suburban, the stuff in-between is less appealing in terms of a neighborhood our kid can run around and where we can easily put down roots). Some of what I read about Einstein sounds great (I'm super drawn to their arts programming and I like the housing in their boundary). I've heard some good things about Wheaton but then a friend who lives in the area told me it's "not good" and she wouldn't send her kids there. We have other friends who are in the Northwood boundary and are looking to lottery out or move. People seem to have good things to say about Eastern Middle, but most of the other comments I've gotten about middle schools are complaints, not rave reviews. I also find the process of the magnet lottery confusing.

So I think that's why you don't have a bunch of Hill parents clamoring to move to the DCC. It's not that they think the schools are bad, but it's just not super clear which schools are good versus which are more mediocre, or how you go about getting your kid into a school you'll be happy with. Coming from DC where we already have this kind of mushy mess with a bad IB, lottery options but no guarantees, and some sort of unknown options that could pan out but also might not, that doesn't seem like a clear upgrade.

You are correct that the DCC school network can be confusing especially when viewed from the outside. But I have mostly heard good things about Wheaton HS. I personally think it is a much better option than Eastern for several reasons - truly diverse student population, access to MCPS resources and better central office support, MD state department of Ed is way better than OSSE, better sports teams and facilities, etc. Also, people are down on Northwood because it is an old and crappy building and they will be moving to a holding school for 2 years while a completely new school is built on the site but once the new school is ready, interest in the school will spike.
Northwood has the MC square program that people like a lot and it is strong in theater and music programs.

[Anonymous]

These comments on this thread have honestly just made me glad we're leaving the Hill. There are great people here but there are also some smug jerks and I'm happy to leave them behind. CH is great but it's not the last good place. It doesn't even have a decent HS! it's obviously not perfect.

We've been taking our kids from CH to MoCo for classic music training on weekends for almost a decade. The experience has taught me that CH doesn't have a monopoly on smug jerks. You know that MoCo is a v. competitive place, where kids try to test into all-GT public schools from 3rd grade? Later on, they try to test into GT school-within-a-school middle school programs. In 8th grade, they try to test into high-powered school-within-a-school high school magnets.

What I hear from Blair parents that we've gotten to know through the music programs is that if your bright teen doesn't fails to test into one of the Blair magnets (STEM or Communication Arts) is that they can feel like second class citizen in the school. There's a pecking order at Blair, and Richard Montgomery (IB Diploma magnet). No point in pretending otherwise. If we move, and we may, we'll go for Arlington or McClean, where IB Diploma access is based on grades in prerequisite subjects, not an entrance exam.

The grass is always greener.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To the renting in Hill East poster (and to the lesser degree to the OP), if you overall really like the neighborhood, why not just stay? Leave if and when it actually stops working. Its maybe kind of like the observation in the Lean In book - people get worried about middle and high school and not having a rock solid next 5-10 year plan but then they leave far before it actually stops working.

Not OP or the Hill East poster, but the reason we are thinking of leaving before it "stops working" is that we'd like to avoid a situation where our kid is 12 or 13, we have run out of options on the Hill, and we have to uproot them not only form our neighborhood and school, but also their extra-curricular activities and non-school friends.

It's easier to move a kid at 7 or 8 than once they've started MS. That's why even people who would be okay with SH or EH for middle still sometimes move pre-emptively, because if you bank on Walls or Banneker (or even private) for HS and it doesn't work out as you hoped, moving for high school is going to be more painful than moving when your kid is in 4th or 5th grade and there is still time for them to establish new friend groups and extra-curriculars in another community before they are totally entrenched.

Lot of people move kids to elite privates, boarding and magnets in 9th grade.

In Upper NW maybe, but not from Capitol Hill. The Hill families we know who "went private" mostly enrolled in parochial high schools in VA or MD. What do you mean by magnets? Banneker or Walls? They're certainly not like magnets in MoCo or the one I attended in NYC as a teen (Stuyvesant). Kids can't apply to suburban magnets from DC, or past 8th grade in the burbs.

Really? I know several Hill families who send their kids to “elite privates.” These are people who love to live on the Hill but also want their kids in private schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To the renting in Hill East poster (and to the lesser degree to the OP), if you overall really like the neighborhood, why not just stay? Leave if and when it actually stops working. Its maybe kind of like the observation in the Lean In book - people get worried about middle and high school and not having a rock solid next 5-10 year plan but then they leave far before it actually stops working.

Not OP or the Hill East poster, but the reason we are thinking of leaving before it "stops working" is that we'd like to avoid a situation where our kid is 12 or 13, we have run out of options on the Hill, and we have to uproot them not only form our neighborhood and school, but also their extra-curricular activities and non-school friends.

It's easier to move a kid at 7 or 8 than once they've started MS. That's why even people who would be okay with SH or EH for middle still sometimes move pre-emptively, because if you bank on Walls or Banneker (or even private) for HS and it doesn't work out as you hoped, moving for high school is going to be more painful than moving when your kid is in 4th or 5th grade and there is still time for them to establish new friend groups and extra-curriculars in another community before they are totally entrenched.

Lot of people move kids to elite privates, boarding and magnets in 9th grade.

In Upper NW maybe, but not from Capitol Hill. The Hill families we know who "went private" mostly enrolled in parochial high schools in VA or MD. What do you mean by magnets? Banneker or Walls? They're certainly not like magnets in MoCo or the one I attended in NYC as a teen (Stuyvesant). Kids can't apply to suburban magnets from DC, or past 8th grade in the burbs.

Really? I know several Hill families who send their kids to “elite privates.” These are people who love to live on the Hill but also want their kids in private schools.

+1. Teens on our CH street commute to SJC and NCS (in addition to Latin, BASIS, Gonzaga & Walls).

[Anonymous]

SJC (Saint Johns College), popular with Hill families, is hardly an elite private. SJC is a parochial high school, not all that hard to get into, tuition in the low 20s, around half what top non-sectarian programs are charging, e.g. Sidwell, NCS. St. Albans, Maret.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To the renting in Hill East poster (and to the lesser degree to the OP), if you overall really like the neighborhood, why not just stay? Leave if and when it actually stops working. Its maybe kind of like the observation in the Lean In book - people get worried about middle and high school and not having a rock solid next 5-10 year plan but then they leave far before it actually stops working.

Not OP or the Hill East poster, but the reason we are thinking of leaving before it "stops working" is that we'd like to avoid a situation where our kid is 12 or 13, we have run out of options on the Hill, and we have to uproot them not only form our neighborhood and school, but also their extra-curricular activities and non-school friends.

It's easier to move a kid at 7 or 8 than once they've started MS. That's why even people who would be okay with SH or EH for middle still sometimes move pre-emptively, because if you bank on Walls or Banneker (or even private) for HS and it doesn't work out as you hoped, moving for high school is going to be more painful than moving when your kid is in 4th or 5th grade and there is still time for them to establish new friend groups and extra-curriculars in another community before they are totally entrenched.

Lot of people move kids to elite privates, boarding and magnets in 9th grade.

In Upper NW maybe, but not from Capitol Hill. The Hill families we know who "went private" mostly enrolled in parochial high schools in VA or MD. What do you mean by magnets? Banneker or Walls? They're certainly not like magnets in MoCo or the one I attended in NYC as a teen (Stuyvesant). Kids can't apply to suburban magnets from DC, or past 8th grade in the burbs.

Oh god the NYC magnet troll has arrived.

The word “troll” doesn’t mean what you think it means

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To the renting in Hill East poster (and to the lesser degree to the OP), if you overall really like the neighborhood, why not just stay? Leave if and when it actually stops working. Its maybe kind of like the observation in the Lean In book - people get worried about middle and high school and not having a rock solid next 5-10 year plan but then they leave far before it actually stops working.

Not OP or the Hill East poster, but the reason we are thinking of leaving before it "stops working" is that we'd like to avoid a situation where our kid is 12 or 13, we have run out of options on the Hill, and we have to uproot them not only form our neighborhood and school, but also their extra-curricular activities and non-school friends.

It's easier to move a kid at 7 or 8 than once they've started MS. That's why even people who would be okay with SH or EH for middle still sometimes move pre-emptively, because if you bank on Walls or Banneker (or even private) for HS and it doesn't work out as you hoped, moving for high school is going to be more painful than moving when your kid is in 4th or 5th grade and there is still time for them to establish new friend groups and extra-curriculars in another community before they are totally entrenched.

Lot of people move kids to elite privates, boarding and magnets in 9th grade.

In Upper NW maybe, but not from Capitol Hill. The Hill families we know who "went private" mostly enrolled in parochial high schools in VA or MD. What do you mean by magnets? Banneker or Walls? They're certainly not like magnets in MoCo or the one I attended in NYC as a teen (Stuyvesant). Kids can't apply to suburban magnets from DC, or past 8th grade in the burbs.

Really? I know several Hill families who send their kids to “elite privates.” These are people who love to live on the Hill but also want their kids in private schools.

Anecdata - my kid’s 9th grade class at sidwell had zero incoming students frim CH. neither did the following year.