Buying a House in a Neighborhood w/ Less than Stellar HS?

[Anonymous]

For the person that asked about "affordable" in NOVA. I think if you are looking for the schools and that price range, you may want to look just outside the Beltway in Annandale - feeding into the Woodson cluster. Be aware though that boundaries can change. We looked at houses that cost very similar and one side of the block was Woodson, another was a different highschool, and around the corner not even five minutes away was in a different cluster. Further out a bit - but Burke is the other popular neighborhood and feeding into Lake Braddock high school.

For MD, someone was right that the Kensington homes that feed into BCC or WJ will be more than the ones that go to Einstein. Overall if you want to stay closer in SilverSpring is a popular place. I am not sure what the housing prices are of places that feed into Blair H.S. for example. SilverSpring is pretty big though so you may want to research schools and neighborhoods there. Other option is a little up 270 in Rockville. I really liked the FallsMead area. There are schools that feed into Wooten High School and maybe with the cooling housing market there are townhouses in your price range. I think these properties are around exit 4 on 270 - near Wooten Pkwy and Falls Road. Beautiful neighborhoods - surrounded by trees - some had side walks - stores aren't that far away etc wonderful schools. - however downside is definitely making it those few exits on I-270 during rush hour. Other option for affordable is moving further up I-270 - Richard Montgomery - Gaithersburg area. I'm just looking at Montgomery County. Obviously people are in other counties - Howard County, Calvert, Prince George etc. to find the combination of house/land/schools/work commute etc. (with tradeoffs among those categories).

[Anonymous]

whitman and b-cc are great schools but they are also hypercompetitive and stress inducing and students tend to be incredibly rich and feel entitled, driving around their brand new bmws and lexuses. i mean, hey, if we're going to generalize here about the "worse" schools, let's generalize about the "better" schools too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:whitman and b-cc are great schools but they are also hypercompetitive and stress inducing and students tend to be incredibly rich and feel entitled, driving around their brand new bmws and lexuses. i mean, hey, if we're going to generalize here about the "worse" schools, let's generalize about the "better" schools too.

well let me ask you then, would you rather send your kid to a school like einstein or like whitman or bcc? ok, that's what i thought.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:whitman and b-cc are great schools but they are also hypercompetitive and stress inducing and students tend to be incredibly rich and feel entitled, driving around their brand new bmws and lexuses. i mean, hey, if we're going to generalize here about the "worse" schools, let's generalize about the "better" schools too.

well let me ask you then, would you rather send your kid to a school like einstein or like whitman or bcc? ok, that's what i thought.

I think you are overgeneralizing just a little bit. It is not an "all or nothing" thing when it comes to schools. There are plenty of decent, may I say even good schools in the area that may not be considered the "best", but they are still places where you can get a great education if your child is motivated and parents are involved. I can't speak about the "badness" of Einstein because I am not really familiar with it, but people are making it sound like unless you go to Whitman or B-CC, you are doomed. I live in Arlington and some of the schools around here that may not be considered "the best" in terms of test score, but are still very good and safe are Washington-Lee in Arlington, the Falls Church City Schools, Madison, Marshall, Oakton, McLean, Lake Braddock, Robinson, Woodson, etc, etc. In fact, I would say virtually any school in Arlington or Fairfax County is a good school - some are more diverse and some have lower test scores, but they all provide opportunities for a great education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:whitman and b-cc are great schools but they are also hypercompetitive and stress inducing and students tend to be incredibly rich and feel entitled, driving around their brand new bmws and lexuses. i mean, hey, if we're going to generalize here about the "worse" schools, let's generalize about the "better" schools too.

well let me ask you then, would you rather send your kid to a school like einstein or like whitman or bcc? ok, that's what i thought.

I think you are overgeneralizing just a little bit. It is not an "all or nothing" thing when it comes to schools. There are plenty of decent, may I say even good schools in the area that may not be considered the "best", but they are still places where you can get a great education if your child is motivated and parents are involved. I can't speak about the "badness" of Einstein because I am not really familiar with it, but people are making it sound like unless you go to Whitman or B-CC, you are doomed. I live in Arlington and some of the schools around here that may not be considered "the best" in terms of test score, but are still very good and safe are Washington-Lee in Arlington, the Falls Church City Schools, Madison, Marshall, Oakton, McLean, Lake Braddock, Robinson, Woodson, etc, etc. In fact, I would say virtually any school in Arlington or Fairfax County is a good school - some are more diverse and some have lower test scores, but they all provide opportunities for a great education.

actually, i am not overgeneralizing - what i and many others are looking for is exactly what you describe. but the whole pollyanna comparison between schools like einstein and bcc being the same in terms of their "badness" irks me. they most certainly are not. i actually would prefer a middle of the road school as you secribe that offers diversity and the chance for a good education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, can you find a house in your price range in the Montgomery Blair district?

I was doing a search on MD High schools and came across this post.

Any other opinions on Montgomery Blair HS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:whitman and b-cc are great schools but they are also hypercompetitive and stress inducing and students tend to be incredibly rich and feel entitled, driving around their brand new bmws and lexuses. i mean, hey, if we're going to generalize here about the "worse" schools, let's generalize about the "better" schools too.

well let me ask you then, would you rather send your kid to a school like einstein or like whitman or bcc? ok, that's what i thought.

Actually, I would rather send my child to a school like Einstein as opposed to a BCC or Whitman. Why? My son can handle it. He is smart, I raised him well, and I think his confidence will grow in an environment where there is a huge range of diversity without having the added pressures that come from going to a school where many of the students are more privileged. I went to public school in DC, my husband went to public school in Brooklyn - my husband is a CFO for an IT company and I am a VP at a construction company. I thank our parents for instilling our good values, thank ourselves for respecting our parents enough to take school seriously and thank our schools for teaching us much more than your usual math, english and science. There were some rough moments, but looking back and catching up with some old pals via facebook - I wouldn't have traded that experience for anything!!! It was truly amazing and I am impressed at how well some of my former classmates are doing today. On the other hand, I have 6 nephews and nieces who all attended or are attending Whitman and my brother and sister and law both complain about how selfish, over the top, and unworldy some of these kids are, esp. their parents. In fact, one of the fathers of a student lost his job and sold his daughter's Lexus and the girl freaked out (I won't go into detail, but it wasn't pretty). At a neighborhood Halloween party - not a single parent approached the parets of this child. All of a sudden, as an unemployed pariah, he wasn't Mr. Popular anymore. True story.

[Anonymous]

Hi OP - we had the same budget as you do when we were looking for a house. We bought in the Twinbrook neighborhood in south Rockville. Close to red line Tiwnbrook station metro. Love the neighborhood, our kids play now mainly with the kids on the street and many neighbors became our friends. The ES is not the best...but is not bad either. It has a large (bussed in) Hispanic population so scores are lower in comparison to other MoCo schools but many of our middle class educated neighbors send their kids there and are happy. Middle School (Blair) and HS (Richard Montgomery) are very good. We feel at home in the neighbohood, commute downtown is easy and the schools overall I think are good. There are also a few Catholic schools right around here that could be a choice and no as pricey as private.

Good luck.

[Anonymous]

Hi OP. We recently bought a 3BR 2 BA in downtown silver spring for $450K. The neighborhood is fabulous and full of young kids. I think most upper-income parents view these as "starter houses" and will move when kids hit middle school. But for elementary age, it's the perfect neighborhood, everyone uses the neighborhood school.

The houses keep their value be because of proximity to metro, so even in the downturn there have been no foreclosures, and houses are selling after a few weeks or months on the market, mostly to families with babies, or empty nesters who want to be close in.

[Anonymous]

I'm drudging up this thread again because I'm thinking about schools all of a sudden. I wonder what the OP decided to do?

I have to say I disagree about the possibility of Einstein not changing in the next 10 years since it's been bad since the 1970s and 1980s. I have been in DC about 10 years and when I first moved here - as a renter in NW DC I had heard really bad things about Silver Spring in general. Then years later when my husband's company moved here to Silver Spring in early 2000s it started growing - the downtown anyway. When we decided to buy our first house, we bought in the neighborhood across from the Forest Glen Metro station, which I understand has been built in the last 10 years as well.

I haven't assessed our house value lately, I'm sure it's gone down in this market, but we are within a 15 minute walk of a red line Metro, and now there are some really nice, big companies in SS as well. When we bought schools were the LAST thing on our mind. We were years from having kids. Fast forward a few years and now we have an infant so I'm asking questions, looking around, and found out our elementary school is fabulous, but our high school - Einstein, not great at all.

I went to a very highly ranked private school so this is a concern, but we are 15 years from high school so I'm not freaking out just yet. Also, considering my husband was an air force kid and moved every 4 years, and I moved for my dad's job as well, and we both loved that aspect of our childhood, the thought of staying in a house for 20 years seems laughable. It may happen but it certainly may not.

So I'm not stressing but will definitely keep my eyes open. I'm not saying Einstein will dramatically improve but you never know. I'm not giving up yet. I definitely don't think it's a bad idea to think about high schools when you are buying if high school is within 10-12 years, but beyond that, it seems really speculative and I would rank other things first. For us, safety and commuting was #1, and of course the house - we have a big yard, 3 bedrooms, beautiful kitchen, etc. and the neighborhood is great - lots of young, active families, very walkable, tons of parks, right near Sligo Creek trails, etc. And we're getting a farmer's market up the street soon!

I would just caution that day-to-day living for several years affects your quality of life, not just what the high schools will be like in 10+ years.