Are Arlington Schools worth the huge mortgage I'm going to need?

[Anonymous]

Hmm...did you see the number of kids that got into Ivies from W-l much greater than these top HS from other counties---many more than McLean HS. The thing about Arlington Co is that is teeny tiny compared to MoCo and Fairfax Co which translates into personalized services and feel...and smaller class size. My 2nd grader has only 20 kids total in his class and give K has 19 with a teacher AND full-time aide in the classroom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hmm...did you see the number of kids that got into Ivies from W-l much greater than these top HS from other counties---many more than McLean HS. The thing about Arlington Co is that is teeny tiny compared to MoCo and Fairfax Co which translates into personalized services and feel...and smaller class size. My 2nd grader has only 20 kids total in his class and give K has 19 with a teacher AND full-time aide in the classroom. [/quote

Ha! Stop posting on DCUM or that won't last!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Love Arlington. Picked it over Chevy chase-bethesda bc i have a 15 min commute from Clarendon not a 45 min one from Bethesda. That's an hour every day i save. But whether i'd move for schools depends on which ones in each place.

Weird. Chevy Chase is 1000X nicer than Arlington. Clarendon is a cheesy faux city with nothing to redeem it other than a transit stop.

And friendship heights/Bethesda is a real city. Oy. Someone is delusional.

If you spent time in Bethesda, you'd know it's both more urban and more urbane than Clarendon. I would not move out of Bethesda or Chevy Chase for Arlington. It is a step down that OP would come to regret.

Urbane says it all. Chevy Chase is where people with wealth can show at Jimmy Choo and send their staff to whole foods; Arlington is where the middle class or upper middle class congregate for short commutes, good schools, and a few pockets of walk-able neighborhoods.

OP just needs to figure out where they fall on that divide. Both neighborhoods are very nice and have good schools, so if you can afford either, you are blessed either way.

I am an arlington resident, I think your comments are mostly true with the exception of the 'downtown arlington' area. It is changing rapidly, a lot of wealth is starting to move there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hmm...did you see the number of kids that got into Ivies from W-l much greater than these top HS from other counties---many more than McLean HS. The thing about Arlington Co is that is teeny tiny compared to MoCo and Fairfax Co which translates into personalized services and feel...and smaller class size. My 2nd grader has only 20 kids total in his class and give K has 19 with a teacher AND full-time aide in the classroom.

W-L is OK, but if you add the McLean kids who go to TJ to those at Langley and McLean there are a lot more kids headed to Ivies than at W-L. You seem kind of jealous/insecure.

[Anonymous]

The OP is thinking about moving from Montgomery to Arlington and the prior poster thinks it's a big deal if W-L sends more kids to an Ivy League one year than a high school in Fairfax.

It seems like a non-sequitur. Doesn't Whitman send more kids to Ivy League schools than all the schools in Arlington combined?

[Anonymous]

My kids are not yet in elementary school, but will be in the next couple of years. I'm leaning towards moving out of MoCo and moving to Arlington because they have an immersion program that isn't impossible to get into. From everything I've been reading, MoCo is cutting back on rather than investing more in their immersion programs, and that really has me down on MoCo. MoCo just feels like such a scramble to get access to the good programs, whether you're talking about immersion or magnets or whatever. Also a lot of dumb politics with the BOE. College admissions is something that I haven't really given any thought to at all yet!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Love Arlington. Picked it over Chevy chase-bethesda bc i have a 15 min commute from Clarendon not a 45 min one from Bethesda. That's an hour every day i save. But whether i'd move for schools depends on which ones in each place.

Weird. Chevy Chase is 1000X nicer than Arlington. Clarendon is a cheesy faux city with nothing to redeem it other than a transit stop.

And friendship heights/Bethesda is a real city. Oy. Someone is delusional.

If you spent time in Bethesda, you'd know it's both more urban and more urbane than Clarendon. I would not move out of Bethesda or Chevy Chase for Arlington. It is a step down that OP would come to regret.

Urbane says it all. Chevy Chase is where people with wealth can show at Jimmy Choo and send their staff to whole foods; Arlington is where the middle class or upper middle class congregate for short commutes, good schools, and a few pockets of walk-able neighborhoods.

OP just needs to figure out where they fall on that divide. Both neighborhoods are very nice and have good schools, so if you can afford either, you are blessed either way.

I am an arlington resident, I think your comments are mostly true with the exception of the 'downtown arlington' area. It is changing rapidly, a lot of wealth is starting to move there.

If middle class you mean $2-3 million homes and salaries of $550k++--then yeah--Arlington is middle class . It's very hard to find a home that isn't a knock down or in need of major renovation for under a million dollars anywhere in N.Arlington.

[Anonymous]

That's a big exaggeration. North Arlington is mostly 800K-1.3M territory. More expensive homes are elsewhere. South Arlington is even less expensive.

[Anonymous]

I live in Clarendon now. Some days I think my lucky stars I live there and other days I think it would be nice to live somewhere else - although I don't know where that would be. The commute to DC is a dream, which is a big deal to us. We have been on the other side of that with one-hour or more commutes each way. It would be difficult to go back to that.

Although Clarendon is becoming more family friendly it still falls short in the area of parks, public pools, and other amenities that I fantasize is easier to come by in other areas. There continues to be a slew of construction projects designed to bring more people in. Resources are seriously constrained - parking spaces, a seat at a restaurant, aisle space at Whole Foods. Even sidewalk space is coming up short as restaurants spill out further onto the sidewalk to accommodate waiting patrons. If you miss getting in on the early-bird registration for things like day camp and swimming classes, for example, you can forget it.

Clarendon tries to be both car- and pedestrian-friendly and ends up being friendly to neither. There are lots of blindspots in roadways caused by all the cars parked on the margins of narrow streets and confusion among both drivers and pedestrians about what those striped pedastrian crossings really mean. Most parking lots are more appropriate for prius than any family-sized cars except those with doors that slide back and forth. I shudder of the idea of my kids riding their bikes around the neighborhood. On the other hand, from a crime perspective, the area is very safe. Even the pan-handlers seem well-off. I got hit up for $5 bucks from one of them the other day. I guess it's also expensive to be homeless in Clarendon.

DC just started elementary school today and it seems fine. Arlington guarantees families with two working parents slots in the extended day program for elementary kids, which was important to us. Getting our young kids into an all-day daycare was a challenge and very expensive. We were lucky to get in and then just had to pay whatever they wanted. And pay and pay. Once our kids are in school and out of that expensive daycare, maybe we can think about doing some much-needed renovations to our house. Our house is on the small side with more character than charm.

The bottom line for us is if we moved where would we go. If it is some place desireable, what would we have to do to get in. When we bought in Clarendon we certainly overpaid. The house needed fairly extensive renovations to it before we moved in. Closing costs were not inconsequential. Certainly if we made $500k a year. Not a big deal. But we don't. The positive thing for us when we are ready to sell is that many of our neighbors probably do.

We never considered living in MoCo because DH and I have always been earning higher degrees in VA university - me when we bought and DH is finishing up now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Love Arlington. Picked it over Chevy chase-bethesda bc i have a 15 min commute from Clarendon not a 45 min one from Bethesda. That's an hour every day i save. But whether i'd move for schools depends on which ones in each place.

Weird. Chevy Chase is 1000X nicer than Arlington. Clarendon is a cheesy faux city with nothing to redeem it other than a transit stop.

And friendship heights/Bethesda is a real city. Oy. Someone is delusional.

If you spent time in Bethesda, you'd know it's both more urban and more urbane than Clarendon. I would not move out of Bethesda or Chevy Chase for Arlington. It is a step down that OP would come to regret.

While you are entitled to your opinion I see it just the opposite. Bethesda is further from dc, has zero history. Friendship Heights is full of blue hairs and old timers facilities. Meanwhile the orange line is simply hopping with you g well educated singles and young couples.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Love Arlington. Picked it over Chevy chase-bethesda bc i have a 15 min commute from Clarendon not a 45 min one from Bethesda. That's an hour every day i save. But whether i'd move for schools depends on which ones in each place.

Weird. Chevy Chase is 1000X nicer than Arlington. Clarendon is a cheesy faux city with nothing to redeem it other than a transit stop.

And friendship heights/Bethesda is a real city. Oy. Someone is delusional.

If you spent time in Bethesda, you'd know it's both more urban and more urbane than Clarendon. I would not move out of Bethesda or Chevy Chase for Arlington. It is a step down that OP would come to regret.

Urbane says it all. Chevy Chase is where people with wealth can show at Jimmy Choo and send their staff to whole foods; Arlington is where the middle class or upper middle class congregate for short commutes, good schools, and a few pockets of walk-able neighborhoods.

OP just needs to figure out where they fall on that divide. Both neighborhoods are very nice and have good schools, so if you can afford either, you are blessed either way.

I am an arlington resident, I think your comments are mostly true with the exception of the 'downtown arlington' area. It is changing rapidly, a lot of wealth is starting to move there.

Chevy chase is done. It is so 1960. Arlington is new, closer to the heart of DC, and believe me...5 million for a townhouse on Arlingtons glebe rd rivals any run down cape cod next to highly trafficked conn ave

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That's a big exaggeration. North Arlington is mostly 800K-1.3M territory. More expensive homes are elsewhere. South Arlington is even less expensive.

Depends on the neighborhood. Just like Bethesda has boring pools hill or wildwood ramblers for 600k. Arlingtons country club hills has 2400 sq ft homes for 1.5 to 1.8. Trying to compare all of Bethesda to all of Arlington will result in similarities in diversity of housing than one might realize. Compare Clarendon and Rosslyn to Downtown Bethesda, Avanel to the McLean / Arlington area....and the part of Chevy chase near grubb road to south arlington. Stop pretending one can compare entire sets of zip codes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That's a big exaggeration. North Arlington is mostly 800K-1.3M territory. More expensive homes are elsewhere. South Arlington is even less expensive.

Depends on the neighborhood. Just like Bethesda has boring pools hill or wildwood ramblers for 600k. Arlingtons country club hills has 2400 sq ft homes for 1.5 to 1.8. Trying to compare all of Bethesda to all of Arlington will result in similarities in diversity of housing than one might realize. Compare Clarendon and Rosslyn to Downtown Bethesda, Avanel to the McLean / Arlington area....and the part of Chevy chase near grubb road to south arlington. Stop pretending one can compare entire sets of zip codes

+1

The best post ever. And I live in the Highland House in 20815. Will be moving to DC or Arlington...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That's a big exaggeration. North Arlington is mostly 800K-1.3M territory. More expensive homes are elsewhere. South Arlington is even less expensive.

Depends on the neighborhood. Just like Bethesda has boring pools hill or wildwood ramblers for 600k. Arlingtons country club hills has 2400 sq ft homes for 1.5 to 1.8. Trying to compare all of Bethesda to all of Arlington will result in similarities in diversity of housing than one might realize. Compare Clarendon and Rosslyn to Downtown Bethesda, Avanel to the McLean / Arlington area....and the part of Chevy chase near grubb road to south arlington. Stop pretending one can compare entire sets of zip codes

+1

The best post ever. And I live in the Highland House in 20815. Will be moving to DC or Arlington...

Should add though....I will miss Clyde's of Chevy Chase...was my hangout

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That's a big exaggeration. North Arlington is mostly 800K-1.3M territory. More expensive homes are elsewhere. South Arlington is even less expensive.

Depends on the neighborhood. Just like Bethesda has boring pools hill or wildwood ramblers for 600k. Arlingtons country club hills has 2400 sq ft homes for 1.5 to 1.8. Trying to compare all of Bethesda to all of Arlington will result in similarities in diversity of housing than one might realize. Compare Clarendon and Rosslyn to Downtown Bethesda, Avanel to the McLean / Arlington area....and the part of Chevy chase near grubb road to south arlington. Stop pretending one can compare entire sets of zip codes

+1

The best post ever. And I live in the Highland House in 20815. Will be moving to DC or Arlington...

Aren't HH rentals for elderly folks