Boyds - How Safe from Redistricting ?

[Anonymous]

I'm looking at houses in the Germantown/Boyds area. I'm a little nervous about the Seneca Valley High School boundary changes coming up, as well as possible future changes after McNair is expanded and Crown HS gets built. At least so far, it looks like the area west of Richter Farm Road is pretty safe according to the SVHS boundary study maps, but I don't have a great intuition about how likely that will stay that way.

While NW is pretty close, SVHS isn't that far away either. If they want to even out SVHS demographics, the area around the SoccerPlex seems like an obvious choice. I suspect they didn't do that because they weren't looking at changing elementary school boundaries, and Matsunaga is going to naturally feed into NW. McNair seems less obvious. It's NW for now, but seems like it could easily be SVHS. What are the changes that McNair's boundaries will expand after they add on to it? It's projected to be above capacity even after the expansion, so maybe nothing will change.

Alternatively, is there still discussion of a new elementary school in Boyds/Germantown area?

[Anonymous]

One of the options rezones Boyds from Clarksburg HS to Seneca Valley HS, along with the Cabin Branch part of Clarksburg.

Since getting rezoned is not a hazard, it doesn't really make sense to talk about being "safe" from it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One of the options rezones Boyds from Clarksburg HS to Seneca Valley HS, along with the Cabin Branch part of Clarksburg.

Since getting rezoned is not a hazard, it doesn't really make sense to talk about being "safe" from it.

Rezone is a hazard if you pay $600K for a house and a few months later it is worth $525K

[Anonymous]

Since getting rezoned is not a hazard, it doesn't really make sense to talk about being "safe" from it.


Rezone is a hazard if you pay $600K for a house and a few months later it is worth $525K

+1 It would be fiscally irresponsible to buy without considering the financial consequences.

[Anonymous]

OP you could rent another year until the boundary decision is made. Prices are not going up in Boyds -if anything it continues to soften. If the area you like gets rezoned it will be worth even less. If it stays in NW it won't be much more than it costs now -might even be less anyway if the Montgomery County markets keeps softening.

[Anonymous]

Rezoning is always a risk. If you can't bear the thought of your house losing potential resale value, homeownership probably isn't for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP you could rent another year until the boundary decision is made. Prices are not going up in Boyds -if anything it continues to soften. If the area you like gets rezoned it will be worth even less. If it stays in NW it won't be much more than it costs now -might even be less anyway if the Montgomery County markets keeps softening.

OP here. Circumstances are driving a change to a bigger house. Waiting another year isn't really an option. I could plausibly wait until the Spring, but then I'm worried about getting pulled into the Spring buying frenzy. This can be a pretty good time to find decent deals.

The simple fact is that these areas attract buyers with families, so schools are important. While I wish I could think in terms of the poster at 14:51, I really can't. A move from NW to SVHS would almost certainly cause a noticeable drop.

Part of me wants to wait until the SVHS redistricting is decided, although I don't think that ultimately matters. The areas I'm looking at remain in NW under all the current plan options. While I know the BoE can always come back with a new plan, I think this area is unlikely to change in this first step. But as they build more schools I don't know what's going to happen. There's certainly interest in doing broader boundary changes. I suspect the expensive areas downcounty are safe because of the political influence of homeowners and the logistics of busing, but I can't afford the homes down there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Rezoning is always a risk. If you can't bear the thought of your house losing potential resale value, homeownership probably isn't for you.

Let me guess: you either don't have kids or you've got the money to live in a >$800k house.

[Anonymous]

You can rent a larger house. We have several friends in Wootton and they have been doing this.

[Anonymous]

OP I highly doubt that they'll come up with another option. If your target neighborhood isn't affected in any current option, then no worries. The only thing that might impact you in the future is boundary changes resulting from Crown HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP I highly doubt that they'll come up with another option. If your target neighborhood isn't affected in any current option, then no worries. The only thing that might impact you in the future is boundary changes resulting from Crown HS.

Or the study to redistrict the entire county.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Rezoning is always a risk. If you can't bear the thought of your house losing potential resale value, homeownership probably isn't for you.

Yup.

[Anonymous]

Let me guess: you either don't have kids or you've got the money to live in a >$800k house

Try again. I have a kid in an approximately $450,000 house. What I don't have is:

1) An obsession with imaginary money that doesn't exist until I sell anyway
2) The financial illiteracy to believe that my home's value dropping is "theft" or to put myself in a situation where my house value falling is the end of the world, or
3) The selfishness to insist that the world bend so as to insulate me from the consequences of (2).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rezoning is always a risk. If you can't bear the thought of your house losing potential resale value, homeownership probably isn't for you.

Yup.

^^^I have 2 kids in MCPS, I own a house zoned for Clarksburg schools whose resale value is probably less than any house (attached or detached) around SoccerPlex, and I understand the difference between putting money into property and putting money into a bank account.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Rezoning is always a risk. If you can't bear the thought of your house losing potential resale value, homeownership probably isn't for you.


Yup.

No buying into an area with the local BOE actively engaged in rezoning is just plain stupid. In Montgomery County, this is doubly true as so few professional jobs are located here. This isn't NOVA where even schools is the worst part of Alexandria are skyrocketing because of Amazon. School performance dominates Montgomery County real estate like it or not.