TKPK or CCDC?

[Anonymous]

Why did they change Wilson to a stupid name like J-R? I will always call it Wilson. More politically correct nonsense?

So 1984.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:???

DC public schools are not better than Takoma Park schools.

And if in Maryland, you are in state for all the Maryland colleges.

Look in both and base it on which house you like best. If the houses are a toss up, choose Takoma Park for sure. Better schools, better services, more community.

I believe property taxes in MD are much higher than DC, and your DC assessed value can only rise a maximum 10% per year. My understanding is income taxes are also similar/slightly higher once you factor in MD state and local taxes.

The only point is that with DC TAG already giving you $10k of the difference between in state and OOS, you will probably more than make up the difference on taxes.

That would depend on your income and property value. Our property taxes on our three bedroom plus attic cape cod is 2800 a year. Doesn't seem that high to me.

And even if you do make up the value, you don't have in state admissions preference.

Do you live in Takoma Park? If so property taxes on a $1.7m house will be at least $25k a year, perhaps more like $30k. If you pay $2800 your house is severely undervalued or you live in DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:???

DC public schools are not better than Takoma Park schools.

And if in Maryland, you are in state for all the Maryland colleges.

Look in both and base it on which house you like best. If the houses are a toss up, choose Takoma Park for sure. Better schools, better services, more community.

The public schools in CCDC are most certainly better than the public schools in Takoma Park.

That’s definitely not true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here — This is all helpful thank you.

We are definitely more hippie than preppy😂

Reading the replies, I think I’m realizing it really does come down to the safety question. Otherwise, I’d prefer takoma park for a lot of reasons - I just think I’m nervous to move and have the same experience we’ve had recently in Columbia Heights wrt safety.

Takoma Park (which is in Maryland, to be clear, I’m not talking about Takoma DC) is extremely safe. Extremely. The city has its own police force and they issue press releases for missing cats because they have so little to do. If you are going out of town and you let them know they’ll check on your house for you every day you are gone. Since we moved here from DC I’ve never had to worry about stolen packages or my kids walking home in the dark and we leave our house unlocked 90 percent of the time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:???

DC public schools are not better than Takoma Park schools.

And if in Maryland, you are in state for all the Maryland colleges.

Look in both and base it on which house you like best. If the houses are a toss up, choose Takoma Park for sure. Better schools, better services, more community.

I believe property taxes in MD are much higher than DC, and your DC assessed value can only rise a maximum 10% per year. My understanding is income taxes are also similar/slightly higher once you factor in MD state and local taxes.

The only point is that with DC TAG already giving you $10k of the difference between in state and OOS, you will probably more than make up the difference on taxes.

That would depend on your income and property value. Our property taxes on our three bedroom plus attic cape cod is 2800 a year. Doesn't seem that high to me.

And even if you do make up the value, you don't have in state admissions preference.

Do you live in Takoma Park? If so property taxes on a $1.7m house will be at least $25k a year, perhaps more like $30k. If you pay $2800 your house is severely undervalued or you live in DC.

No, I live in Silver Spring MD. 3 bedroom with popped out attic which is essentially one large extra bedroom. Three full baths. And it doesn't cost 1.7 million. Eyeroll. Not everyone lives in a house that costs 1.7 million.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:???

DC public schools are not better than Takoma Park schools.

And if in Maryland, you are in state for all the Maryland colleges.

Look in both and base it on which house you like best. If the houses are a toss up, choose Takoma Park for sure. Better schools, better services, more community.

The public schools in CCDC are most certainly better than the public schools in Takoma Park.

Absolutely not.
They are not even in the same league.
TPMS & Blair are leagues above Deal and JR

You are confusing the selection magnet with the reputation of Blair its self. Put it this way; even after brining in some of the best students from a massive county to prop up Blair’s test scores, it still manages to rank towards the bottom of the county. Don’t compare the best school in a city to lower ranked school in a county.

There's no confusion. You’re the one who is clueless.
Blair is the most decorated, popular school in the county and their SAT test scores are not towards the bottom. Their test scores are better than JR'S.
Blair runs circles around the best school in the city.

Absolutely. Just looking at the differences in classes available at each school, it’s obvious which has the widest range of classes, including extremely advanced classes, and it’s not a DCPS school. Blair is also exceptionally well run and one of the most popular high schools in MCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:???

DC public schools are not better than Takoma Park schools.

And if in Maryland, you are in state for all the Maryland colleges.

Look in both and base it on which house you like best. If the houses are a toss up, choose Takoma Park for sure. Better schools, better services, more community.

I believe property taxes in MD are much higher than DC, and your DC assessed value can only rise a maximum 10% per year. My understanding is income taxes are also similar/slightly higher once you factor in MD state and local taxes.

The only point is that with DC TAG already giving you $10k of the difference between in state and OOS, you will probably more than make up the difference on taxes.

That would depend on your income and property value. Our property taxes on our three bedroom plus attic cape cod is 2800 a year. Doesn't seem that high to me.

And even if you do make up the value, you don't have in state admissions preference.

Do you live in Takoma Park? If so property taxes on a $1.7m house will be at least $25k a year, perhaps more like $30k. If you pay $2800 your house is severely undervalued or you live in DC.

No, I live in Silver Spring MD. 3 bedroom with popped out attic which is essentially one large extra bedroom. Three full baths. And it doesn't cost 1.7 million. Eyeroll. Not everyone lives in a house that costs 1.7 million.

So your experience is irrelevant then. OP has a budget of $1.7m and is not considering Silver Spring which has taxes that are considerably lower than TKPK. (You understand that the city of Takoma park almost doubles our property taxes?)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here — This is all helpful thank you.

We are definitely more hippie than preppy😂

Reading the replies, I think I’m realizing it really does come down to the safety question. Otherwise, I’d prefer takoma park for a lot of reasons - I just think I’m nervous to move and have the same experience we’ve had recently in Columbia Heights wrt safety.

.

Op, I live not in but adjacent to CH and just bought a house that’s adjacent to CH in another direction. it’s the most challenging neighborhood for crime as near as I can tell in my 25 years in the city. I think either of your neighborhoods will be a major improvement for security. (I served on the violent crimes grand jury for six weeks and 80% of the cases we heard were in CH). We use CCDC for the library and shopping (take your toddler to Ramers for shoes and there’s what may be DC’s only toy store around the corner) but I’ve always found TP to be so charming and community feeling. And those wooden Victorians and craftsman places!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We went through that decision and chose TKPK our friends picked CCDC. Both are great but we collectively agreed that TKPK was better overall for our 2 families (they come to our place often and would like to move…).

It wouldn’t be true for everyone but here is why: TKPK more neighborhoody (someone earlier made comp with Gilmore girl and it made sense to me), less preppy, younger, more kids in the local public house/less private school kids, small town feel with big town open mindedness, more laid back and diverse, more political and engaged even though it is not anymore a hard core leftist place.

Schools are very good. Our friends in ccdc had to deal with more rich girl competitive consumption vibe which in our narrow experience has been non existent in TKPK. We love the kids our kids hang out with.

Security wise: we feel very safe and kids walk to school and walk around but no rosy glasses it is close in DMV with a lot of personal property theft. Not sure how it compares to ccdc.


In conclusion, both are great choices but if you value close knit community and fall on the less preppy more hippy side, TKPK is for you. If you enjoy having a more UMC lifestyle and more neighbors that share that lifestyle CCDC is for you

Can you define preppy as you are using it here? The real way, ie Barbara Bush and the Preppy Handbook and 25 yr old Volvos and penny loafers and everyone went to Middlebury / Andover?

If so, your friend is entirely wrong. But maybe you meant something else

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:???

DC public schools are not better than Takoma Park schools.

And if in Maryland, you are in state for all the Maryland colleges.

Look in both and base it on which house you like best. If the houses are a toss up, choose Takoma Park for sure. Better schools, better services, more community.

I believe property taxes in MD are much higher than DC, and your DC assessed value can only rise a maximum 10% per year. My understanding is income taxes are also similar/slightly higher once you factor in MD state and local taxes.

The only point is that with DC TAG already giving you $10k of the difference between in state and OOS, you will probably more than make up the difference on taxes.

That would depend on your income and property value. Our property taxes on our three bedroom plus attic cape cod is 2800 a year. Doesn't seem that high to me.

And even if you do make up the value, you don't have in state admissions preference.

Do you live in Takoma Park? If so property taxes on a $1.7m house will be at least $25k a year, perhaps more like $30k. If you pay $2800 your house is severely undervalued or you live in DC.

In DC, property tax should be about $14,500 on a $1.7MM home.

I don’t know why people volunteer their property tax for a home they probably bought 20 years ago. The assessed value is always significantly below market value.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here — This is all helpful thank you.

We are definitely more hippie than preppy😂

Reading the replies, I think I’m realizing it really does come down to the safety question. Otherwise, I’d prefer takoma park for a lot of reasons - I just think I’m nervous to move and have the same experience we’ve had recently in Columbia Heights wrt safety.

Takoma Park (which is in Maryland, to be clear, I’m not talking about Takoma DC) is extremely safe. Extremely. The city has its own police force and they issue press releases for missing cats because they have so little to do. If you are going out of town and you let them know they’ll check on your house for you every day you are gone. Since we moved here from DC I’ve never had to worry about stolen packages or my kids walking home in the dark and we leave our house unlocked 90 percent of the time.

I don’t even know folks that live in Potomac or CC MD that leave their house unlocked 90% of the time.

If even just because thieves will notice you leave your home unlocked and do a super quick purse snatch right in your hallway even with you home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:???

DC public schools are not better than Takoma Park schools.

And if in Maryland, you are in state for all the Maryland colleges.

Look in both and base it on which house you like best. If the houses are a toss up, choose Takoma Park for sure. Better schools, better services, more community.

I believe property taxes in MD are much higher than DC, and your DC assessed value can only rise a maximum 10% per year. My understanding is income taxes are also similar/slightly higher once you factor in MD state and local taxes.

The only point is that with DC TAG already giving you $10k of the difference between in state and OOS, you will probably more than make up the difference on taxes.

That would depend on your income and property value. Our property taxes on our three bedroom plus attic cape cod is 2800 a year. Doesn't seem that high to me.

And even if you do make up the value, you don't have in state admissions preference.

Do you live in Takoma Park? If so property taxes on a $1.7m house will be at least $25k a year, perhaps more like $30k. If you pay $2800 your house is severely undervalued or you live in DC.

In DC, property tax should be about $14,500 on a $1.7MM home.

I don’t know why people volunteer their property tax for a home they probably bought 20 years ago. The assessed value is always significantly below market value.

Not in Montgomery county, the three year assessment cycle raises property taxes substantially every time, unlike in DC where assessments are routinely way below home prices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:???

DC public schools are not better than Takoma Park schools.

And if in Maryland, you are in state for all the Maryland colleges.

Look in both and base it on which house you like best. If the houses are a toss up, choose Takoma Park for sure. Better schools, better services, more community.

The public schools in CCDC are most certainly better than the public schools in Takoma Park.

Absolutely not.
They are not even in the same league.
TPMS & Blair are leagues above Deal and JR

You are confusing the selection magnet with the reputation of Blair its self. Put it this way; even after brining in some of the best students from a massive county to prop up Blair’s test scores, it still manages to rank towards the bottom of the county. Don’t compare the best school in a city to lower ranked school in a county.

There's no confusion. You’re the one who is clueless.
Blair is the most decorated, popular school in the county and their SAT test scores are not towards the bottom. Their test scores are better than JR'S.
Blair runs circles around the best school in the city.

Absolutely. Just looking at the differences in classes available at each school, it’s obvious which has the widest range of classes, including extremely advanced classes, and it’s not a DCPS school. Blair is also exceptionally well run and one of the most popular high schools in MCPS.

Most popular almost by default in the DCC out of some pretty poor choices. The entire western portions of the county are filled with people who paid at least a million dollars to avoid it. Blair boundary is the cheapest by far of all the close in parts of MoCo, if it was truly desired by parents that wouldn’t be the case. Not sure if they teach supply and demand there but you should look into.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:???

DC public schools are not better than Takoma Park schools.

And if in Maryland, you are in state for all the Maryland colleges.

Look in both and base it on which house you like best. If the houses are a toss up, choose Takoma Park for sure. Better schools, better services, more community.

I believe property taxes in MD are much higher than DC, and your DC assessed value can only rise a maximum 10% per year. My understanding is income taxes are also similar/slightly higher once you factor in MD state and local taxes.

The only point is that with DC TAG already giving you $10k of the difference between in state and OOS, you will probably more than make up the difference on taxes.

That would depend on your income and property value. Our property taxes on our three bedroom plus attic cape cod is 2800 a year. Doesn't seem that high to me.

And even if you do make up the value, you don't have in state admissions preference.

Do you live in Takoma Park? If so property taxes on a $1.7m house will be at least $25k a year, perhaps more like $30k. If you pay $2800 your house is severely undervalued or you live in DC.

In DC, property tax should be about $14,500 on a $1.7MM home.

I don’t know why people volunteer their property tax for a home they probably bought 20 years ago. The assessed value is always significantly below market value.

Not in Montgomery county, the three year assessment cycle raises property taxes substantially every time, unlike in DC where assessments are routinely way below home prices.

DC law says assessed values can only increase a max 10% per year, capped at the assessed market value.

[Anonymous]

I’m sure one day I’ll meet someone from Takoma Park who doesn’t consider themselves superior to people from other neighborhoods.