$1.2 MILLION in Bowie!? “SOLEIL AT BOWIE”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I appreciate this insight. I live in Crofton, and I love Bowie. Our church is in Bowie, we love Allen Pond, plenty of convenient shopping in Bowie, and of course it’s easy to hop on 50 and get to DC or Annapolis. It’s one of those things where I wish Bowie and Crofton both had better reputations, but then again it’s fine if people turn up their noses because we don’t want Bowie and Crofton overrun by snobby DCUM types who would ruin it!

Crofton, Gambrills, and Odenton already have very good reputations. Arundel HS and Crofton HS are some of the best school pyramids in AACo. There is a community similar to Soleil at Bowie in Gambrills off Underwood Rd called Ridings at North Branch, and it feeds to the new Crofton HS. But I think the homes there are more expensive ($1.1M-$1.7M). People are also paying $900k-$1M+ for those tiny new homes in Two Rivers in Odenton that almost touch the houses next to them.

Bowie is also a great area, and despite what people here are saying, the schools are not mediocre at all. There are plenty of high-performing elementary schools in Bowie, and the middle and high school are decent. Not the best, but also far from being the worst as well. People are slowly going to get jealous of Bowie, especially people living in the outer burbs.

What world do you live in? Schools in Bowie are terrible, particularly middle and high school. A few kids in our neighborhood went to public for elementary but everyone I know pulled there kids out for middle and high school. No one is going to be jealous. Bowie could be nice. It is a very poorly managed city.

The City of Bowie has precisely nothing to do with the schools, which are run by the County.

Bowie was for decades an extremely well managed municipality. Personnel changes at multiple levels have lessened quality in some sectors, but City services remain extremely good and reliable. The police are good. Snow removal is good. Trash removal is a well-liked machine. Roads are good. Recreational facilities abound.

Unfortunately, the fiscal management of the council and the relative dedication to “service” (constituent-centered) rather than “government” (politician-centered) nowadays leave much to be desired.

I always thought the schools in Bowie were among the best in all of PG with a good mix of students, in terms of background, ethnicity, etc. And then there’s the option to go to Eleanor Roosevelt HS for high achieving students. I had friends that grew up there in the 90s into the 00s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Going back to soleil at Bowie. Is there anyone on this forum that has bought a lot yet. I would like to hear from anyone about the process and why it has been over a year and no home has been constructed yet. I tried to ask the sales pple and they told me I have to be a buyer first to get this information. The CEO of the company has an Instagram page and is claiming that construction is under way. I drove to the proposed site of soleil at Bowie and there is no indication of construction. The ground was not even cleared of any trees. The investment group is called Bando investments and they have another project in Baltimore called Le Ciel in pikesville. Company CEO posted on his Instagram page that construction started in 2021. I was there yesterday and the same construction picture of a half built house on his instagram page from 2021 was the same half built house I saw yesterday. It just raises a lot of questions that if an investment group whose CEO claims over $88 million in revenue does not even have 1 model house to show!!!!!!!!!! That is kind of shady. Bando investment group currently has 4 construction sites with one sold out in Annapolis but somehow, no single home has been built to completion……and this is an investment group worth over 88 million? So many questions and when I spoke with the sales people, I got no assuring answers.
Again if there is anyone who has bought a lot from this group, I would like to hear about how the process went and what excuse they have for taking over a year to start construction, and I do not buy the excuse of city permits taking long.

Boy, that sounds like a scam in the works. I would never sign up for that. Even they actually built your house and the rest of the neighborhood, you'd be living in a construction zone for years. I suspect that this developer is going through rough times with this increase in interest rates. I looked up the people in charge of Bando, and I cannot imagine putting any money at risk with them.

[Anonymous]

I would definitely stay away. Something is definitely not right with this investment group and I was thinking the same thing. The only thing they have produced in over 2 yrs are renderings! I viewed the lots with a sales rep and was told permits were the hold up. I was turned off by a ran down house that would sit in front of the community and one sitting across the street from the community. I was told the owner was not willing to sell. There were too many red flags including a lack of portfolio and no construction over 2 yrs, so I didn’t move forward with it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At 1-1.2 million private school is likely. There are plenty of private school options in the surrounding area.

Location is desirable. It takes me 40 minutes to get to Yards DC on a Sat night (which includes a 10 min delay on our most recent trip), its 30 min to Annapolis, 40 min to Baltimore, 30 min to Old Town Alexandria (love Elizabeths Counter there for vegan donuts). There is a reason Bowie was so popular for commuting family professionals and its have a bit of a resurgence lately.

We selected Bowie because its an equal drive for both of our commutes and now we love living here even though our commutes are max 2 days/week going forward. Those lot sizes are pretty desirable and in AACo Severna Park a very similar community is going for 700+ with a miniscule lot (<6k) whereas a 0.5acre lot is 21k.

Many of the families we know in that area of AA arent sending their kids to public elementary or middle but may consider high school. My spouse has suggested SP and I am not interested. We are a mixed family and the minority pop in SP Elem is <20% with a 17:1 student teacher ratio. Our local is 65% minority and 14:1 ratio. They are both rated 8 in GS.

What community is this in SP?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At 1-1.2 million private school is likely. There are plenty of private school options in the surrounding area.

Location is desirable. It takes me 40 minutes to get to Yards DC on a Sat night (which includes a 10 min delay on our most recent trip), its 30 min to Annapolis, 40 min to Baltimore, 30 min to Old Town Alexandria (love Elizabeths Counter there for vegan donuts). There is a reason Bowie was so popular for commuting family professionals and its have a bit of a resurgence lately.

We selected Bowie because its an equal drive for both of our commutes and now we love living here even though our commutes are max 2 days/week going forward. Those lot sizes are pretty desirable and in AACo Severna Park a very similar community is going for 700+ with a miniscule lot (<6k) whereas a 0.5acre lot is 21k.

Many of the families we know in that area of AA arent sending their kids to public elementary or middle but may consider high school. My spouse has suggested SP and I am not interested. We are a mixed family and the minority pop in SP Elem is <20% with a 17:1 student teacher ratio. Our local is 65% minority and 14:1 ratio. They are both rated 8 in GS.

a good alternative to Severna Park (if diversity is a concern) is the Arnold and Cape St. Claire areas. Very similar to Severna Park, but more racially and socio-economically diverse. Broadneck HS pyramid is also a top school pyramid. The area is more commutable to DC than SP is as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Farmhouse style is going to look sooooooooo dated in 10-15 years.

Agree - but then I think most house styles eventually look dated.

True, but these ones are on a whole new level.
50s ramblers, 70s split-levels, 1980s colonial revival (I live in one) all look dated.
But at least they look like homes. Once a house looks dated, they don’t become exponentially more dated as the years to on and at least I did not pay a “new house” premium to get mine. These modern farmhouses are a big mistake

I mean, someone paid a premium to get a new home when yours was built. Now they wouldn't.

I'm not a big fan of modern farmhouse, but it lends itself to options that, say, Dutch Farmhouse, does not. It also blends into existing neighborhoods fairly well, which isn't a concern here, however.

I love Dutch Farmhouse. It doesn’t need options.

Back on topic, I find it laughable that the website claims to have indicative environmental-friendly design and that the houses have 7,000 square feet.

Can we all agree that no family of four/five NEEDS 7,000 sq ft, short of exceptional circumstances? I know it’s a free country, but can’t we start trying to live with less?

[Anonymous]

900k is a tear down. These look like a toll brother development knockoff.

[Anonymous]

What ever happened to these?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm black and recently moved from "rezoned" Bowie, pretty much Lanham/Glenarden. Bowie is nice if you want a big house and that's it. Id rather live elsewhere in a townhouse then a SFH in Bowie. To someone else's point, we ended up spending a lot of money traveling to go to shopping, eating out, even just for a nice walk. Now that we have a child, schools are important and subpar schools for all of that money in my opinion isn't worth it. PG county has so much potential because of how close it is to DC but it just seems like the county's leaders are sell outs.

This

[Anonymous]

For 40+ years people have beaten up on PG County and for the same length of time complained that “there are no affordable housing options”.

There are, you just don’t want to live near black people or be tarnished with the PG county designation.

I’ll never be able to hear the whines of a white person complaining about housing costs who doesn’t even acknowledge PG county exists.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is the train really loud, would you be able to hear it in that community?

I live in an old town with a track at the end of my block. The train never wakes me up. I do hear it during the day but it doesn't disturb me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For 40+ years people have beaten up on PG County and for the same length of time complained that “there are no affordable housing options”.

There are, you just don’t want to live near black people or be tarnished with the PG county designation.

I’ll never be able to hear the whines of a white person complaining about housing costs who doesn’t even acknowledge PG county exists.

Agreed, there are other areas in the DMV that are very affordable (in my view) yet people don't want to live there because they feel entitled to live in say Arlington, WOTP, Bethesda, etc. rather than either a) compromising on location and moving further our or b) going for a TH instead of a SFH and maybe as you said don't want to live by people of color as well.

That being said, the cost of housing has gotten expensive. Pre pandemic it was quite cheap tbh (low prices and low ish rates) but now not so much now imo

[Anonymous]

This might be a scam, still no development and NOTHING to show for the past couple years. Everything sounds good but has yet to be developed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For 40+ years people have beaten up on PG County and for the same length of time complained that “there are no affordable housing options”.

There are, you just don’t want to live near black people or be tarnished with the PG county designation.

I’ll never be able to hear the whines of a white person complaining about housing costs who doesn’t even acknowledge PG county exists.

We don’t want to live near poor people

[Anonymous]

Have these homes been built? I don’t see anything about them online and the last post on their instagram was from late August ‘23. Really hope this wasn’t a scam.