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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
The price differences you will see in Kensington depend nearly entirely on the school clusters. 
School boundaries are scheduled to be studied this year in view of a possible change in ~2025, and Kensington will certainly be one of the neighborhoods that will be reworked, since parts of Kensington geographically close to Einstein HS (poorly ranked) now go to Walter Johnson (highly ranked). Property prices will correct themselves accordingly.

Conclusion: buyer beware. If you want to be sure you're making the right investment, always buy to the west of, and close to, the right high school.
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This is utter BS. This house, which was just over 1,000 sq ft, received 11 bids and went pending in a week. Guess what? It’s in the Einstein cluster, but more importantly it’s walkable and on a nice tree lined street.

https://www.redfin.com/MD/Kensington/10404-Muir-Pl-20895/home/11013912

This house is in the WJ cluster and is also walkable and across from a gorgeous park. It went pending in 2 days and will probably go for a $1M plus.

https://www.redfin.com/MD/Kensington/10206-Kensington-Pkwy-20895/home/11106982

The key to both these homes is location. Living in a walkable neighborhood within walking distance to MARC, grocery stores and restaurants and being across the street from an English Garden (like the second home) is always going to be desirable. When 2025 comes around that second home will have appreciated so much because of its location, walkability and proximity to DC (4 miles to DC) that ANY high school zoning changes will not make it a bad investment.

When these high school zoning changes happen there are three possible outcomes:

1) Kensington-Parkwood (KP) ES stays in WJ district. This is most likely, given that WJ takes on students from two middle schools: Tilden and North Bethesda. Since Tilden MS is literally at the Woodward site it would make the most logical sense that the students who are transferred from WJ to Woodward come from Tilden, not North Bethesda.

2) KP is rezoned to Woodward. This is not that likely, for reasons stated above. If KP gets rezoned, Woodward will be a brand new high school that will probably be at least a 8/10 school, which will have a marginal impact on housing prices in Kensington.

3) KP is rezoned to Einstein. This will come after a brutal political battle, which I’m not sure MoCo legislators or the school board would like to have, so I really don’t think it is likely. On top of that, if KP is pulled out of WJ what schools are left at WJ? A lot of WJ ESs close to Woodward will obviously be rezoned to Woodward (Luxmanor, Farmland and Garrett Park are the closest ESs to Woodward) so WJ needs to retain some students. Also, if the KP to Einstein scenario happened it would mean a lower performing elementary would be pulled out. That means Einstein would probably turn into a 7/10 HS overnight, with a highly desirable IB program.

Whatever happens anyplace walkable in Kensington (that is, within half a mile from the MARC and/or Antique Row) will always be desirable. The Town of Kensington is a nice place to live. They are not bulding neighborhoods within 4 miles from DC with Victorian homes, boutique stores, restaurants and shopping where you can also walk to a great network of parks and fixed rail. If the high school it’s zoned for is a 7/10, 8/10 or a 9/10 it will not make that much or a difference by 2025, especially with the Chevy Chase Lake development coming in nearby and the “Amazon” effect driving homes around the area through the roof.

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