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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Not going to quote PP because it's so long, but...

The math these exurb-boosters are using is all wrong. A million dollar house plus public schools is much cheaper in the long run than a 700K house plus private schools, especially if you have multiple children. We have two - I can't imagine spending $70k per year for the next decade on private school. At least you gain equity with your million dollar house during that decade, even if local real estate prices do decline.

There's also no way I'd want to live way out in Frederick County while commuting to DC, even a couple days a week. That's an hour by car if everything goes well, not including parking. I live in Vienna, and it's 30 minutes by car or an hour by metro. I'd absolutely prefer that commute over Frederick for work and social life.

Contrary to what PP claimed, we certainly did not buy an expensive house just to say we live in an expensive house. We were/are shocked at DMV housing prices. But we paid a premium (well under $1M, for the record) for a large-enough home with good public schools, low crime, and an easy commute. THAT'S why we moved where we did.

Finally, it's pretty weird that a PP referring to their top-tier law degree and $1.5M house is calling everyone in the suburbs arrogant. There are lots of families here like ours who aren't trying to be flashy or live large, but are grateful to have steady salaries and good schools. Your choices aren't so clearly superior to theirs. 
[/quote]

What you’re saying goes along with what I’m saying. Vienna isn’t McLean, and the home prices there are significantly less over-priced. I’m looking at the listings right now, and there’s a lot of houses there for the price range of this house that I’d actually pay for. Vienna is far more similar to Clarksville and Ellicott City, which is an area I was saying that one can get a decent house in with good schools.  People are saying location and schools are pushing these prices, but schools and location are only worth SO much (especially McLean, which is not even that great of a school), and this house is priced far beyond that worth, especially when you consider that a lot of outer suburbs have access to public transportation that goes to DC anyways. There’s a MARC right near me in Odenton, and there’s a public bus right here in Davidsonville that goes into DC. My commute from this area is very doable, so I’m not paying $1.5M for a middle-class home in an overcrowded area that is highly congested, hell no. When it comes to the schools, well, many people are willing to pay for private, and there’s also far better public schools in some of the outer suburbs as well.

I also still live in a very good public school pyramid relative to the school that this house is zoned for, and South River is  among the best in the state, and our local schools are highly regarded. I’m actually considering sending my oldest to South River High School when she gets to that level, especially because they have a very good STEM program. SRHS was also the first school in MD to be named a Maryland Blue Ribbon School. The main reason I was sending my kids to private was actually because the private schools in the area are more ethnically diverse than our local public schools, which are very, very white. We are also white, but we wanted our kids to be exposed to more diversity. The socio-economic diversity at the public schools here are very good though. It’s pretty much evenly split between very affluent kids, middle-class kids, and upper-middle-class kids. The FARMS percentage is low, but higher than Bethesda/McLean/Potomac/etc schools. I am confident that my kids would get a decent education at these schools and that they will still attend top colleges.

Some of these schools that have a rave they absolutely do not deserve at all. Severna Park High School students perform significantly better than Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School students do, and the percentage of SPHS grads going to college is 10% higher than the percentage of BCC grads going to college, yet, SPHS students are on average not as affluent as BCC students. Severna Park students are basically on par with Whitman/WJ/Churchill students, and it’s very impressive considering the difference in SES between the student bodies at the two schools. I’d send my kids to Severna Park before I’d send them to McLean or B-CC, because those schools are overhyped and despite having very affluent student bodies, they’re not performing much higher than other schools that have lower SES and in some cases, they’re worse. They are also serving their disadvantaged students very poorly relative to these other schools.. I can buy a beautiful house in the Severna Park or Broadneck district for $1.5-$2M and be within good distance from DC/transportation to it, and I’d have Downtown Annapolis and Baltimore nearby for entertainment. I can still drive to DC for weekend entertainment from these areas as well. This is not even mentioning the Howard County schools, which are the best in the state and country and have a very good commute to DC. I could get a $1.5M luxury house in Clarksville easily.  Also, DC is not the only job market in the region. There’s Baltimore, Fort Meade, and even Annapolis to a lesser degree. AA and Howard County provide better a commuting distance to all these places, whereas the DC inner burbs suck for commuting to all the other places besides DC and AA/Howard County are more reasonably priced, when they are probably more valuable than the inner burbs in terms of location; they offer good schools AND a decent commute  to all the job hubs in the region, not just DC. With many couples having one spouse who works in the DC metro area and the other in the Baltimore or Fort Meade region, having a good commuting distance from all the job hubs is becoming more important, rather than being extremely close to just one of them but far far away from the rest.

It’s not a bargain to find good schools within a reasonable commute from DC at a good price point at all. What these posters actually mean is that it is hard to find somewhere with virtually no poor people, a very small and almost non-existent middle/upper-middle-class, and no race other than Asian or white with “good” schools and good commute to DC, they’re just too afraid to say it. “Nice” neighbors probably just translates to “people who work in some prestigious job and make no less than $250,000 combined a year.” I’m not stupid, I know how it works here. Nobody’s home has to be super flashy with golden door handles and chandeliers, but f I’m paying for a $1.5M house, I’m definitely not buying one that was intended for a price range and income bracket that is much lower. I pay for quality, and most people who can afford a house that expensive are thinking the same way. The amount of people willing to put up with these stupid prices is becoming less and less over time, especially considering that most of the people living in these areas can’t afford their own homes, going by home values vs median incomes of these areas. These prices are absolutely outrageous and are not justifiable in any way. [/quote]

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