OP, I don't know about you, but I have food in my house and don't love the idea of eating out. I do it when we HAVE to. I shop as little as possible, so living near one is not my dream. Not a chronic consumer. If I had to live within walking distance of something, it would be a national park.

Go ahead and move. You'll obsess about something else in a few years and want to move again. These are trivial reasons to uproot your kids.

I don't think you're crazy at all to wannt those things- its only a matter of deciding if the cost is worth it to you. My favorite things about my home are the feel of the neighborhood (not the politics, just lots of friendly adults and kids), the fact that we can walk to the grocery store and a few restaurants (in a strip mall., but still something), and the fact that we are surrounded by walkable schools, playgrounds., and green space. On a daily/weekly basis, those are the things that make us happy. Why not look, but be super picky? Anddont be shy about talking to potential neighbors! Switching the kids schools would be a concern for me, but not a dealbreaker depending onn their ages and adaptability.

Op here. Thank you to the few of the posters who responded to my actual question. And to 21:48, thank you for reminding me that my kids are not asking for a move or for any of the items we her parents find lacking in our neighborhood - I need to keep that in mind as I weigh the Q of whether this kind of move is "worth it." I wish we could move to the kind of neighborhood we desire within our current school boundaries, but those neighborhoods are no different than our current one in substance, and certainly are no more walkable to anything. (Toposter 18:03, we live inside the beltway in Bethesda - there is nothing within a 15-20 min walk besides a gas station. Most of the western side of Bethesda is this way - Banockburn, Burning Tree, Wood Acres, Carderock. Tons within a short drive, but I never complained about not being able to drive anywhere - in fact, I feel like I spend much of my time in the car.)

It's better for your teens to have to be transported than able to amble around on their own. Alcohol, weed, parties.

I don't get it. You live inside the beltway in MoCo. Are you too busy to get out and about? There really is something for everyone here.
I can walk anywhere in 20 mins, bike in 10 and drive in 5. It's just a matter of motivating and getting myself moving.

Oh, and where in the beltway is this enclave of "people a tad to the right politically" that it bothers someone so righteously openminded, liberal, and assumably on the left? maybe some thing else is bothering you.

The transaction costs for us to consider a move for that one thing, say an extra bedroom or garage, etc has not been worth it between transfer taxes, realtor fees, losing the homestead credit and jumping into the full current property tax value, and resetting the mortgage if we went for another 30 year when we are 8 years into current mortgage. If your plan is to go down to one car and bike and use public transportation, I could see the car savings off setting some of the costs. For us to move there is no cost savings happening as a result.

Anonymous wrote:OP, you need to spend less time on DCUM. This walkability nonsense is not worth the damn closing costs. There are tons of people who live in the middle of nowhere and are happy. You don't have to disrupt your children's' lives so they can get a slurpee after school. Did they ask for that? If you find a nice house with more going for it then maybe, but don't get psyched out by the walkers on this site. Sis lives at Tenley. They drive to the grocery, and their walking kids are in the basement all day long on x-box. My suburban brats are climbing up some creek every day after school, or tearing up my yard building a fort...

That's ridiculous. We live close in and love to walk to things. Different strokes. I grew up in the suburbs. You can keep it.

Looking at the boundaries of your current elementary school, are there any houses within those boundaries that are in a different, more walkable neighborhood? I'd start there.

I bought my last house for walkability and my current house for walkability. (In both cases, a grocery store and a park were both within 0.75 miles away.) I didn't even consider anything that wasn't walking distance to a park and shops, so I see why you're considering it.

.....walkability is huge for us. We don't drive except to the grocery. Only you can decide it is worth it but we wanted our kids to be able to walk to places as well. I couldn't, my husband couldnt as kids, and we both desperately wanted to. We don't live downtown, between downtown silver spring and takoma, and we love that we can walk to many places.

But only you can decide it is worth it.

OP, you need to spend less time on DCUM. This walkability nonsense is not worth the damn closing costs. There are tons of people who live in the middle of nowhere and are happy. You don't have to disrupt your children's' lives so they can get a slurpee after school. Did they ask for that? If you find a nice house with more going for it then maybe, but don't get psyched out by the walkers on this site. Sis lives at Tenley. They drive to the grocery, and their walking kids are in the basement all day long on x-box. My suburban brats are climbing up some creek every day after school, or tearing up my yard building a fort...

you must be really lib to consider Montgomery county to the right, perhaps a hippie commune in the back hills of Oregon would be more fitting.


here is the site for you and maryland has a few listings
http://www.hippy.com/havens2.htm

We have lived in our 3br brick colonial in close-in Montgomery County for 10 years. We like the house and our short commutes, but have never loved the actual neighborhood - it's not very diverse, tends a tad to the right politically (as much as any close-in neighborhood does at least). Also we can't walk anywhere, and we'd prefer to be within walking distance of some restaurants and places our kids could walk or bike to on their own as they get older (even just a little drugstore to buy ice cream on the way home from school). If we could have a "do-over," we'd pick a comparable house in a different neighborhood, but we struggle with whether it is worth the transaction costs of such a move, plus the disruption to our kids (elementary school aged) to change schools, sports teams and friends for these types of reasons, which don't se very significant in the big scheme of things (it's not like we've outgrown the house, or want to move farther out to get a bigger yard or closer in to get a shorter commute - we just want a different neighborhood!). If you have done this, was it worth the "costs"? Thanks.