Anonymous wrote:If my marriage has a job in Annapolis and a job on the Hill, I would look in Annapolis first. Adorable downtown, houses on the water, and good public schools.

Really? Coming from a big city, we were told that Annapolis would be hard for us to adjust. Do a lot of families live downtown?
Maybe I have to start a new thread on Annapolis

If my marriage has a job in Annapolis and a job on the Hill, I would look in Annapolis first. Adorable downtown, houses on the water, and good public schools.

Barney Circle is a very specific small neighborhood. Hill East incorporates Barney Circle and a much larger area around it.

Anonymous wrote:Is this even considered Capitol Hill? We will be moving from a metropolitan city and do not know much about the individual neighborhoods. we definitely need to be near Capitol Hill since DH will be driving to Annapolis and I will be working on the hill. I prefer to take metro or bike to work. We have two toddler twins- 2 yrs old. We looked at a few places near Capitol South metro and Eastern Market metro but they were too small for our budget and seemed to need lots of work. Was actually discouraging. Now the houses in Hill East seemed beautiful, large, and renovated! And somewhat within our budget. We were a little put off by how residential it is over there. We did not have time to walk around too much because we had to fly back home. It seemed that two grocery stores were within walking distance. But what about cafes, shops, restaurants, etc? Does it feel urban? How walkable is it? And what about safety? Any info on this neighborhood would be great!

The real name of the neighborhood is Barney Circle. The metro can be dangerous at night and at mid-day when there's no one around. There's a huge public housing complex in the neighborhood called Potomac Gardens that is ripe with criminals and drug dealers. The schools are third world and it's really too far away to walk to any of the Hill office buildings. And I once saw a woman change a baby's diaper on the food conveyer belt in the neighborhood Safeway.

Anonymous wrote:I live on the hill with small kids and love it! Having said that, I like being closer to 7th and 8th Streets (closer to Eastern Market and commerce). Areas around Capitol Hill South and Eastern Market are very desirable and kid friendly (but more $$ like you mentioned). Have you considered renting before buying?

I've lived in both areas -- near Cap South as a young Hill staffer and further out with a husband and young child. I agree that ideally it's better to be close to more stores and such, but it wouldn't be worth it to me to live in an unrenovated shoebox either. The nice thing about the Hill is that you can park pretty easily anywhere near the restaurants/retail on Pennsylvania Avenue, 8th St., Harris Teeter, Safeway, etc., with the exception of the Eastern Market area on weekends, but that's a lovely walk anyway. So it's not at all hard to live further out and just accept that you're going to hop in the car and take a 2-minute drive to buy groceries when you're pressed for time. You can still walk when you have a bit more time, and the whole area is lovely for strolling. It's definitely very much part of the Hill and the people who live there are largely the same people you find in the closer-in parts of the Hill. My only reservation is that I would not live more than a 10-minute walk from the metro if I didn't have a car.

What do you plan to do for school? If you are going to go private, it's fine. For that address, I would not send my kid to the in bound elementary school. You can always try the charter or out of bound lottery, but that's a crapshoot.

I live on the hill with small kids and love it! Having said that, I like being closer to 7th and 8th Streets (closer to Eastern Market and commerce). Areas around Capitol Hill South and Eastern Market are very desirable and kid friendly (but more $$ like you mentioned). Have you considered renting before buying?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you're talking about the area near Rosedale we looked there, too. If we both drove to work and I wasn't home most of the day, we would loved it for the reasons you mentioned. But DH's long walk to the metro and having my kid home all day with me or nanny made us feel anxious, when taking into account the relative safety of the neighborhood. It's not quite yet where we want our neighborhood to be in terms of being able to walk at night etc... Just my two cents.

Op here. Not sure where Rosedale is...? We are really looking at the 1300 to 1500 block of south Carolina SE.

PP here. Irrelevant to what I was saying then as Rosedale is much more north, near Trinidad. Your area is much more central to the real hill. You're fine.

Anonymous wrote:The Southeast portion of Hill East is a bit nicer than the NE side. The NE side tends to have more multi-unit buildings. For a renovated home with 3-4 bedrooms (1 in the basement), you will be looking around $700K. There are lots of community gardens, Congressional Cemetery (33 acres of greenspace) and two metros (both orange/blue). Eastern Market is about a 1 mile walk. There are some commercial stuff popping up on 15th Street SE (Crepes, Pretzels) -- I am sure more is on the way. Harris Teeter and Safeway are on 14th Street.

Yes we are looking at the SE side. And 700,000 is about our budget. We really do prefer three bedrooms because we are not sure if we are done after the twins
Is the Potomac metro closer than a mile? It does seem a little far.

Anonymous wrote:If you're talking about the area near Rosedale we looked there, too. If we both drove to work and I wasn't home most of the day, we would loved it for the reasons you mentioned. But DH's long walk to the metro and having my kid home all day with me or nanny made us feel anxious, when taking into account the relative safety of the neighborhood. It's not quite yet where we want our neighborhood to be in terms of being able to walk at night etc... Just my two cents.

Op here. Not sure where Rosedale is...? We are really looking at the 1300 to 1500 block of south Carolina SE.

The Southeast portion of Hill East is a bit nicer than the NE side. The NE side tends to have more multi-unit buildings. For a renovated home with 3-4 bedrooms (1 in the basement), you will be looking around $700K. There are lots of community gardens, Congressional Cemetery (33 acres of greenspace) and two metros (both orange/blue). Eastern Market is about a 1 mile walk. There are some commercial stuff popping up on 15th Street SE (Crepes, Pretzels) -- I am sure more is on the way. Harris Teeter and Safeway are on 14th Street.

Lots of crime, very few ameneties and not really walkable. If you're decided on the Hill, I'd rather live in something smaller and unrenovatd closer to Capitol South or Eastern Market than "Hill East."

If you're talking about the area near Rosedale we looked there, too. If we both drove to work and I wasn't home most of the day, we would loved it for the reasons you mentioned. But DH's long walk to the metro and having my kid home all day with me or nanny made us feel anxious, when taking into account the relative safety of the neighborhood. It's not quite yet where we want our neighborhood to be in terms of being able to walk at night etc... Just my two cents.

Watch out, OP, we've just been having huge fights about this general area on DCUM so you may find yourself in the midst of a sh*tstorm!

Some of us like it a lot but we are more comfortable with the problems one encounters in urban areas - crime, figuring out schools, and so forth. Other people were less comfortable with it and moved out. And then there's one person who is extremely hostile but I can't figure out whether she is just a troll looking for distraction or is actually on some weird mission.

Is this even considered Capitol Hill? We will be moving from a metropolitan city and do not know much about the individual neighborhoods. we definitely need to be near Capitol Hill since DH will be driving to Annapolis and I will be working on the hill. I prefer to take metro or bike to work. We have two toddler twins- 2 yrs old. We looked at a few places near Capitol South metro and Eastern Market metro but they were too small for our budget and seemed to need lots of work. Was actually discouraging. Now the houses in Hill East seemed beautiful, large, and renovated! And somewhat within our budget. We were a little put off by how residential it is over there. We did not have time to walk around too much because we had to fly back home. It seemed that two grocery stores were within walking distance. But what about cafes, shops, restaurants, etc? Does it feel urban? How walkable is it? And what about safety? Any info on this neighborhood would be great!