Anonymous wrote:Just make sure the boundary zones won't change. It's never a guarantee, especially if there's any new construction in the area.

+1

Good luck OP!

I just wanted to say of course it's not crazy. It is what at least 50% of us are doing. (that is, living in homes that are smaller than we might like because we want to be in a good location.)

Good luck OP sounds like a good decision!

Good luck getting your offer accepted, OP!

Of course it's not crazy to move for schools--and to get less house than you would in another area. Lots of people do that when house hunting, ending up with something smaller and less charming than they could have gotten in a less expensive area. I'm sure it's an easier choice when it's a first house than when it's a "downgrade" to a smaller place, though!

Thank you for your responses. Yes, I have done my research and from living in the county for 40 years, I already know a lot about the schools. I just didn't realize how some of them have changed for the worse. I have friends with children in the schools where we want to move and they are happy with them. It's not always about test scores and demographics.

Luckily, we were able to find a home for sale that is comparable in size to our townhouse, minus a basement. The upside is better schools and more land. Now we just have to wait for our offer to be accepted. Thanks again for your input.

Just make sure the boundary zones won't change. It's never a guarantee, especially if there's any new construction in the area.

There's a reason people pay a premium for good schools. You can't know what's going to be best, but moving into a good system is at least a good rule of thumb.

Anonymous wrote:How sure are you that the new school is "better"? I hear people use this word all the time, and they are usually only referring to test scores and data on MCPS websites. Have you talked to parents at the potential new school and received rave _specific_ reviews?

If after doing the real research into those better schools its a slam dunk then no its not crazy to move. As long as (as PP pointed out) the smaller space/less bedrooms/bathrooms will not represent a significant quality of life decrease/stress increase that might trump the benefits of the better schools!

I echo this. The in laws are always trying to convince us that we should buy their home from them (at a family discount) to be in their "better neighborhood" and go to "better schools." Oh, the better schools where there are almost twice as many kids in the class and I hear people complain that their kids get no personal attention?

But if you've done your research and that really is the case, then it's worth a move. I just think you want to be sure you are really getting a better school.

Anonymous wrote:Surprising that you found an apartment that was affordable enough for you to pay for private school for ?? number of years - but not one to go to public? unless there are no apartments in the HS district (which is pretty rare)

The apartments in the HS district cost as much as we were paying to rent the SFH.

Moving out of the house meant that we could let go of a lot of house/larger home related expenses. We were able to drop home security. My renter's insurance and utility bills are MUCH smaller. My former landlord didn't care about the landscaping, but we were the only renters on the block so I didn't want anyone to feel like we were dragging things down by not taking care of the yard. By moving out of the SFH and into the apartment, I'm not hemorrhaging money trying to get the front back and side yards to look good 3 out of 4 seasons. We now living walking distance from the grocery store, church, doctors' offices, and entertainment, and Metro. So we are spending less on the car as well.

We still need FA, but we couldn't have closed the gap if we were still living in the SFH.

It's not crazy, but as a PP said it depends on the size of your family. We currently live in a 2400 sq ft SFH that we've done many updates/ renno projects on. It's our "starter" home, and we hope to move one more time in a few years. If we stayed in our area we could afford something close to our dream home but we're not comfortable with our school district and for the same budget will likely wind up moving to a small cape cod in a good school district. There's no right or wrong answer, but for us education is a top priority, so it'll be worth it and we'll just hope that one day we can expand the size of the house. MCPS just put out this report which, though it has some flaws, emphasized to us the need to move (we live in one of the lower SES districts they highlight): http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/page/local/performance-of-montgomery-county-public-schools-high-schools-a-fy-2014-update/933/

If you're concerned about the number of bedrooms, I see that you're looking at going from a TH to a SFH, have you also looked to see if you could get more bedrooms in a condo, or more overall space in a TH?

How sure are you that the new school is "better"? I hear people use this word all the time, and they are usually only referring to test scores and data on MCPS websites. Have you talked to parents at the potential new school and received rave _specific_ reviews?

If after doing the real research into those better schools its a slam dunk then no its not crazy to move. As long as (as PP pointed out) the smaller space/less bedrooms/bathrooms will not represent a significant quality of life decrease/stress increase that might trump the benefits of the better schools!

Anonymous wrote:We are currently in a three level 1400 square foot townhouse in a not so great school area. We just looked at a smaller two story single family home in a better school area. It has one less bedroom and one less bathroom. Is it crazy to be considering it to be in a better school area?

That depends (among other things) on how many people are in your family and how many bedrooms and bathrooms your current house has.

Surprising that you found an apartment that was affordable enough for you to pay for private school for ?? number of years - but not one to go to public? unless there are no apartments in the HS district (which is pretty rare)

Not crazy. We moved from a SFH to an apartment to afford private school. However, if I could have found a decent apartment in the zone for the public school I wanted, we would have done that instead.

We are currently in a three level 1400 square foot townhouse in a not so great school area. We just looked at a smaller two story single family home in a better school area. It has one less bedroom and one less bathroom. Is it crazy to be considering it to be in a better school area?