I have lived in both downtown Silver Spring and Bethesda.

I infinitely prefer Bethesda for the following reasons:

1. I like living on the edge of the urban area, so that I can have a leafy suburban house but still walk less than 5 minutes to Metro, activities and restaurants. Downtown Bethesda makes for incredibly more pleasant walking than Silver Spring.

2. I prefer paying more for my house to access good public schools than to pay less and shell out for private, because house prices in better school districts tend to go up more reliably than those in less reputable school districts. Therefore it's a better financial investment.

At your budget, I'd look seriously at the parts of Kensington and Chevy Chase east of Connecticut that feed into BCC. I think you get very nice, lower-key communities, but with great schools, good commutes, good re-sale (if that matters to you). As you'll see when you dive deep in the school forum, Kensington feeds into 3 clusters (BCC, WJ, Einstein) and there are happy families in each of them. The housing prices will vary widely among the three, but you can get walkability and nice neighborhoods in any of them.

My advice is to be really honest with yourself on your feelings of diversity, economic and racial. I have a lot of friends who live in SS who I think love the idea of diversity but not when it means having their kids at schools with high minority and/or FARMS populations. Just read these boards to see how they all go nuts over getting their kids into magnet programs.

I admit to being rather torn on this myself. My kids go to a school with both in SS and there are pros and cons.

No one has mentioned crime and my two cents is that crime happens everywhere. There are car and home break ins all the time in Chevy Chase and Bethesda. And some of the scarier ones tend to happen there as thieves know where the money is.

All that being said, I would still choose Chevy Chase, Kensington or Bethesda over Silver Spring.

We just moved to 20910, and we could not be happier. We bought a $700,000 home in an ok school district. Our neighbors are very friendly and we had 4 people bring us wine and cakes to welcome us. We feel so lucky to be living with such nice people. We felt like Bethesda would not be this way- it seems like a tougher less friendly crowd.

We may need to move for middle school- but we are saving lots of money so private may be an option. Also there is the Takoma Park magnet program that is decent.

We are aware our child may see a poor and/ or black person in our neighbourhood and we are ok with that. Some people are not.

[quote=Anonymous]Housing prices and school quality (perceived or otherwise) are inextricably linked. People are going to suggest zip codes based on whether they like their schools. Silver Spring is huge, do you want a more urban or suburban feel, how close to the metro, etc. Knowing more info would help folks provide zip codes.

Just do a search, there are lots of discussions about Silver Spring school vs. Bethesda schools. The county has a highly centralized and bureaucratic school system. Academic experience amongst schools is very similar. Whether you are comfortable with the peer group in the more diverse schools of Silver Spring is really based more on your own personality and prejudices.[/quote]

Suburban, within close range to shops/restaurants. The idea would be to buy under budget in SS for a similar at budget home in B-CC. Diversity is fine, both economic and racial. Our kids are multi-racial.

Wow usually crazy silver spring school lady is more on top of this.

We live in 20901, have been happy with publics so far. Yes we couldn't afford our home if it were in Bethesda - and a lot of that is perception of schools. But for us wasn't worth going house poor to be in an overcrowded es when our es has smaller classes.

In 20910 $800k will go pretty far...you should also look at Kensington. 20901 at $700k you can get something expanded and renovated. Good luck OP and enjoy the crazy which if history is true will overtake this thread.

Anonymous wrote:Housing prices and school quality (perceived or otherwise) are inextricably linked. People are going to suggest zip codes based on whether they like their schools. Silver Spring is huge, do you want a more urban or suburban feel, how close to the metro, etc. Knowing more info would help folks provide zip codes.

Just do a search, there are lots of discussions about Silver Spring school vs. Bethesda schools. The county has a highly centralized and bureaucratic school system. Academic experience amongst schools is very similar. Whether you are comfortable with the peer group in the more diverse schools of Silver Spring is really based more on your own personality and prejudices.

The majority of students at most schools in Silver Spring perform rather poorly, so the judgment to be made is whether and how you think it will affect your own child's education. Most with a choice and the money to pay for homes districted for higher-performing schools do not take that risk.

To each their own. I wouldn't want to live in SS with a budget of $800k. You might think that SS schools are ok, but many others would prefer Bwtheada, Chevy Chase or Kensington. Those areas will always be more popular, and thus, more expensive.

Housing prices and school quality (perceived or otherwise) are inextricably linked. People are going to suggest zip codes based on whether they like their schools. Silver Spring is huge, do you want a more urban or suburban feel, how close to the metro, etc. Knowing more info would help folks provide zip codes.

Just do a search, there are lots of discussions about Silver Spring school vs. Bethesda schools. The county has a highly centralized and bureaucratic school system. Academic experience amongst schools is very similar. Whether you are comfortable with the peer group in the more diverse schools of Silver Spring is really based more on your own personality and prejudices.

Anonymous wrote:There are lots of nice neighborhoods in SS (and I'd add Kensington to the mix). Like PP, we live in 20910 and love it. We used to live in Bethesda but just found that our "tribe" wasn't there and we wanted a SFH that would allow us to walk to amenities and the Metro.

Some of this depends on your tolerance for diversity (economic and racial). I appreciate both, so the diversity in our school and neighborhood is a plus for me, but that's not going to be true for everyone. People have different thresholds for this sort of thing.

This is our experience as well. We never felt comfortable in CC and Bethesda, SS (20910) fit us better, as did the house prices. We've been there a long time and have been extremely happy with the neighborhood, the schools and the location that and we saved a bundle of moving buying there instead of the more pricey locations.

There are lots of nice neighborhoods in SS (and I'd add Kensington to the mix). Like PP, we live in 20910 and love it. We used to live in Bethesda but just found that our "tribe" wasn't there and we wanted a SFH that would allow us to walk to amenities and the Metro.

Some of this depends on your tolerance for diversity (economic and racial). I appreciate both, so the diversity in our school and neighborhood is a plus for me, but that's not going to be true for everyone. People have different thresholds for this sort of thing.

Thank you for the zip codes -- that will come in handy. I'm hoping to save the school discussion for the other forum.

We are near the Forest Glen metro in the 20902 zip code and we are happy there.

I live in SS and love it, but Silver Spring has 16 zip codes. It's huge. (Bethesda is too, but that's another story). I like 20910, where I live, and 20901 (that's roughly -- roughly -- Downtown, Seven Oaks, Woodmoor, Woodside, Four Corners). I don't think I'd live elsewhere in Silver Spring. You're going to get a lot controversy about schools.

Browsing houses online and Silver spring looks like a deal in comparison to Bethesda and Chevy Chase. What is the general opinion about Silver Spring? Also, would you buy in Silver Spring to save on house costs, or do you go house poor to live in the Bethesda - Chevy Chase area? Tops in the house budget is $800k. Schools are important, but so is not going broke, not to mention resale later. Is this a smart area to invest a down payment in?