lizziewhit wrote:Hello! My girls are 6, 3 and 3 months old. We are moving to the DC area from Dallas and we do not want to live in the suburbs. We are honing in on Georgetown (for a more urban feel) with a $1M-$1.5M home price range - and the places we are looking at online say the elementary school they can attend is Hyde-Addison. In fact, I was surprised to see so many schools online ranking 10/10 (based on GreatSchools) as I realize that private school fares better around DC versus public school.

My questions are:
1) Can I trust these GreatSchool rankings?
2) Are their certain neighborhoods in and right around DC that do offer a decent elementary school that fit with my home price range budget ($1M-$1.5M)?
3) If anyone can list the known good public elementary schools, I can hone my real estate search around that.

Thanks!!

Georgetown is great and Hyde is fine but you will only find a 2 bedroom in that price range and the middle school has issues in my opinion. IF you want public long term, look at schools that feed to Deal/ have bigger homes in that range: AU park, Chevy Chase DC, Woodley Park. Hyde also is located off site for construction til at least Fall 2019.

I’d look near Brent but I’m biased because it’s one of my favorite neighborhoods. Although people will tell you not to because of middle school and high school.

I would also suggest AU Park for that budget + good schools.

Not Georgetown. I'm not sure what you can even buy there for $1 mil, and getting around is a PITA due to lack of Metro. Go for something near the Redline, or Capitol Hill. $1.5 mil will get you a VERY nice house zoned for Maury or Brent.

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, that kind of money doesn't get you a Dallas-sized home in Georgetown. Georgetown is also most decidedly not urban, unless walking to kate spade and pottery barn is "urban" for you.

Georgetown is urban. Do you mean it is not edgy, or perhaps not particularly diverse (residentially)?

"An urban area is the region surrounding a city. Most inhabitants of urban areas have nonagricultural jobs. Urban areas are very developed, meaning there is a density of human structures such as houses, commercial buildings, roads, bridges, and railways. "Urban area" can refer to towns, cities, and suburbs." - National Geographic Society

I would definitely look in Glover Park too. Near Georgetown, still a somewhat urban feel, but a little more space for your money. Stoddert Elem is fantastic.

Yeah, that kind of money doesn't get you a Dallas-sized home in Georgetown. Georgetown is also most decidedly not urban, unless walking to kate spade and pottery barn is "urban" for you.

I’d buy in Cleveland Park not georgetown.

When you say you want a more urban feel, what do you mean? Georgetown is urban in that houses are old and, at your price range, not that big, and there's some stuff to walk to in the neighborhood, but it's isolated from other parts of the city and doesn't have easy access to a subway station, so you won't be able to be car-free.

In DC (and perhaps everywhere), there is a direct correlation between test scores and affluent families. So pretty much any neighborhood with $1.5 million houses will feed to a good elementary school (there are some exceptions in gentrifying neighborhoods, but that's a general rule). Schools in those neighborhoods also don't have PK3, although other neighborhoods do have public PK3.

Depending on what you mean by "urban," I would also look in the Oyster district (English/Spanish bilingual) and Cleveland Park (Eaton or Hearst).

Isn't Hyde-Addison located somewhere else right now for a renovation?

With your budget and 3 kids, I would not be looking in Georgetown. You would be incredibly cramped. I'd look at AU Park. Highly ranked, if desperately overcrowded, schools, and plenty urban. Plus you should be able to get 3 bedrooms for your budget there.

Or...look on the Hill and cross your fingers that the middle school situation clarifies by the time your oldest gets to 6th grade.

With that budget, I would move near Brent on Cap Hill.

What size home are you looking for? With that budget in Georgetown, your choices are limited.

For "Best" schools in Georgetown, you have 2 choices. Holy Trinity (Catholic) and Hyde Elementary School (Public). People are happy with both.

Yes, you can trust GreatSchools insofar as you can trust it anywhere else, and given that it mainly measures SES of the kids in the school rather than the quality of teaching.

The one thing to keep in mind, though, is that GS is ranking schools against other schools in the same state (in this case, DC). So, at the tippity top neighborhoods like the ones where you are looking, that doesn't matter much. The kids are performing just as well as they would in any other rich, predominantly white, neighborhood.

But once you get down into DC schools that are ranked a little lower, it might be worth comparing a mid-ranked DC school to a low-ranked VA or MD school. You will find kids perform about the same.

Hello! My girls are 6, 3 and 3 months old. We are moving to the DC area from Dallas and we do not want to live in the suburbs. We are honing in on Georgetown (for a more urban feel) with a $1M-$1.5M home price range - and the places we are looking at online say the elementary school they can attend is Hyde-Addison. In fact, I was surprised to see so many schools online ranking 10/10 (based on GreatSchools) as I realize that private school fares better around DC versus public school.

My questions are:
1) Can I trust these GreatSchool rankings?
2) Are their certain neighborhoods in and right around DC that do offer a decent elementary school that fit with my home price range budget ($1M-$1.5M)?
3) If anyone can list the known good public elementary schools, I can hone my real estate search around that.

Thanks!!