Anonymous wrote:My kid goes to a daycare in Silver Spring, in a neighborhood zoned to Northwood high school. Tenbrook Drive, Dennis Avenue and such. Most of the daycare families live in the immediate neighborhood and plan to go to the local schools. Forest Glen metro is right there and the SFH are small but priced around $650k.

Anonymous wrote:My neighborhood in Mount Rainier is absolutely teeming with babies and toddlers. There seem to be somewhat fewer older kids.

It could be a demographic bulge (I know the neighborhood K classes are huge this year) or it could be because people move as their kids get older for better public schools and/or biggger houses. I don’t know.

But if you have a toddler, it’s really wonderful.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How far out are you willing to go? Fort Hunt, Virginia (Alexandria mailing address, but actually Fairfax County) is full of kids. In our neighborhood virtually every house has children, and they are always running between houses, riding bikes, and playing basketball. Very safe and little traffic. Most parents seem to feel comfortable letting young kids walk to school on their own. Everyone socializes at the neighborhood pool club. Great area for trick-or-treating. Lots of communities like that around here. 15 minutes to Old Town for access to restaurants and shops. Commute to DC would be at least 30 minutes, but driving the GW Parkway is generally not too bad.

Not OP, but interested in the Fort Hunt area. How are the public schools? We're currently in Alexandria.

Anonymous wrote:How far out are you willing to go? Fort Hunt, Virginia (Alexandria mailing address, but actually Fairfax County) is full of kids. In our neighborhood virtually every house has children, and they are always running between houses, riding bikes, and playing basketball. Very safe and little traffic. Most parents seem to feel comfortable letting young kids walk to school on their own. Everyone socializes at the neighborhood pool club. Great area for trick-or-treating. Lots of communities like that around here. 15 minutes to Old Town for access to restaurants and shops. Commute to DC would be at least 30 minutes, but driving the GW Parkway is generally not too bad.

Anonymous wrote:I’ll say that a neighborhood may be teeming with toddlers but in certain parts of DC the families will start moving away because they don’t have desirable lottery results and middle school is looming.

Anonymous wrote:Hi! My family moved to the area last year and will likely be buying a home in the next several years. We are currently in southwest Silver Spring near Rock Creek Forest elementary school, at the border of Silver Spring, Chevy Chase, and DC. We chose the area because it is a reasonable commute, good access to Silver Spring and Bethesda amenities as well as DC, and near Rock Creek Park. And great schools!

But oddly, there are surprisingly few young kids near us. Yes, there are some, but most of the single-family homes around here are occupied by long-time owners with high school or college kids (or beyond), and many of the condos/apartments/townhouses are on the smaller side (1-2 bedrooms) and occupied by either young couples or retired people, and the young couples tend to move away when they have kids. We have been told it's because the apartments are too small to be comfortable once people have kids, and it's so expensive around here that young families can't afford places in the neighborhood with enough space to be comfortable. (Our 2 br+den is more than enough space for myself+husband+daughter so we are fine with the real estate around here, but most housing nearby is either much larger or significantly smaller than our place so I can see why others struggle, and anyway, as I say, regardless of the reason there really just aren't a lot of other families with young kids.)

Both my husband and I grew up in neighborhoods with a bunch of kids, including several kids near our own age within a block or two, and we really want that for our daughter. We are likely to be moving in the next couple of years and are hoping to find a super kid-filled, warm and vibrant neighborhood. Price, schools, walkability, and proximity to DC may ultimately be factors for us, but I'd like to set those aside for now and just focus on what neighborhoods are overrun with kids (and ideally really friendly as well). We are open to MD, VA, and DC.

I think what we're looking for likely often depends on the very specific micro-location, so if you can be as granular as possible about specific subdivisions/cross-streets/etc that fit the bill rather than broader generalizations about cities, I would really appreciate it. Also, the more recent your intel, the better. Thank you so much!