I live in Woodmoor, and posted earlier on the thread. I would add that parents at both St. B's and at the publics say that increasing numbers of kids from the neighborhood are going to the publics (the St. B's parents mention declining enrollment).

Getting back to OPs original question, we chose Woodmoor when DH commuted to Baltimore and I was driving daily to SW DC. We weren't thinking schools when we moved in, but kids have thrived both in local schools and the magnet programs that are concentrated in this part of Silver Spring. Love the neighborhood, proximity to beltway, and work.

IMO the better blocks in the neighborhood are those that are not through streets:
1. 400s on St. Lawrence - not a through street so lots of kid activity and one of the best stretches for halloween
2. Big Rock Road - backing up to NW Branch = privacy + awesome additions
3. Brookmoor between Lorain and Lexington - smaller houses with on-street parking, may be one reason people are frequently out and about

For neighborhood and schools, seems like Rosemary Hills tops both because of (i) convenience and (ii) BCC cluster.

After that, it's fairly close. For long-term planning, Blair is probably marginally "better" than Northwood or Einstein, and Woodmoor is probably marginally "better" as a neighborhood, although as PP pointed out it's not walking distance to Metro (although that little shopping center is nice, and is getting a new Chipotle!)

Forest Knolls and Oakland Terrace are VERY different areas, despite being proximate. I would prefer Oakland Terrace personally for convenience, and I think the Caddington/Forest Knolls area seems like it was hurt worse in the real estate crunch. But that's entirely personal preference.

Anonymous wrote:"Woodmoor is not known for having good schools many people send their children to private school and especially St. Bernedette's. Woodmoor is a very friendly neighborhood, but I wouldn't move their for the schools. "

This statement misses a point, which is that many people choose Woodmoor because their students can walk to St. Bs. They move in once their students are already at St. Bs vs. choosing it due to concerns about the public schools.

And people looking ahead to high school may prefer Woodmoor (which goes to Blair) vs. Forest Knolls (Northwood) or Oakland Terrace (Einstein). Rosemary Hills going to B-CC may be attractive, too.

Unfortunately the OP did not specify if she was interested in the schools or not. Rosemary Hills, Oakland Terrace and Forest Knolls are all both schools and neighborhoods. Woodmoor is only a neighborhood. I think if OP is only interested in house value, I would say Rosemary Hills and Woodmoor keep their value better than the other two. If it is a whole package you are looking for, neighborhood and schools then that changes the equation.

FWIW, I live in Woodmoor, it is super family-friendly, can walk to a fair amount of things, although I wish we could walk to metro. As for the schools, our child is in the public school, Montgomery Knolls, is loving it, has a class of 19 kids, and 5 are from Woodmoor. So, lots of kids go to St. B's. but lots of kids go to MKES and Pine Crest and like it.

"Woodmoor is not known for having good schools many people send their children to private school and especially St. Bernedette's. Woodmoor is a very friendly neighborhood, but I wouldn't move their for the schools. "

This statement misses a point, which is that many people choose Woodmoor because their students can walk to St. Bs. They move in once their students are already at St. Bs vs. choosing it due to concerns about the public schools.

And people looking ahead to high school may prefer Woodmoor (which goes to Blair) vs. Forest Knolls (Northwood) or Oakland Terrace (Einstein). Rosemary Hills going to B-CC may be attractive, too.

We live in Forest Knolls and like it a lot. School has been really good. We live a block from sligo creek park, can talk walks, biking there, take kids to playgrounds. The housing is perhaps less lovely here than in some other neighborhoods, but more affordable.

I had seriously considered Oakland Terrace for the schools a few years back, but we ended up with Forest Knolls and are happy with it. FKES has a Communications Arts magnet school program with a junior press corps that my child enjoys. 5th graders can do a tv news show in the school. OTES's overcrowding has been a problem, but the new school to be opened hopefully will fix that.

[quote=Anonymous]You can easily walk to the strip mall with CVS, dry cleaners, pizza, mail place, beer/wine, Staples, plus Snider's grocery next door (there's a foot bridge over the Beltway); also Armand's Pizza, a chinese food place, vet and rug store. You can walk to the Woodside deli, gas station if you need an oil change and need to leave your car there; you can bike up the trail to Magruder's at Kemp Mill. The Q buses that come along Georgia every 30 minutes or so will take you to Wheaton Mall (which is only a 1-2 mile walk), Bally, and many places in the county (the Q goes up Viers Mill all the way to Rockville Pike, plus stops at Wheaton metro where you can pick up other buses). Wheaton Mall has a Target, Macy's, JC Penny's; Costco is apparently coming, for better or worse, in a year or two. Safeway about 1-2 miles up Georgia will be finished in a year or so. Forest Glen metro is a 1/4 mile walk. During Snowmageddon and other times when I don't have a car, I walk to the grocery store each day for groceries. Admittedly, a gallon of milk gets heavy but ... it can be done!
[/quote]

I live in Forest Estates and I don't know anyone who walks anywhere other than to the metro. But the neighborhood is wonderful in many other ways and Oakland Terrace is very good.

I live in Forest Knolls district.

I would rank them as:
Forest Knolls/Rosemary Hills tie
Oakland Terrace
Woodmoor

I am ranking schools, not neighborhoods. Woodmoor is not known for having good schools many people send their children to private school and especially St. Bernedette's. Woodmoor is a very friendly neighborhood, but I wouldn't move their for the schools.

I put Rosemary Hills with Forest Knolls because RH feeds into BCC, which many people like.
Forest Knolls used to feed into Blair, not goes to Northwood, which is much smaller than Blair.
Oakland Terrace, people like it. There are so many kindergarteners that they have an outpost school on Dennis Ave at Sligo Middle School.

I really don't know why so many are putting down the housing stock in Forest Knolls. You are not going to find $800,000 mansions in here. Most are small to moderate sized older homes, but if you need a million dollar mansion, there is one on sale on Dennis Ave, which is the original farmhouse of the area. There are ramblers, capes, split and colonials. The bigger homes tend to be located in Forest Knolls neighborhood, whereas I live in a smaller home in Northwood.

I don't particularly like the Oakland Terrace neighborhood, but that is from 5 or so years ago when I was house hunting, I just didn't like anything I saw in Oakland Terrace area.

So I was reading "at a glance" for Rosemary Hills and it says there are not 3-5th graders there. Where do they go and you really can't compare to a school which just has k-2 in it. You need to find the next school and look at those stats.

I take exception to prior posts that say Rosemary Hills doesn't have a neighborhood feel. Actually, it is fillled with young kids, has a babysitting co-op, book club, annual Halloween party and parade, block party, etc and is very friendly!Have also heard good things about the Indian Springs neighborhood that someone else mentioned previously that was not on your list.

You can easily walk to the strip mall with CVS, dry cleaners, pizza, mail place, beer/wine, Staples, plus Snider's grocery next door (there's a foot bridge over the Beltway); also Armand's Pizza, a chinese food place, vet and rug store. You can walk to the Woodside deli, gas station if you need an oil change and need to leave your car there; you can bike up the trail to Magruder's at Kemp Mill. The Q buses that come along Georgia every 30 minutes or so will take you to Wheaton Mall (which is only a 1-2 mile walk), Bally, and many places in the county (the Q goes up Viers Mill all the way to Rockville Pike, plus stops at Wheaton metro where you can pick up other buses). Wheaton Mall has a Target, Macy's, JC Penny's; Costco is apparently coming, for better or worse, in a year or two. Safeway about 1-2 miles up Georgia will be finished in a year or so. Forest Glen metro is a 1/4 mile walk. During Snowmageddon and other times when I don't have a car, I walk to the grocery store each day for groceries. Admittedly, a gallon of milk gets heavy but ... it can be done!

Anonymous wrote:Oakland Terrace is a great elementary school, though, as someone mentioned in 2012 it will be splitting into 2 schools- DCC29 and OTES. The middle schools are a bit problematic, but I would argue that Einstein HS has become a very strong, solid school. Of all the DCC high schools, I feel it is the best one. Within OTES boundaries, one great neighborhood is Forest Estates, bounded by Georgia Ave, Sligo Creek Pkwy, Dennis & Forest Glen. It is a very close community, houses hold their value and can be rented easily because it's walking distance to metro & shops.

Forest Estates is great but what shops can you walk to?

My DD goes to Forest Knolls and it is terrific. Class size is small, principal is a great leader, great community. Of all the schools in Mont Co (yes even the beloved BCC schools) they had the most parent volunteer involvment last year. It is a hidden gem.

PP with the child at Eastern - thanks. That's the school we're assigned to, and whenever I look at the stats, I get nervous. None of my neighbors that have done public schools have kids there yet, so haven't heard much of anything other than about the magnet. It's encouraging to hear good things.

I agree that middle schools get a bad rap generally. I think part of it is because middle school just generally is a very hard time for kids.