Anonymous wrote:There are some surpisingly inaccurate comments about Rockville! I've lived here for over two years and have not experienced or witnessed any crime or known anyone who has. Rockville is a diverse city in many ways and I love it. It has a great variety of restaurants and people, and offers a lot of services to its residents. It is a great place to raise a family.

I agree with this poster. I have lived in Rockville for over 10 years (first on the east side, lower income neighborhood and now on the west side, higher income neighborhood in Wootton HS cluster). I feel safe in my neighborhood and am very happy with all of the City of Rockville services.

Anonymous wrote:There are some surpisingly inaccurate comments about Rockville! I've lived here for over two years and have not experienced or witnessed any crime or known anyone who has. Rockville is a diverse city in many ways and I love it. It has a great variety of restaurants and people, and offers a lot of services to its residents. It is a great place to raise a family.

+1 Three years, no crime and it's a great city. Rockville offers many other benefits to it's citizens including afterschool care, discounted swim, fitness & activity memberships.

Yes, there are apartment complexes in Rockville, but the majority of the housing is SFHs, ranging in price from 350k and up. Those families that can't afford 800k homes are not lower income, they are the real, honest to goodness middle class. Rockville has many different school clusters, not just Rockville HS. Both Kensignton and Rockville are great communities and your family will thrive at both locations.

There are some surpisingly inaccurate comments about Rockville! I've lived here for over two years and have not experienced or witnessed any crime or known anyone who has. Rockville is a diverse city in many ways and I love it. It has a great variety of restaurants and people, and offers a lot of services to its residents. It is a great place to raise a family.

I would look in the Walter Johnson cluster and Whitman Cluster neighborhoods. These have many of the best schools in the county.

I vote for Kensington. You can get a great house for $800, even in the BCC cluster (Rock Creek Hills, Town of Kensington, but make sure you double check the school boundries).

I also agree with PPs re the Metro. There are delays and issues on a regular basis, not just in inclement weather. Between parking fees and fare cards, it probably makes more sense to drive. I hate saying that, but as a regular commuter into DC, I finally gave up on Metro, as it was so unreliable. Another option is the MARC train, which has a stop in Kensington and goes to Union Station.

Good luck, and welcome to the hood!

Where does your husband work in Chevy Chase that he takes the metro (as the metro is not in/near Conn. Ave in CC MD)? Friendship Heights? If so, for $800k I'd look at parts of Bethesda and Glen Echo and just drive. Would definitely look at Kensington over Rockville.

The difference between Rockville and Kensington is night and day. Rockville is filled with HOC (subsidized low income) apartments and houses. It "was" an up and coming great place to raise a family 15 years ago, but not nowadays.

Much of Rockville is served by Richard Montgomery HS. The scores at RMHS are artificially driven upward because it's a magnet school. On paper, RMHS looks like BCC, but it's really a rather rough place, although certainly better than Gaithersburg HS.

I agree with the previous poster about Bethesda. For $800K, and actually even as little as $650K, you can find a good older home in Bethesda or Kensington. Admittedly, Einstein HS has its troublemakers, but it's actually quite a good school, and unlike RMHS, its scores and reputation are headed upward.

Metro has reliability problems. Some people are still huge fans but they are fewer and farther between nowadays. Depending on where your husband is working, driving may be just as quick and easy.

For $800k, you can easily find an older home in most of Bethesda, CCMD, Rockville or Kensington. Obviously the further out from the city you go, the more you will get for your money. I live near but not in Kensington and like it a lot but the school boundaries have a big impact on price. Parts of Kensington are zoned for BCC High School, which is great; other parts for Walter Johnson (almost as good); and other parts for Einstein (mixed reputation at best, but there are boosters on this board.) Still, because it's outside the Beltway and because some people apparently are willing to pay for whatever cachet Bethesda and CCMD may have, the BCC areas of Kensington seem to be a little less expensive than the BCC neighborhoods in Bethesda and most of Chevy Chase, and the lots are often bigger.

Kensington is a friendly city that has a real "home town" feel. It's a darn nice place to live and is convenient to DC.

The Rockville city government is a bureaucratic mess. They nickel and dime residents to death with fees and taxes for everything except breathing. The city is constantly getting sued for all sorts of civil rights violations. They've put up speed cameras and red light cameras everywhere to try to cover the ballooning, out of control costs.


Another issue in Rockville is the growing crime rate. The Rockville crime statistics are kept separate from the Montgomery County crime stats, so most people don't realize how high the crime rate has become.

We are in the Parkwood neighborhood of Kensington and within easy biking distance to grovesnor metro station. We love the area.

jlbr wrote:OP here, yes the Metro tickets are very expensive. Like about the cost of a modest car payment...

Many employers, government included, have a Metro benefit. The majority of my husbands metro costs are covered.

OP here, yes the Metro tickets are very expensive. Like about the cost of a modest car payment...

jlbr wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jlbr wrote:15:18, even on the train? My DH rode the Red Line from Rockville and loved it. The Metro tickets are pricey though. Any info on Rockville elementary schools?

If he becomes a regular metro commuter, chances are he will begin to loathe it.

Maybe not. But it would be ideal to save the Metro rides for special occasions. He does love the train but he has never lived with real winters before. The getting to and from the train in lousy weather would become a real drag.
And ideally he should have the option of driving should something happen with the trains.

I am the poster you quoted. Metro, esp. the Red Line, has had bad performance and service. When a train breaks, you get single tracked around the incident (which is miserable). Delays can get extensive. I used to commute daily on metro from Rockville to Farragut North. Metro has raised prices - a lot. If you're only looking to go to Friendship Heights, the commute will be shorter and, thus, less demanding. But if you want to go downtown on the weekend, you may end up driving due to weekend maintenance, which frequently involves single-tracking. Metro also gets exteremely crowded during the spring break, cherry blossom season, and summer due to tourists.

Who knows... maybe Metro will actually improve by the time you move here.

jlbr wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jlbr wrote:15:18, even on the train? My DH rode the Red Line from Rockville and loved it. The Metro tickets are pricey though. Any info on Rockville elementary schools?

If he becomes a regular metro commuter, chances are he will begin to loathe it.

Maybe not. But it would be ideal to save the Metro rides for special occasions. He does love the train but he has never lived with real winters before. The getting to and from the train in lousy weather would become a real drag.
And ideally he should have the option of driving should something happen with the trains.

I'm not a regular Metro rider but I would weigh the costs vs driving, especially if he has parking at his office. I'm from Chicago and public transportation (trains and buses) almost always stay open during storms, etc. Here it seems like the Metro and buses decide to shut down rather frequently in inclement weather. Something to think about. You have been given lots of good suggestions (the neighborhoods that feed to Farmland Elementary, those that feed to Wooten High School -- I wish I had bought in Fallsmead). You also may want to look near the Grosvenor Metro stop in North Bethesda.

Anonymous wrote:

jlbr wrote:15:18, even on the train? My DH rode the Red Line from Rockville and loved it. The Metro tickets are pricey though. Any info on Rockville elementary schools?

If he becomes a regular metro commuter, chances are he will begin to loathe it.

Maybe not. But it would be ideal to save the Metro rides for special occasions. He does love the train but he has never lived with real winters before. The getting to and from the train in lousy weather would become a real drag.
And ideally he should have the option of driving should something happen with the trains.