OP again: We will have about 100,000 in down payment. I was using a mortgage calculator online and it shows that I would have a $3300 payment for a $600K home with $100K down. (5%) Maybe that's not accurate..?

Is 5% the interest rate in the calculator? That's not accurate unless your credit scores are very low. Try 4% to be conservative but right now you can get 3.625% or 3.75%.

What's wrong with Rockville itself? Metro accessible, cheaper than Bethesda ... while Rockville HS is less highly regarded than Richard Montgomery, it's hardly Wheaton.

Silver Spring 20901. Our kids go to catholic school but we love the area.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You might rephrase your question in terms of housing budget, because people with the same HHI can have different budgets, depending on what the downpayment is.

OP here, good point. We figure out we'll be comfortable with $2500 mortgage payment. Thanks for the suggestions. I'm a little surprised at some of these neighborhoods because I considered them out of my price range. Maybe I'm going to need a lofty downpayment

How much do you have for a downpayment? $2500 is like a $600K+ home if you have the 20% to put down. Do a google search for the NY Times rent vs. buy calculator, I found it very helpful when house hunting.

OP again: We will have about 100,000 in down payment. I was using a mortgage calculator online and it shows that I would have a $3300 payment for a $600K home with $100K down. (5%) Maybe that's not accurate..? I'll try the NY times one. Also, I found that $600K won't get you very far in many of the neighborhoods mentioned. (they're lovely neighborhoods but the inventory is so low for SFH in decent condition! I don't want a townhome.) So I'm surprised to hear that people with our HHI are affording homes there. I guess that's encouraging but now I'm thoroughly confused. I've been just browsing redfin for now, so maybe I'm not getting the full picture. We're thinking about waiting a few years to see if the inventory changes.

North Bethesda 20852, Walter Johnson cluster. I commute daily via metro downtown.

Anonymous wrote:That's about our HHI. We live in Parkwood, which would be an excellent location for you in terms of commuting to Rockville and Bethesda. Kensington Estates is also zoned for WJ and would be the same in terms of location (the two neighborhoods are right next to each other.) Our eldest will start going to KP next year, so no first hand experience with the school yet, but all the neighbors love it. We are in one of the smaller houses in the neighborhood (around $600K.)

N. Bethesda poster here. According to our principal last year, KP had the highest elementary test scores in the WJ cluster. It's also practically brand new.

We live in Olney, I work in Rockville and DH in Germantown. We have a monthly payment of $2,400 on a 500k home with 20 percent down, 4% rate.

That's about our HHI. We live in Parkwood, which would be an excellent location for you in terms of commuting to Rockville and Bethesda. Kensington Estates is also zoned for WJ and would be the same in terms of location (the two neighborhoods are right next to each other.) Our eldest will start going to KP next year, so no first hand experience with the school yet, but all the neighbors love it. We are in one of the smaller houses in the neighborhood (around $600K.)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You might rephrase your question in terms of housing budget, because people with the same HHI can have different budgets, depending on what the downpayment is.

OP here, good point. We figure out we'll be comfortable with $2500 mortgage payment. Thanks for the suggestions. I'm a little surprised at some of these neighborhoods because I considered them out of my price range. Maybe I'm going to need a lofty downpayment

How much do you have for a downpayment? $2500 is like a $600K+ home if you have the 20% to put down. Do a google search for the NY Times rent vs. buy calculator, I found it very helpful when house hunting.

I live in Potomac. Some of the neighborhoods off of Glen Road near Wayside are more affordable (I realize it's a relative term). There are also similar neighborhoods zoned for Beverly Farms but I'm not as familiar with those. Fox Hill is another place to look (off of Tuckerman).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are in N. Bethesda, but we had a good downpayment and both DH and I made more than we do now when we bought. Houses in our area start about $600 and can be well over a million. We are on the lower end of that range, and still have heavy monthly payment. That said, our payment is for a 15 yr mortgage.

We are quite pleased with our local ES, and we'll continue to MS and HS here. We are in the WJ cluster.

May I ask what % your downpayment was?

We put down 20% when we bought in 2003 to avoid PMI.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why do DCUM posters, like 11:33, continuous slip in bragging comments like "my kids are at the top of their class" when, honestly, it really has nothing to do with the question. I don't think people around here even realize how often they do it. Must be in the local culture.

Nice catch. Why would I care if their kid is "at the top of their class" as if that has anything to do with the question.

I said it because most of you would hesistate to send your kids to this ES. It has a high FARMS rate, which hasn't had any effect on my kids.

Relax.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why do DCUM posters, like 11:33, continuous slip in bragging comments like "my kids are at the top of their class" when, honestly, it really has nothing to do with the question. I don't think people around here even realize how often they do it. Must be in the local culture.

Nice catch. Why would I care if their kid is "at the top of their class" as if that has anything to do with the question.

It means she doesn't really know what the local public school is like because her kids are not in the "general population" though they see the other kids at lunch and during art.

Takoma Park too. We wanted something close in and found that the Takoma Park/Silver Spring area was the most affordable of the close in areas. Of course, affordability is relative around here (house was around $600k).

Takoma Park. Combined HHI is about $180k. Purchased home for $465k in 2009. 2 kids in pre-school but will send them to local MCPS school - all of our neighbors are there and very happy. Easy commute to Bethesda (DH) and Downtown (me).