Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As someone who graduated from Walt Whitman High School less than 15 years ago, I’m telling you that that house for that price is absolutely not worth it just because it’s zoned for Whitman. Whitman is a good school, but there’s plenty of other good schools too. At some point, the amount of house you sacrifice doesn’t measure up in benefits you’re seeking in other areas, and that’s the case with this house. Even right next door in the Churchill cluster, you can get a lot more house and essentially the same exact school.

Every single school in MCPS uses the same planning guide & syllabus as every other school in MCPS... it's the standard protocol.

Whitman alum poster here. That’s my point. Maybe you could justify paying extra because of location and proximity to things, but the house being zoned for Whitman isn’t a good enough justification to buy it at all. MCPS schools are essentially the same. Saving a few hundred thousand by buying in nearby clusters doesn’t mean you’re sacrificing educaiton quality at all.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The house 2 houses over from the one on Elmore (#7507) is also a new build and it's estimated at $2.7 million.

https://www.redfin.com/MD/Bethesda/7507-Elmore-Ln-20817/home/10669276

That's the REDFIN estimate. It's probably based entirely on the sale price from last spring or some other nonsense that manipulated the algorithm. It isn't spring 2021 or spring 2022 anymore. Interest rates were like negative 2 percent back then.

The county assessed 7507 Elmore at $1,129,700 in July, and the most recent sale was in 2010 for zero dollars (according to tax records) so this Redfin estimate has been obviously manipulated. People don't take Redfin estimates seriously, do they?

Anonymous wrote:
The house 2 houses over from the one on Elmore (#7507) is also a new build and it's estimated at $2.7 million.

https://www.redfin.com/MD/Bethesda/7507-Elmore-Ln-20817/home/10669276

That's the REDFIN estimate. It's probably based entirely on the sale price from last spring or some other nonsense that manipulated the algorithm. It isn't spring 2021 or spring 2022 anymore. Interest rates were like negative 2 percent back then.

Anonymous wrote:Many people who live in the Whitman cluster send their kids to private school. So people choose to live in that area not just because of Whitman, but also because it's a nice, affluent area that gives you a decent commute to DC.

There are better houses, closer in, in better neighborhoods if you want to pay nearly 3m in this market. This neighborhood is nothing special at all. Go for a drive and have a look, you'll see what I mean. There is virtually no community feel, no one is ever out chatting on their driveways or sharing potlocks or what have you. It's very typical nondescript, sprawling Bethesda neighborhood without any particular identity. People go to work and come home and mostly keep to themselves. It's fine. But $3m for a very cookie-cutter, mediocre house? It's not that kind of neighborhood.

Also, it's not even all that uniformly affluent -- there are plenty of very small ranch houses occupied by families that bought decades when this was more of an average, middle-class area (before people inexplicably started going bananas for Whitman cluster). There are also a LOT of elderly people who are aging at home in 4 and 5 bedroom houses from the 1960s. Overall, it's fine. But it's not special enough to lure anyone into paying 20% - 30% more than these houses are worth in the current market.

Anonymous wrote:
The house 2 houses over from the one on Elmore (#7507) is also a new build and it's estimated at $2.7 million.

https://www.redfin.com/MD/Bethesda/7507-Elmore-Ln-20817/home/10669276

You mean the Redfin estimate?

Many people who live in the Whitman cluster send their kids to private school. So people choose to live in that area not just because of Whitman, but also because it's a nice, affluent area that gives you a decent commute to DC.