Anonymous wrote:I love Del Ray but that is not a good commute. Why do people keep talking about the commute? It is a really long walk to the metro or a nightmare of a drive into the district.

It's fantastic compared with Fairfax or Springfield. I drive from basically St Elmos to Washington Circle everyday. It's 19 minutes door to door. My neighbor works at State and his commute is 15 minutes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There’s a lot wrong with that house. The shared driveway/garage is a huge turnoff for practical reasons. No front door, just the side entry. There’s no place to put a watchable TV. They cheaped out with the open shelving in the kitchen and I hate the way the upper cabinets don’t quite reach the ceiling. Master bathroom space poorly designed.

Some of you really don't understand. These things are so minor, compared the quality of life difference in having a short commute, parks, trails, restaurants, shops, etc you can walk to. Especially after the past 2 years, people don't want to live in isolated areas.

Those 3 bolded items are deal-breakers to me. They lower the quality of life.

Being by restaurants sounds nice until you have to live with the dumpsters being dumped, the rats gathering to eat the trash, and the smells from the dumpsters, let alone the drunks noisily walking back to their cars in the middle of the night and waking up the kids. So, yes, a little isolation from that would be very good.

People are talking about being able to walk to restaurants, not having them right near your house. People want the former and avoid the latter.

Anonymous wrote:I love Del Ray but that is not a good commute. Why do people keep talking about the commute? It is a really long walk to the metro or a nightmare of a drive into the district.

It takes 20 minutes to be in NW DC by car. It's not a nightmare of a drive.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If the buyers have kids, I really hope they're tracking the VA Public Schools other than FCPS thread (ACPS -- what am I missing?). The news from there is very disheartening. A cover-up of a rape at Minnie Howard and then the 11 cell phone thefts at GW? Not good. That house feeds to both of those schools.

Most of all I feel badly about that poor girl. Not only was she raped but now is she is back in school with her rapist?

Cell phone thefts? The horror....

https://wjla.com/news/local/bethesda-chevy-chase-high-school-student-attacks-assaults-security-guard-montgomery-county-public-jacob-moore

https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/police-fire/police-investigating-fight-between-students-near-walter-johnson-high/

https://patch.com/maryland/bethesda-chevychase/racist-homophobic-graffiti-found-nearby-walter-johnson-high

https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/local/virginia/arlington-police-investigate-sexual-battery-case-high-school-homecoming-game/65-21f7bc59-afaa-43e4-87b1-fad06bf1dd94

https://wjla.com/news/crime/probe-finds-potomac-school-teacher-abused-26-students-over-decades-104644

The above links are from 6 minutes of googling and I'm sure there's tons more out there. The point is not the ACPS is perfect (it's not), but rather than no school district is perfect.

I don't understand how people fail to appreciate that 1) kids of all SES backgrounds do dumb and sometimes evil things and 2) sometimes adults do too and 3) bad things happen in middle/high schools...all the time, regardless of how expensive or fancy they are.

Life has risks, and adolescents are not great at assessing/understanding/mitigating risks so crap happens. It's unfortunate, but it's reality. The cyclical bashing of schools in Alexandria, Arlington, NWDC, CCMD, Bethesda, SS screams of people who grew up rich and the mistakes of the middle/high school kids around them were quietly covered-up by their well to do parents and neighbors. That's no the reality most of the country (or world) gets to experience. The schools in all of these places have terrific things to offer their students if a kid comes in open to learning and the parents are meaningfully involved with the development of their child.

LOL at you. It was in one day in a single incident from a locked room. They have videotape of who entered the room but refuse to release it. No one has been charged with a crime. The kids whose phones were stolen were basically treated like it was their fault.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There’s a lot wrong with that house. The shared driveway/garage is a huge turnoff for practical reasons. No front door, just the side entry. There’s no place to put a watchable TV. They cheaped out with the open shelving in the kitchen and I hate the way the upper cabinets don’t quite reach the ceiling. Master bathroom space poorly designed.

Some of you really don't understand. These things are so minor, compared the quality of life difference in having a short commute, parks, trails, restaurants, shops, etc you can walk to. Especially after the past 2 years, people don't want to live in isolated areas.

Those 3 bolded items are deal-breakers to me. They lower the quality of life.

Being by restaurants sounds nice until you have to live with the dumpsters being dumped, the rats gathering to eat the trash, and the smells from the dumpsters, let alone the drunks noisily walking back to their cars in the middle of the night and waking up the kids. So, yes, a little isolation from that would be very good.

I love Del Ray but that is not a good commute. Why do people keep talking about the commute? It is a really long walk to the metro or a nightmare of a drive into the district.

Anonymous wrote:If the buyers have kids, I really hope they're tracking the VA Public Schools other than FCPS thread (ACPS -- what am I missing?). The news from there is very disheartening. A cover-up of a rape at Minnie Howard and then the 11 cell phone thefts at GW? Not good. That house feeds to both of those schools.

Most of all I feel badly about that poor girl. Not only was she raped but now is she is back in school with her rapist?

Cell phone thefts? The horror....

https://wjla.com/news/local/bethesda-chevy-chase-high-school-student-attacks-assaults-security-guard-montgomery-county-public-jacob-moore

https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/police-fire/police-investigating-fight-between-students-near-walter-johnson-high/

https://patch.com/maryland/bethesda-chevychase/racist-homophobic-graffiti-found-nearby-walter-johnson-high

https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/local/virginia/arlington-police-investigate-sexual-battery-case-high-school-homecoming-game/65-21f7bc59-afaa-43e4-87b1-fad06bf1dd94

https://wjla.com/news/crime/probe-finds-potomac-school-teacher-abused-26-students-over-decades-104644

The above links are from 6 minutes of googling and I'm sure there's tons more out there. The point is not the ACPS is perfect (it's not), but rather than no school district is perfect.

I don't understand how people fail to appreciate that 1) kids of all SES backgrounds do dumb and sometimes evil things and 2) sometimes adults do too and 3) bad things happen in middle/high schools...all the time, regardless of how expensive or fancy they are.

Life has risks, and adolescents are not great at assessing/understanding/mitigating risks so crap happens. It's unfortunate, but it's reality. The cyclical bashing of schools in Alexandria, Arlington, NWDC, CCMD, Bethesda, SS screams of people who grew up rich and the mistakes of the middle/high school kids around them were quietly covered-up by their well to do parents and neighbors. That's no the reality most of the country (or world) gets to experience. The schools in all of these places have terrific things to offer their students if a kid comes in open to learning and the parents are meaningfully involved with the development of their child.

Anonymous wrote:Can’t believe what people are paying to live outside of DC. You can buy a house like this is any suburb of America. It’s not like this is California or you’re close to great skiing, beaches etc. You’re living in urban sprawl.

That much is true.

Anonymous wrote:Can’t believe what people are paying to live outside of DC. You can buy a house like this is any suburb of America. It’s not like this is California or you’re close to great skiing, beaches etc. You’re living in urban sprawl.

Because commutes matter? It's not really that difficult of a concept to understand

Can’t believe what people are paying to live outside of DC. You can buy a house like this is any suburb of America. It’s not like this is California or you’re close to great skiing, beaches etc. You’re living in urban sprawl.

Anonymous wrote:There’s a lot wrong with that house. The shared driveway/garage is a huge turnoff for practical reasons. No front door, just the side entry. There’s no place to put a watchable TV. They cheaped out with the open shelving in the kitchen and I hate the way the upper cabinets don’t quite reach the ceiling. Master bathroom space poorly designed.

Some of you really don't understand. These things are so minor, compared the quality of life difference in having a short commute, parks, trails, restaurants, shops, etc you can walk to. Especially after the past 2 years, people don't want to live in isolated areas.

Anonymous wrote:Wow. I have no idea what Del Ray is like but I don't think a house that small, without finished basement, so unappealing from the outside, etc. would sell for more than 1.2 in the district.

In Pallisades, Cleveland Park, etc this house could maybe sell for 1.7

With income taxes (and crime) in DC now shooting through the roof, people still want a closer neighborhood feel and are willing to pay up front for long-term geographic arbitrage/tax savings. In the next 5-10 years I’d bet home values in pleasant/walkable parts of Alexandria/Arlington are going to appreciate at a date above the rest of the DMV.

Wow. I have no idea what Del Ray is like but I don't think a house that small, without finished basement, so unappealing from the outside, etc. would sell for more than 1.2 in the district.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gosh, that a very unfriendly kid yard. Between the deck and the firepit space, there is very little kid space. Yikes.

People move out of Del Ray once their kids are a little older anyway. I love that neighborhood so I don’t say it disparagingly, but it’s very much a dogs and strollers area.

Agreed. School districts aren’t great causing most younger families to leave and move to Vienna and Fairfax city once the kids get older.

I think the tide is turning there—when people are spending this much, it isn’t a starter home and a lot of them will stay.

Nobody is moving from Del Ray (and a very short commute to DC) to Fairfax City. Folks in Del Ray (nowadays) have the money to pay for private school if they don't like MVCS and GWMS.

This is us (and we're hardly alone). Lived here for 5 years. Love it and not moving. Elementary school is great and neighbors are happy with their kids at GW and ACHS , and Amazon likely continue to throw in money/resources along with VT this certainly won't hurt. We could possibly afford private school but not something we plan to do. The great school rankings are a load of sh*t and if a school has a high proportion of non-native english speakers it gets dragged down. I went to a HS ranked a 2, learned a lot, and did just fine.

I actually enjoy the Del Ray bashing on here. I hope it makes prospective buyers think it's bad so the bidding wars stop and my property taxes don't keep going up.

Anonymous wrote:There’s a lot wrong with that house. The shared driveway/garage is a huge turnoff for practical reasons. No front door, just the side entry. There’s no place to put a watchable TV. They cheaped out with the open shelving in the kitchen and I hate the way the upper cabinets don’t quite reach the ceiling. Master bathroom space poorly designed.

It's pretty clear they didn't "cheap" out with the open shelving. It was a stylistic and design choice that you don't like, but nothing about the fit and finish of the kitchen suggests that they needed to be cheap on one more set of uppers. Similarly, the upper cabinets would not have looked right against the ceiling with the shiplap.