The best recommendation is to rent for 6 months to a year to figure out what works for your family. DC can be very complex especially if you haven't spent some time here. The east coast begins here so it is extremely different than the south. Neighborhoods and blocks matter a great deal. I recommend viewing the region as "inside the beltway vs outside." Better to be patient than sorry!

Tourists and no metro would take Georgetown off my list in a heartbeat.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

lizziewhit wrote:Wow... this is all so helpful! I feel like we have honed in on Georgetown b/c of its name familiarity. I like the suggestions of where we can get more bang for our buck. I will start looking around some of these other places. And I would like being near a metro (and had no idea Georgetown is not good for this). So again, thank you for your replies!

If you want to be near metro, definitely do not buy in Georgetown.

Georgetown is not all its cracked up to be. Its too many college kids, tourists and old people. Not nearly as many young families as would like for your kids. CP is much better and must more accessible. Or live in bounds for Janney closer to Tenleytown metro. Honestly I would take G'town off your list if you are looking for a super kid friendly location. Cap Hill is great if you are in Brent Elem. But over half the students are gone after 4th grade because there is still not a strong middle option.

Agree to take Georgetown off your list. It's "urban", but in a small town kind of way, with cute stores and without metro access. Also, the reason Hyde is a somewhat lower performing elementary school (compared to Upper NW options) is that most kids in Georgetown traditionally went private. Similar to Cleveland Park in that way, as a historically wealthy neighborhood, and different from areas in Upper NW (like AU Park) that are historically more middle class even if they are expensive today.

Anonymous wrote:If you’te willing to move for middle school, buy inbound for Brent. If not, AU Park.

In between those two choices, you also need to consider how much street crime you are willing to live with. The Brent district is pretty safe, but in all of Capitol Hill there is still more crime due to the close proximity to poorer areas. It's definitely more "urban" in that sense, and also, of course, because you don't get the detached houses with yards you'll find in AU Park. The nice thing about AU Park and Chevy Chase, DC is that you can have a green, safe, somewhat suburban environment in walking distance to urban amenities. And good schools.

Anonymous wrote:

lizziewhit wrote:Wow... this is all so helpful! I feel like we have honed in on Georgetown b/c of its name familiarity. I like the suggestions of where we can get more bang for our buck. I will start looking around some of these other places. And I would like being near a metro (and had no idea Georgetown is not good for this). So again, thank you for your replies!

If you want to be near metro, definitely do not buy in Georgetown.

Georgetown is not all its cracked up to be. Its too many college kids, tourists and old people. Not nearly as many young families as would like for your kids. CP is much better and must more accessible. Or live in bounds for Janney closer to Tenleytown metro. Honestly I would take G'town off your list if you are looking for a super kid friendly location. Cap Hill is great if you are in Brent Elem. But over half the students are gone after 4th grade because there is still not a strong middle option.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
In DC (and perhaps everywhere), there is a direct correlation between test scores and affluent families. So pretty much any neighborhood with $1.5 million houses will feed to a good elementary school (there are some exceptions in gentrifying neighborhoods, but that's a general rule). Schools in those neighborhoods also don't have PK3, although other neighborhoods do have public PK3.

East of Rock Creek Park I would say that general rule is not true.

agreed. We live East of the Park and all the renovated houses around us are going for 785-900K and the test scores at our IB schools are nothing to brag about. And most of the gentrifiers leave the schools after 1st anyhow or are all attending CMI.

Anonymous wrote:With that budget, I would move near Brent on Cap Hill.

but then they have no path after 4th grade.

lizziewhit wrote:Why would someone say "Yuck" to Cleveland Park? I don't want to spin my wheels there if its truly that bad.

Because Cleveland Park is a historically affluent neighborhood, very bourgeois, and somewhat sleepy and not exactly up an coming today. Some people resent that and think it's not cool.

I like Cleveland Park, but one thing that would bother me about it is that there is a very high proportion of kids in private school. You'll find more of a neighborhood school community feeling in a place like AU Park, where most kids go to Janney these days.

Occasional row home in bounds for Ross does still come up under $1.5. Not modernized. But very livesble. Eg. https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/1524-Corcoran-St-NW-20009/home/9868250

If you plan to work downtown, Ross is a great option. You probably wouldn’t find an actual house in your price range but could get a decent-sized condo. One advantage of Ross is that it starts at age 3 (unlike schools in upper NW), and your younger ones would get sibling preference in the pre-school lottery once your older child enrolls.

The last GS ratings I saw for Ross were not great, but it’s not clear why since the school consistently has some of the highest test scores in DC and is also very diverse.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you’te willing to move for middle school, buy inbound for Brent. If not, AU Park.

To put a finer point on this, unless you're willing to move for middle school, buy inbounds for Deal.

There are viable middle school options that are closer to the city. Adams Morgan -> Oyster Adams. West End / Kalorama -> SWW@FS. Dupont Cricle -> Ross -> SWW@FS.

If you are not going to work on the Hill, then no reason to live there given the questionable school feeder pattern and higher crime. For a more walkable lifestyle with great schools that basically means Hearst, Murch, and Janney. Can't go wrong with either but slightly nicer housing stock in Forest Hills (Murch/Hearst).

It's really adorable, all the come-lately posters who think their Edgewood / exkington / "hill east" addresses are more urban than Georgetown.

I'm no apologist for Bo Concepts and I live in neither place, but the Edgewood try-hards need to understand that "urban" isn't actually a code word for "black" or "gentrifying".

Anonymous wrote:
In DC (and perhaps everywhere), there is a direct correlation between test scores and affluent families. So pretty much any neighborhood with $1.5 million houses will feed to a good elementary school (there are some exceptions in gentrifying neighborhoods, but that's a general rule). Schools in those neighborhoods also don't have PK3, although other neighborhoods do have public PK3.

East of Rock Creek Park I would say that general rule is not true.

Anonymous wrote:If you’te willing to move for middle school, buy inbound for Brent. If not, AU Park.

To put a finer point on this, unless you're willing to move for middle school, buy inbounds for Deal.