I live in Petworth and have friends whose kids go to private at Temple Sinai - a pretty reasonable drive, then you can commute downtown via Rock Creek Parkway. You can get a great house in Petworth for $800-850K. Petworth varies somewhat in different sections but overall it is substantially less gritty than some other areas (Truxton, U St, Columbia Heights). The best area is north of the metro in the triangle between Georgia and New Hampshire Ave, within a few blocks south or north of Upshur Street. Tons of families, super walkable. We have lived here for 12 years and have dealt with far less crime than in other areas we've lived (Mt. Pleasant, Dupont Circle, Adams Morgan) mainly because property crime is much lower...everywhere else we had nearly continuous car break-ins and porch package thefts.

Make sure you fully understand what you are going to do for schools.

I have friends who lived in Truxton Circle and struck out for the DCPS / Charter lottery. They moved.

When you say you are planning to go private, what are you thinking? JPDS? CHDS? Lowell? GDS?

All of these schools are hard to get into. They are getting harder as the population grows and the economy has recovered from the 2008 crash. When you take the Christian/Catholic schools off the plate you have less choices. Beauvior, St. Pat's, NPS.

There are only so many spots and so many kids so unless you have a strong hook - you need another plan.