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Anonymous wrote:Donaldson Run in Arlington (22207). Community pool, super close to Georgetown. You will see older but well maintained housing stock under 1.5, if you're willing to do some cosmetic upgrades over time. They go fast though.

Not dense or walkable.

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Anonymous wrote:Rock Spring in Arlington. Easy commute to Georgetown. Great neighborhood with trees and mix of housing stock.

I missed the part where OP expressed an interest in APS-zoned schools.

OP said he was looking for the following things and that he had no idea where to start but here are some top schools he read about. He then proceeded to list criteria that matched almost perfectly with Arlington. So folks are letting him know that, since he was looking for some places to start. There are a lot of great places to live in this area. Arlington is only one of them, it happens to meet ops criteria. There is so much animosity about people liking Arlington on this board which is really unfortunate.

Anonymous wrote:We are officially moving but I don't even know where to begin... Tell me what neighborhood / block / elementary school you live in and love... here are my specific asks:

- Needs to funnel into a top PUBLIC high school (we don't have private school money) (I'm looking at Whitman, Wootton, BCC, Walter Johnson in MD and Langley, McLean districts in VA)
- Needs to be within commuting distance to Georgetown
- Needs to be densely populated (houses close together, super neighborhood feel, mature trees would be a plus, I need a yard but I don't want a big one)
- Needs to have a community that gets together a lot / kids outside playing / parents that like to have drinks together etc.
- A plus would be a pool that everyone goes to
- a bigger plus would be that most neighborhood kids go to the public school (rather than private)

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Anonymous wrote:Garrett Park, MD. Trees (check the google satellite view!), neighborly feel with close together houses, pool, WJ (ok, Woodward...). Checks your boxes.

Except that nowhere commutes well to G'town outside of G'town itself, but MARC and Metro get you into DC easily if you roll that way.

That would be a terrible commute, Garrett Park is way out there. Without a budget, we can imagine that OP could afford a lot better, a lot closer.

OP said that they don't have 'private school money'. That's going to rule out most of the McLean district. I don't think there is anything in the Langley district that meets the criteria. The parts of the Whitman district that do are expensive enough that you'd need 'private school money' to live there

Anonymous wrote:Donaldson Run in Arlington (22207). Community pool, super close to Georgetown. You will see older but well maintained housing stock under 1.5, if you're willing to do some cosmetic upgrades over time. They go fast though.

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Anonymous wrote:It depends on how many kids OP would need to be paying private school for. With 2 or more kids, I can see how someone could afford quite a lot of house but not be able to throw $100K+ in after-tax money at tuition.

I was thinking the list sounded like City of Falls Church.

Exactly. OP here -- I have three kids, our budget is up to 1.5M I am ok with a fixer upper -- but simply cannot throw 100k a year at private, I'd rather stretch a little on my monthly mortgage

In Virginia, look at Falls Church Greenway Downs neighborhood - most of those houses are zoned to McLean ES.
Also look at Marshall High School

Sorry, Mclean High, not ES

Greenway Downs feeds into Falls Church HS, not McLean HS. There are some other neighborhoods nearby on the other side of Route 29 such as Donna Lee Gardens that feed into McLean HS.

My friends in Greenway Downs live in houses that feed into McLean. Maybe they're confused about their neighborhood, or maybe you are.

Anonymous wrote:North Chevy Chase. CCMD would be my first choice, but it will be very hard on your budget, and you may feel out of place because most people will be much wealthier. But NCC is a great solution - community pool, lots of kids playing outside, great schools, etc.

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Anonymous wrote:Look at Rock Creek Forest or Rosemary Hills.

Not OP. Would these neighborhoods work for a Latino family (not white, not rich) or are going to feel out of place?

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Anonymous wrote:Look at Rock Creek Forest or Rosemary Hills.

Not OP. Would these neighborhoods work for a Latino family (not white, not rich) or are going to feel out of place?

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Anonymous wrote:In Virginia, Falls Church CITY (not Falls Church in Fairfax) and North Arlington fit these criteria.

The high school in Falls Church City is called Meridian High School. There is another HS in Fairfax called Falls Church--it's not the same.

The North Arlington high schools are Washington-Liberty and Yorktown.

These are great schools, but I would encourage you to tour the schools. Meridian has a brand-new building and is a smaller school than most of the area schools.

(For the record, I live in Falls Church Fairfax and love it and our schools, but it would not meet some of your criteria.)

Arlington and Falls Church have cute neighborhoods, are high-density, and are walkable. I lived in Arlington for 15 years and loved it, but if I didn't live where I am now, I would move to Falls Church City. It just seems like a friendly and fun community.

OP won't find anything in her budget in those areas.

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Anonymous wrote:It depends on how many kids OP would need to be paying private school for. With 2 or more kids, I can see how someone could afford quite a lot of house but not be able to throw $100K+ in after-tax money at tuition.

I was thinking the list sounded like City of Falls Church.

Exactly. OP here -- I have three kids, our budget is up to 1.5M I am ok with a fixer upper -- but simply cannot throw 100k a year at private, I'd rather stretch a little on my monthly mortgage

In Virginia, look at Falls Church Greenway Downs neighborhood - most of those houses are zoned to McLean ES.
Also look at Marshall High School

Sorry, Mclean High, not ES

Greenway Downs feeds into Falls Church HS, not McLean HS. There are some other neighborhoods nearby on the other side of Route 29 such as Donna Lee Gardens that feed into McLean HS.