Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whitman and Walter Johnson are way better than B-CC

No. They are just more 'white'. But for the 'w' parents, that means "better".

For a lot of people the "w" schools mean better.

Having grown up on the east side, Blair will never be anything but a silver spring school
Doesn't matter that it is closer to northwood now and a magnet. It's boundary population is still east side.
Same for Richard Montgomery. It's boundary population is Lewis Ave type homes. Forget it.

If you want Rockville/Potomac you have wooton - always a good performer and successful graduates.
North Bethesda/Rockville - Walter Johnson - always a good school but crowded.
Woodward will be reopening by 2020 and will be another excellent "w" school.
Bethesda - Whitman. Excellent.

There is a reason people spend a lot more on home ownership or pay big rent to live in the W clusters. The long term return is much better.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm still confused. Why is Chevy Chase so expensive? Some houses are nice and big but others are tiny million dollar houses that need a ton of work. Why do people want to live in CC?

Basically, reputation is the cause of the premium for homes in 20815.

Chevy Chase Village, an incorporated part of 20815 right on the DC line, is basically the oldest suburb in the area, it was founded by a grasping Gilded Age type who became a senator. The way the borders are drawn mean that it has among the highest median incomes for incorporated areas in the country with, I think it is, >3,000 residents. It also has perhaps the most souped-up 'HOA' (they call it a government) on earth, they tax outsiders for speeding on Conn Ave and use that $$$ to give residents an extra layer of services, including an additional police force.

Much of the rest of 20815 piggy backs on the Village's reputation. And that rest of 20815 is, as you have mentioned, enormously varied. Some of it is quite modest, like North Chevy Chase. Other parts (i.e. Kenwood) are basically mid-20th century mcmansions. And there are places like Somerset, Chevy Chase West, and Town of Chevy Chase that have a mix of house types and sizes, but even the crap costs.

This is hilarious! People looking to buy in Somerset are not looking for a "poor man's" CCV -- just the opposite.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Making our 3rd trip to the area in prep of buying in the Spring and still struggling a bit with areas.

It seems like there are tons of posts about Bethesda, but very few about Chevy Chase (Beth vs North Arl, Beth vs SS, etc)? Aren't CC and Bethesda quite similar? I know there is Bethesda Row and Friendship Heights, but I would think there would be more about CC since it shares a well-regarded school with part of Bethesda. Is it just implied that CC is part of Bethesda? Or maybe it actually is?

Not working with a realtor yet, and actively trying to avoid those at open-houses.

Look up homes for sale in Bethesda, there are dozens. Lookup for homes in ChCh, there are like 5 and each above 1.5 mil. There is practically no market in ChCh due to high prices and gigantic taxes. So those few people who own or look into ChCh are very little presence on the forum.

What are you talking about? There are 45 single-family houses in Chevy Chase actively listed right now. There's one below $625K. And much of Chevy Chase has the same taxes as the rest of the county.

I suspect some people are talking about Town of ChCh and some are talking about 20815. I live in 20815, not in any incorporated part, and I didn't connect on the fact that our new house on the west side of FH was in Chevy Chase, not Bethesda (at least as far as the post office thinks) until closing when I was having to look at the address over and over. And I'm a lifelong local.

Anyway, for OP, don't get too hung up on the names, or at least, don't think of them as strict and exclusive terms. If you're doing searches here, search for neighborhood names or school names. Wyngate vs Glen Echo Heights vs Edgemoor vs East Bethesda are all Bethesda yet quite distinct. If you're looking at real estate listings, I usually just use the map search on Redfin and move the map to my area of interest rather than plug in a zip code or address.

Anonymous wrote:
Bethesda has a small town feel in its downtown. The downtown is distinctly urban. Chevy Chase, MoCo, is clearly a suburban area (some of it gorgeous) with a tiny rendez-vous point of stores. Not the same thing at all. Also, suburban Bethesda is quite large, unlike Chevy Chase.

We chose to live near downtown Bethesda since we wanted that walkable-to-everything urban feel next to our SFH.

But there are parts of Chevy Chase that are far closer to Downtown Bethesda than most of Bethesda.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Making our 3rd trip to the area in prep of buying in the Spring and still struggling a bit with areas.

It seems like there are tons of posts about Bethesda, but very few about Chevy Chase (Beth vs North Arl, Beth vs SS, etc)? Aren't CC and Bethesda quite similar? I know there is Bethesda Row and Friendship Heights, but I would think there would be more about CC since it shares a well-regarded school with part of Bethesda. Is it just implied that CC is part of Bethesda? Or maybe it actually is?

Not working with a realtor yet, and actively trying to avoid those at open-houses.

Look up homes for sale in Bethesda, there are dozens. Lookup for homes in ChCh, there are like 5 and each above 1.5 mil. There is practically no market in ChCh due to high prices and gigantic taxes. So those few people who own or look into ChCh are very little presence on the forum.

What are you talking about? There are 45 single-family houses in Chevy Chase actively listed right now. There's one below $625K. And much of Chevy Chase has the same taxes as the rest of the county.

Anonymous wrote:I'm still confused. Why is Chevy Chase so expensive? Some houses are nice and big but others are tiny million dollar houses that need a ton of work. Why do people want to live in CC?

Basically, reputation is the cause of the premium for homes in 20815.

Chevy Chase Village, an incorporated part of 20815 right on the DC line, is basically the oldest suburb in the area, it was founded by a grasping Gilded Age type who became a senator. The way the borders are drawn mean that it has among the highest median incomes for incorporated areas in the country with, I think it is, >3,000 residents. It also has perhaps the most souped-up 'HOA' (they call it a government) on earth, they tax outsiders for speeding on Conn Ave and use that $$$ to give residents an extra layer of services, including an additional police force.

Much of the rest of 20815 piggy backs on the Village's reputation. And that rest of 20815 is, as you have mentioned, enormously varied. Some of it is quite modest, like North Chevy Chase. Other parts (i.e. Kenwood) are basically mid-20th century mcmansions. And there are places like Somerset, Chevy Chase West, and Town of Chevy Chase that have a mix of house types and sizes, but even the crap costs.

I'm still confused. Why is Chevy Chase so expensive? Some houses are nice and big but others are tiny million dollar houses that need a ton of work. Why do people want to live in CC?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think that BCC is not considered the strongest school. People who can afford CC can (and IME do) afford private school.

Nonsense. We are in the town of cc and the large majority of us use public schools and are generally very happy with them, though we could all afford private. Bcc and its feeders are excellent. It has slightly more diversity than the ones to the northwest, so average scores are slightly lower, but the good kids do just as well there as in the W schools.

BCC is a fine school.The difference between BCC & various Ws is splitting hairs.

Anonymous wrote:
Bethesda has a small town feel in its downtown. The downtown is distinctly urban. Chevy Chase, MoCo, is clearly a suburban area (some of it gorgeous) with a tiny rendez-vous point of stores. Not the same thing at all. Also, suburban Bethesda is quite large, unlike Chevy Chase.

We chose to live near downtown Bethesda since we wanted that walkable-to-everything urban feel next to our SFH.

"Bethesda," by which you mean the Bethesda Avenue and Elm, between Arlington and Wisconsin, is neither a small town nor "distinctly urban." It's essentially an outdoor mall, dominated by chain stores and restaurants. That said, if you want to walk to "Bethesda," you can choose to live in Chevy Chase or Bethesda, both of which have neighborhoods that abut beautiful downtown Bethesda.

Within both Bethesda and Chevy Chase, it's really the neighborhood that matters. For example, Martin's Addition and Kenwood are both in Chevy Chase, but they're very different in architecure, demographics and vibe. Similarly, Glen Echo and Bradley Hills are both in Bethesda, but, again, very different from each other. These differences from neighborhood to neighborhood far outweigh the differences between Bethesda and Chevy Chase. The only thing that really distinguishes Chevy Chase as a whole from Bethesda might be that several of the neighborhoods within CC have their own local governments. That can create a greater sense of community (more comparable in some ways to NYC suburbs), though the public schools are all part of MCPS, as are the public schools in Bethesda, so the local governments are significantly limited in their authority.

Anonymous wrote:Making our 3rd trip to the area in prep of buying in the Spring and still struggling a bit with areas.

It seems like there are tons of posts about Bethesda, but very few about Chevy Chase (Beth vs North Arl, Beth vs SS, etc)? Aren't CC and Bethesda quite similar? I know there is Bethesda Row and Friendship Heights, but I would think there would be more about CC since it shares a well-regarded school with part of Bethesda. Is it just implied that CC is part of Bethesda? Or maybe it actually is?

Not working with a realtor yet, and actively trying to avoid those at open-houses.

Look up homes for sale in Bethesda, there are dozens. Lookup for homes in ChCh, there are like 5 and
each above 1.5 mil. There is practically no market in ChCh due to high prices and gigantic taxes.
So those few people who own or look into ChCh are very little presence on the forum.

Most of us just use the term Bethesda to mean Bethesda/Chevy Chase.

When specificity is required, we get more specific. But when you see a post about Bethesda, it is probably about both Bethesda and Chevy Chase.

Anonymous wrote:Ugh, this is a mess. It's going to make OP throw her hands up and just look in VA. OP, I dont' think most people that live in Bethesda or CC are this crazy arguing about small differences between lots of great schools.

I find the distinction very confusing. Maryland doesn't really have real towns, so the borders are always blurred. I will say that I realized when house hunting that there are two distinct areas referred to as CC. There is CC village, which is generally very expensive and close to downtown Bethesda, but the other side of CT ave. Then there is another area called CC, or sometimes something like CC View or something confusing, that is more north and closer to the beltway. Basically, just look at maps, if location is important to you. The town names are really confusing.

There are no borders. This gives people like the ones on this thread something to argue about, LOL.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:this thread is making me really glad we bought a house in the BCC cluster. Good school without as many snobs.

Me too. Wonder if people still say stuff like this out loud? Sounds like a throwback to the 60's.

Makes me glad we are in Silver Spring and that I'm not rubbing shoulders with these people.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whitman and Walter Johnson are way better than B-CC

who in the history of earth has ever accused Walter Johnson of being better than BCC? Most people don't even really consider WJ part of the W's let alone in the same class

the list to be as follows:

Blair Magnet in a class by itself, then

1)Whitman


2)Churchill
3)BCC
4)Poolesville
5)Richard Montgomery




6)Blair
7)Walter Johnson

Fixed for you.

Definitely, no school in the DC area can touch Blair Magnet.

This is so ridiculous. As a resident of DC and formally of CC MD (having kids in public school in both places) so much of this depends on your kid and the fit. Arguing over which school is better by a few points is just dumb.