I lived in Cambridge for years and am now in Cleveland Park. It’s a great place to raise a family, is walkable to amazing parks, playgrounds, the zoo, good restaurants, and the Metro. You can get a lot of house for 4million.

IMO there’s no great DC comp for Cambridge, but the benefits of each place are pretty equivalent, if with a different vibe (eg access to the universities v Smithsonian).

Check out my favorite DC neighborhood, and more vibrant and diverse than the great majority of neighborhoods mentioned here: Mount Pleasant.

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Anonymous wrote:McLean VA or Bethesda md. You aren't going to find nice neighborhoods like you described in DC

Don't know why OP is anti-virginia but the best public high schools and in-state colleges and universities are there. Plus lower taxes. Even if you don't take advantage of the great public elementary,middle and high schools, your investment in a property will still reflect that when you go to sell. We bought in McLean and sold clearing an easy million. You can't do that in all of the other DC and MD areas mentioned.,

1) you aren't going to clear crazy profit on your property in the current environment, this train has departed and was due to obscenely low rates.
2) VA is mostly car dependent if you live outside of some dense parts (Arlington, Alexandria) and its metro stations beyond Arlington aren't really fun to walk to given they are situated near major highways, strip malls, etc. Most scenic neighborhoods in VA that tend to have luxury homes in OP's price range are not near Metro. There are bike lanes in some areas, but it's still not well connected and buses are infrequent.

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Anonymous wrote:I’m surprised nobody’s mentioned Takoma Park? Maybe it’s the 4 million budget which is generally higher than prices there. Or the distance to some private schools. But you should add it to your list.

I think all the neighborhoods that fit your criteria have been mentioned. There are other great places to live, and that would fit many of your criteria, but with lower budgets and a different feel. Cambridge is a great place to live. DC area has a very different feel

+1

Takoma Park checks many of your boxes. Check out the historic district, close to the Takoma Metro Station. It’s a wonderful, lively, diverse community. Mature trees, great restaurants (check out Cielo Rojo), lots of neighborhood events. The local public schools house some of the most rigorous magnet programs in the county and are beloved by the neighborhood. The principal at the local elementary school recently won the Washington Posts principal of the year award. It’s a really special community full of smart, down to earth people.

Otoh they will not stop talking about how special and down to earth they are, which can be genuinely annoying. The superiority complex is not to be underestimated.

I doubt OP is looking for "down to earth" given budget of 3-4mil.

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Anonymous wrote:Georgetown. Very family friendly, safe, not as diverse as other parts of the city (eg capital hill) but more diversity than you would expect because the university is right there. Walkable parks, coffee, restaurants, shops, work (if close enough downtown area), can walk to metro if you are on the eastern side, and the buses also run downtown and up Wisconsin regularly. Leafy but feels like a city.

Georgetown does not have a Metro stop and the schools are NOT good. You'll be totally car dependent. It's fun for tourists but you don't really want to raise a family there.

Georgetown has good public and private options. What are you on about?

It has a bus. The Metro in Foggy Bottom is too far for most people in Georgetown.

Gtown East is close enough. If you are in deeply residential parts of Gtown then you need to learn which streets have bike lanes. Biking there isn't as easy though due to hills and narrow streets. There are buses too. At least you will be riding/walking through the charming scenic neighborhood and not across busy roads and fugly strip malls like in some suburban stations. And by the standards of DC area being 1 mile away from the station as crow flies is considered "walkable" to metro, even if it means walking around to find that pedestrian bridge across the highway or navigate weird no-sidewalk streets and walk across parking lots.

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Anonymous wrote:Town of Somerset? They said mixed race family. Somerset is pretty white. Just read some if the reviews about Somerset ES..non-white kids not really welcome unless they are European or Asian.

I think those are old. The school was massively rezoned two years ago and is just barely 50% white according to MCPS, with a smaller communal feel (the school is maybe 2/3 of the enrollment as before, or maybe even less). 12% Black, 18% Hispanic, 7.7% 2+ races.

Wow, as a Somerset alumna I’m shocked and impressed that they pulled off those numbers. It definitely wasn’t that diverse in the 90’s.

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Anonymous wrote:I’m surprised nobody’s mentioned Takoma Park? Maybe it’s the 4 million budget which is generally higher than prices there. Or the distance to some private schools. But you should add it to your list.

I think all the neighborhoods that fit your criteria have been mentioned. There are other great places to live, and that would fit many of your criteria, but with lower budgets and a different feel. Cambridge is a great place to live. DC area has a very different feel

+1

Takoma Park checks many of your boxes. Check out the historic district, close to the Takoma Metro Station. It’s a wonderful, lively, diverse community. Mature trees, great restaurants (check out Cielo Rojo), lots of neighborhood events. The local public schools house some of the most rigorous magnet programs in the county and are beloved by the neighborhood. The principal at the local elementary school recently won the Washington Posts principal of the year award. It’s a really special community full of smart, down to earth people.

Otoh they will not stop talking about how special and down to earth they are, which can be genuinely annoying. The superiority complex is not to be underestimated.

Anonymous wrote:McLean VA or Bethesda md. You aren't going to find nice neighborhoods like you described in DC

Don't know why OP is anti-virginia but the best public high schools and in-state colleges and universities are there. Plus lower taxes. Even if you don't take advantage of the great public elementary,middle and high schools, your investment in a property will still reflect that when you go to sell. We bought in McLean and sold clearing an easy million. You can't do that in all of the other DC and MD areas mentioned.,