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Tip... buying an inexpensive home in a great neighbourhood is a wiser move IMO because location in a great hood don't decline, but at a "bad hood" does. So buying that smallest home in that sought after hood will bring up the home value during resale = the smart move in turns of money returns.
For example... my old hood, homes have lost $70-$100K for some even when bought in 2009. Not even that $8K credit would put a ding in that depreciation.
Not to mention the "wind noise" of that shabbily built homes (paper thin walls) in the sub while in this area, the neighbourhood homes while may be older, no one had any wind nor flood damages from their well built home during Irene / Lee.
The place I used to rent is about 5 - 8 yrs old (plots build that way) build... while I stayed there, the "normal" winds have knocked down the shutters 2X & flooded my neighbours' basement that sits atop hill.
My shutters stays secure without much to do during Irene's 70mph windstorm that left a mess of down branches on my yard... home heard barely a whisper of the condition outside (glad I wasn't living in that rental new build).
Another saver = strong home / well built home = saves on energy bills.
Last new build the bills are for a smaller sq ftage & double the price (yup, paper thin walls)... so go figure.
If you aren't comfortable then it's not a good deal is it?
Remember though, people do move and you can never choose your neighbors. But the higher end neighborhoods have to fall a lot farther ..
^^^BUT...
If you don't buy that lottery, you will never even have that chance to win some will say.
If you are that wise buyer... save till you can achieve "better".
Save till your chance to try comes & who knows??? You'll hit that jackpot of that ideal home = that home that keeps giving.
You should obviously go wherever you think your kids are going to be best served. Hopefully, for your sake, you won't move to a "better" neighborhood at significant cost, only to find out that, whoops, kids here can be mouthy jerks, too.
Oh believe me, this is exactly why I have a dilemma in the first place. If I thought there are no chances for what you write above, do you think I would even ask? I completely agree that there's a chance to spend more only to find you still did not escape what you were running away from.
When we were looking to rent about a year ago, we found a house in a neighborhood that was largely Asian, in a similar very good school district. The problem was that the house itself was quite poor quality (just kind of slapped together) and since we strongly considered the possibility of buying the house we would be renting, we passed.
Without stereotyping too much, I just have a nagging feeling those top school Asian kids would not have walked around telling my son to s*ck genitalia.
Too busy increasing the school's standardized test scores I guess...
Quote:
Originally Posted by TabulaRasa
From a developmental standpoint, kids of a certain age are going to think it's funny to talk about genitalia, regardless of socioeconomic status.
I give you that. However, there is a big difference between becoming curious about such aspects/thinking of it, and actually describing sexually explicit behavior out loud, in extremely vulgar language.
Calling the thing a "wienner" may be hillarious, even cute.
Telling another child to do "something" to your wienner...different issue.
I don't find it normal for a child of ANY age, no matter how curious he is about genitalia, to say "suc* my wienner".
You would hope that parents of a more "polished" kind would strongly discourage such language and behavior.
I pick #2.... You will encounter kid problems everywhere, but with #2 you will more likely have: better home appreciation, peer groups from better-educated/better-spoken parents who highly value education (more expensive areas usually have higher educational attainment), better performing schools w/more parent/community involvement, better future mentors/networks/connections for your kids.
Of course, higher-end neighborhoods can have a host of other issues (e.g. materialistic/keeping up with the Jones mentality, over-stressed/over-pushed/over-medicated kids, drug/alcohol problems, etc.). There are risks wherever you go and opportunities to teach your kids how to be smart and safe.
p.s. Spouse and I both grew up in #1 and choose to raise our kids in #2.
As you also added "better performing schools" - this is not an issue because our current neighborhood already IS in a sought-after school district. The school itself is very good (one of the top schools in the state) and our son had a wonderful K year there. But of course - like ANY public school, it will have some diversity of socio-economic background in it, which is perfectly fine.
The problem is our specific neighborhood and what happens in it AFTER school hours, when my kids drool to go outside and play because they see other kids playing only a few feet away from our lawn.
Not every play moment can be a play-date arranged with a child from a carefully selected "fancy" family at school ("fancy" sounds funny ).
I second you on the problems that you can deal with in "fancy" neighborhoods, including materialism and over-scheduling of children.
In fact, most of our friends happen to belong to one of four classic professional categories (physicians, lawyers, IT professionals and engineers). It is true that some of these people can lean towards materialism/consumerism - although, knowing them up close and personal, this, by no means, translates into being "bad people".
These are people who have worked very hard for many years and they get to a point where they want to enjoy the fruits of their labor.
Some are tempted by nice stuff/big houses, some think buying lots of "educational" things for their children means helping them out and giving them intellectual advantages. All in all though, they are not the terrible heartless creatures they are often portrayed to be. They just don't make frugality a priority, they eventually step into a higher income after years of torturous grad school and scrimping, and then they finally create a high spending lifestyle. Unfortunately, doctors and lawyers are notorious for not being very smart with the way they handle their money.
This means they will always have to work just as hard to keep up with their own expenses.
This is not how we choose to live but that doesn't mean we are "good" and they are "bad". I might just be a tad lazy-er than they are because I dream of money working for me instead of me continuing to work just as hard for money.
They don't - and they know they'll always have to work their butt off.
In fact, they often seem to be apologetic for going for too much "splash". They know they shouldn't have but they have an "I couldn't help it, I wanted it so badly" attitude.
We remain good friends despite our different financial choices.
Again, good luck to you. With any luck, you won't spend a lot of money thinking that by doing so, you're insuring against exposure to vulgarities, only to be disappointed.
Despite protestations to the contrary, it appears to me the OP already knows what he wants. Go for it, OP. Only you can know what is best for your family.
Just wanted to thank everyone for their input.
I think lots of good points have been brought on both sides.
I will count the number of votes on each side and get an overall idea.
At the end of the day, of course, the gut feeling will be king and will speak.
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