Moving to Montgomery County (Silver Spring, Germantown: condos, crime, day care)

[springchar]

My family and I are moving to Montgomery county. We are considering Gaithersburg. Would really appreciate any information regarding this community. We have 3 young kids, schools are very important as well as community, and after school activities. We are looking for a family oriented neighborhood with lots of kids and great schools.
Please help. We would also consider surrounding areas as well.
Thank you for all the help.
stef

[pkoons]

A lot of public elementary schools in Montgomery County have a lot of students who don't speak English as a primary language. Sometimes, the classes are geared too much towards these students with extra needs and children who DO speak good English don't get the attention they may need. This is mostly an issue in Gaithersburg, Rockville, and Silver Spring.

Quince Orchard is a good high school in Gaithersburg so that is the best school district. There are lots of nice communities such as the Kentlands and the Darnestown and Laytonsville zip code areas are technically Gaithersburg as well. Lake Forest Mall and Rio Center are the most convenient places to shop.

Where will you be working? What else do you look for in a community? Based on proximity to Gaithersburg and availability of a variety of home choices (condos, THs, and single family homes) I would recommend Germantown or Olney. If you would go farther out I would say Damascus or Poolesville. Germantown is beautiful and convenient but from a school/day care standpoint there was just a major case in the news where a very young child brought his father's gun to his childcare center and shot a little girl.

[mf12283]

I can answer this! I have lived in Gaithersburg my entire life and its a really nice place. It has changed a lot through the years, as it has become more diverse and traffic has gotten worse, but it's still a great place to live. In fact, it was voted the 17th best place to live in the US: http://money.cnn.com/best/bplive/top100_1.html . I would recommend Darnestown or Laytonsville as far as moving to-I live in Darnestown and it is a wonderful community. In fact I even went to Quince Orchard High School which someone else just mentioned in a post.

All in all the DC/Gaithersburg area is a great place to live if you can afford it and you don't have to commute on the Beltway. Montgomery County also provides pretty nice views of the mountains and the county is still about half rural.

[missebaby27]

I've grown up in Damascus, Maryland (northern mo co.) and I love it so much that I bought my parents house here! Damascus is a small town, and the teens always complain of nothing to do, so they join teams and clubs. We like cowtipping and bonfires! Gaithersburg is OK. You need to lean toward Kentlands, Rio, N. Potomac areas if so. We lived near the Rio a couple of years ago, and really liked our commute times. I don't have any children, but I do know that mo co is not so much a melting pot, as much as a tossed salad. Old town g-burg and g-burg elementary & g-burg high are going to be primarily hispanic, and education for primary english speaking students may be frustrating. My parents now live in Germantown, and they make sure to lock their doors. Commute times are going to vary. Damascus, Clarksburg, and Poolesville are further out, with not too much to do, but in my opinion much safer communities than G-Burg or Germantown. Bethesda is v. safe, but EXTREMELY expensive. Silver Spring and Rockville are borderline cities... Unless you are coming from NYC or CO, prepare yourself for sticker shock. Most homes in decent areas will go for $350,000 to $900,000...

[pixieshmoo]

Oh my God!!! I saw cowtipping and had to reply immediately. I assume you were joking but I have to know, were you? Or are you serious? When I was a teen my friends and I were obsessed with trying that out. My father told us we were morons. But every year when we'd go to Ocean City, we'd either take 113 (before the Superhighway was built) and there were some farmlands or we'd take route 9 (I think it's 9) that ran along the coast from Lewes, DE. We'd see cows here and there and we'd beg him to pull over so we could go cowtipping (and again, he called us morons). And I never got to do it
But I don't think I would now, I'm too old for it and I wouldn't want to hurt one or get stampeded by any. But I've never met a "fellow" cowtipper (besides my "moron" friends)

[WilliamT]

We currently live in Montgomery County (Laytonsville/Damascus) and some areas are good and others not so good.

Bethesda is pretty expensive but a nice place to live if you don't mind the heavy traffic almost every day. The homes look very nice there.

Germantown is growing pretty quickly but at the same time getting overcrowded and there is always problems with some crime happening described in the Gazette. I wouldn't want to live there.

Clarksburg is growing fast too with large planned communities. The only problem there is that many of the builders are violating building codes to have the homes completed. House pricing is still somewhat reasonable there. $750k for a new single family home.

Poolesville hasn't grown as fast yet, but I see a lot of potential. There is still plenty of land out there and the county is proposing to built a magnet school there to bring in more people. I've driven through its country side and its beautiful. You can take the ferry across the Potomac River to get into Va.

Damascus is a pretty good place to live. The town hasn't grown much so it still pretty small. If you know Damascus, you probably know Jimmy Cone. House prices are still very reasonable in Damascus. Its still officially in Montgomery County so your kids can still attend the Montgomery County magnet schools.

We lived in Laytonsville for 6 years and its a very nice place to live with very little to no crime. The private schools near by are pretty good. We ended up leaving because of my job, but house values are very strong there. We plan on staying in Montgomery County, but Gaithersburg isn't on our list.

If you move to Gaithersburg, I would avoid Montgomery Village and probably homes near Summit/Diamond Ave (old Gaithersburg) and Deer Park. In my opinion, those areas aren't too safe.

I think the best places are Chevy Chase, Bethesda, Darnestown, Potomac, Laytonsville, and Poolesville. School wise Bethesda and Potomac have the best public schools (in terms of scores) in the county if not the state.

[dmassey]

MCPS has BIG issues in the Gaithersburg Cluster. Stay away.

[cjasonb1]

I work in Gaithersburg. The town is becoming more and more run down. The immigration level is climbing very very high, and hardly anyone speaks good english. Potomac (about 15 minutes south and slightly west) has better neighborhoods with lots and lots of childeren. Good schools and also well kept and well run businesses with more english speaking business owners.

[shareberg]

We live here in Gaithersburg and will be moving to another city in montgomery county before the year is out. My daughter is starting kindergarten next year. I am a teacher and do not want her attending our neighborhood school. Be careful as there are many Gaithersburg schools that are NOT good. Those in and around Montgomery Village are not very good. Those near the Kentlands are better. Check test scores on line. I don't recall the site but the state of maryland maintains a site. Good luck!

[tarp]

If everyone moves out because they think the schools are not good, and lower income/ESL students move in to take their places, then guess what? The schools will keep on a downward spiral. You know the schools are not the problem, and usually the teachers are not the problem either. MCPS is a very highly ranking school district. As long as you read to your child and teach your child to be a good learner, he or she will do well in school and will learn a lot.