Olney v. Chevy Chase/20910 (Silver Spring, Bethesda: short sales, real estate, foreclosures)

[bmd1206]

Hi,
I am in the middle of a house search and I have narrowed down several houses in those two areas: Olney and Chevy Chase or Silver Spring 20910. For the same price, I get twice the house in Olney, garage, bigger yard mostly colonials while Chevy Chase I get small split levels/ramblers with small yards and no garage.
If you consider the whole package: commute (to Walter Reed) resale value (we might have to move in several years), communities - where would you live? We have two small children but we still like to "do stuff" on weekends. HELP!!!! I need to make a decision by this weekend!

[Marylandkitten]

From what I've seen when driving through Chevy Chase... it's beautiful. I would have a home there in a heartbeat if I could. Even if it were a smaller not-so-grand one, the neighborhood can't be beat.

I don't know anything about Olney though, I'm sorry I can't be any help there.

[bmd1206]

The houses that I like are actually in Silver Spring 20910 zip code but belong to the BCC school district. They are definitely not grand and technically in Silver Spring. Does that make a difference?

[Marilyn Emery]

There are so many factors to consider when looking at these different communities. Chevy Chase would definitely be the easiest commute. You would be going against the traffic going into DC. The schools are some of the best in the country, but you pay for these "advantages". You are close to Metro so you can still get into DC to do stuff like museums etc and you are also close to Bethesda for kids theater and restaurants or Strathmore for great musical entertainment. There are some very "close knit" communities in Chevy Chase area where you can really get to know your neighbors and feel like you "belong".

Silver Spring is working very hard to compete with Bethesda. They have redone downtown with great restaurants and some entertainment. There are some fabulous neighborhoods. Many of the schools are not ranked as high as Chevy Chase but that is all relative. Even the worst schools in the area (and none of the schools in this zip code fit that category) are still the best in the country. You have easy access to DC.

Olney has historically been considered rural. That has changes in the last few years. You will have many of the conviences you have in the closer in suburbs with less crowding. Your commute to Walter Reed will be much harder.

IMHO if I were you and had to choose I would go for closer in, Chevy Chase, Bethesda or Kensington. That would make commute time much less which equates to more time at home with family. You have easy access to metro and downtown and the wonderful things DC has to offer. If you are only going to be here for a few years you may as well get to know the city and take advantage of everything it has to offer. I also think areas that are "closer in" will hold their value. If you look at statistics for the three areas you mentioned Chevy Chase homes' values have been the best.

Good luck. No matter which area you choose, you will find great things for your family, you reallly can't go wrong.

[trying2moveup]

Both areas are 'good' areas.
I would go with Chevy Chase - no question. You will always have people coming in that will be working at Bethesda naval, NIH, walter reed, etc., and for resale purposes you will always have a buyer pool. Also, values hold up better in Chevy Chase. You are not likely to find any short sales and probably very few foreclosures in Chevy Chase. Olney, I read somewhere, is next on the list to be a foreclosure sesspool (or however you spell it) quickly, if it hasn't already started, because too many people bought what they couldn't afford there with exotic mortgages.

The schools in both areas are excellent but the BCC cluster is one of the best in MoCo.

You will save $ on gas, stress on commuting, $ on heating and cooling bills with a smaller place.

remember, it's not size in real estate that counts - its LOCATION< LOCATION<LOCATION.

Go for Chevy Chase, you will not regret it.

[CHIP72]

I'd definitely go with Silver Spring or Chevy Chase, just for commute purposes. Even though it isn't that far from Olney to Walter Reed (I assume you are talking about the complex in far NW DC east of Rock Creek Park), you may go crazy driving Georgia Avenue (MD 97/US 29). That road is a pain in the butt on weekends, and I'm sure it is much worse during weekday rush hours. Living inside the Beltway greatly reduces the commuting hassle.

Downtown Silver Spring (i.e. 20910 zip code) is probably a little better for you IMO because it is really close to Walter Reed and also is closer to a Metro station than Chevy Chase (which is probably outside walking distance to the Bethesda and Friendship Heights Metro stations). On the other hand, Chevy Chase is generally nicer than downtown Silver Spring, especially for single-family detached homes.

[tercel95]

I grew up in Olney... The area is constantly building itself up from what it was when I was a young child. While Olney is one of the nicer areas in Montgomery County it still isn't somewhere I would recommend to anyone that has to put there kids through school there. While growing up there I was around a lot of crime and drugs that came from the worse areas of Montgomery County. Olney looks nice from the outside but it can be quite unsafe at night...

I don't know much about Chevy Chase but I would assume because it is closer to DC that it would be even worse, but that is not always the case...

Typically in MD the closer to DC you are the worse the area is going to be...

[CHIP72]

Originally Posted by tercel95

Typically in MD the closer to DC you are the worse the area is going to be...

Actually, the areas between Rock Creek Park and the Potomac River in MD are generally considered nice. However, the further away you get from Rock Creek Park to the east, the rougher it gets, generally speaking.

[tercel95]

There are exceptions... But pretty much everywhere in PG county is garbage, and most of montgomery that borders DC like Takoma Park and Silver Spring... The areas bordering the northwest corner of DC aren't as bad because northwest DC isn't that bad...

For some reason there seems to be a trend with people defending their "hoods" on this board and misleading people into living in bad areas. I know "bad" is a relative term, but I just try to point people in the right direction based on my experience...

[flamfives5]

Garbage huh? Seems a bit harsh, wouldn't you think?