Prince George's County (Silver Spring, Bethesda, Gaithersburg: buy, best school, high income)

[fishfister]

Originally Posted by lscalder

The Entrance and community are both wonderful and all the ammenities the community offer. I recommend everyone to take a look at the wonderful community. The community is well plan and is perfect for family entertainment such as golfing,fishing,biking,walking,swimming,racquet center and coming soon their own community center and a brand new school. Their are no communities in the state of Maryland that is so well develope like Beechtree.

One thought that came to my mind while perusing the Beechtree site was - Most of America, black as well as white, cannot afford to live in a house the size of those shown. I don't know of the professions the people that live there have but, $800K - $1M homes are beyond the $100K a year salary range.
Are there grocery stores and other shopping inside those fences to match the Camelot atmosphere or do the residents have to drive to the run down Giant, Safeway and Shopper's to do business?

Check your spelling, please.

[fishfister]

Originally Posted by cathyhrb

I have taught in PG county for 41 years--retired 3 years ago. My husband and I live in PG in Temple Hills/Camp Springs area--a once very nice area. My husband worked in Alexandria (college professor and administrator) and didn't want me to have to drive to VA when we first came (I got a job in PG and Montgomery, but chose PG since they offered me more etc.) here many years ago. We bought a home in PG. Our home is beautiful and in a relatively nice area. We are very close to the beltway and often shop and go to the theatre in Va or the District. We didn't move to Va since homes there were so expensive. There are really no good shopping areas in southern maryland. We shop and eat at restaurants in Va or DC. We are planning to move this coming spring to Conn. We have seen the county become more crime ridden and falling behind since we got here years ago. I loved the county when I began and things changed over the years. I wouldn't say that there aren't very nice areas in PG--Upper Marlboro, maybe Bowie, Laurel. If I were you, I would look into teaching in one of the other counties--Charles, Ann Arundal, or maybe in Virginia. I would be happy to discuss this privately with you if you'd like. Send a private message and I'll respond. I will be happy to discuss the school district with you.

Wow, ain't it the truth!
I am in what is actually Camp Springs and Zoned Temple Hills by the Postal Service. We have nice homes here but the decay is becoming evident. I love watching the news and seeing reports of crime in Temple Hills in locales I have never seen. I then realize it is the areas up near Southern Ave. as the houses are usually devoid of any landscaping and resemble pillboxes in a war zone.
There is little, if any, shopping or restaurants in this area of the state. I go to GWU hospital for medicine as medical care is nowhere near the listings of "best doctors in Washington, DC" in this vicinity or south of here.
I have yet to see what the big draw is in Upper Marlboro - it's just closer to the courthouse and the folks that love to legislate to the rest of us. Bowie and Laurel are removed from the taint of DC and have some personality. I live here because I can't afford to move.

[TnD4306]

My wife and I grew up in PG; me in Fort Wash and my wife in Upper Marlboro. We have lived in Atlanta and Philly and now have a home in Fairfax, Virginia. We are expecting our first child and are considering moving back to PG to be closer to friends and family. We are looking at the usual suspects, including Beech Tree and Oak Creek. My wife prefers the look-and-feel of Beech Tree over Oak Creek. I think the prices in both communities are still high, but are slowly coming down. The NV home we were considering was 730,000 base 4 months ago, now it has come down to 630,000 (off golf course). One thing to note is that along with the price drops, they are also offering less upgrades in the standard base price, so the price drop is a bit deceptive.

As far as the comments about ammenities (grocery shopping, stores, etc.), PG has nothing that can compare to Northern VA. I thought the grocery shopping in PG was OK, including the Giant and Safeway the other poster mentions in Fort Wash, but it is really no comparison to the stores in NOVA and quality of the meats and produce (Wegmens, Whole Foods, etc). PG is getting a Wegmans and I think the introduction of the luxury communities will warrant more high-end vendors to move into PG. Also the introduction of the woodmore town center project and hopefully others in coming years will help to build up the infrastructure a bit and really offer something competetive to the NOVA market. If PG could get the public school system on the right track, then things would really be moving in the right direction. Just one more point, we have not jumped back into PG for that exact reason...the home prices are very high considering the state of the public school system.

When its all said and done, we will orb end up in Beech Tree and it sounds like we will have some of you as neighbors. We will be the family strolling around with the new baby boy in the blue Peg Perego. Hope to see you around the neighborhood.

[RFMD]

Originally Posted by TnD4306

My wife and I grew up in PG; me in Fort Wash and my wife in Upper Marlboro. We have lived in Atlanta and Philly and now have a home in Fairfax, Virginia. We are expecting our first child and are considering moving back to PG to be closer to friends and family. We are looking at the usual suspects, including Beech Tree and Oak Creek. My wife prefers the look-and-feel of Beech Tree over Oak Creek. I think the prices in both communities are still high, but are slowly coming down. The NV home we were considering was 730,000 base 4 months ago, now it has come down to 630,000 (off golf course). One thing to note is that along with the price drops, they are also offering less upgrades in the standard base price, so the price drop is a bit deceptive.

As far as the comments about ammenities (grocery shopping, stores, etc.), PG has nothing that can compare to Northern VA. I thought the grocery shopping in PG was OK, including the Giant and Safeway the other poster mentions in Fort Wash, but it is really no comparison to the stores in NOVA and quality of the meats and produce (Wegmens, Whole Foods, etc). PG is getting a Wegmans and I think the introduction of the luxury communities will warrant more high-end vendors to move into PG. Also the introduction of the woodmore town center project and hopefully others in coming years will help to build up the infrastructure a bit and really offer something competetive to the NOVA market. If PG could get the public school system on the right track, then things would really be moving in the right direction. Just one more point, we have not jumped back into PG for that exact reason...the home prices are very high considering the state of the public school system.

When its all said and done, we will orb end up in Beech Tree and it sounds like we will have some of you as neighbors. We will be the family strolling around with the new baby boy in the blue Peg Perego. Hope to see you around the neighborhood.

Beech tree is a beautiful planned community. I love the entrance to that community. Oak creek is a step behind Beech Tree in terms of aesthetics in my opinion

You are correct the county can't be compared to Nova at this point in terms of amenities. The county suffered many years of stagnation and poor development however the last 15 years has brought about change and will take some time to be on par with Nova. There are many links in some of the other threads that point to the many developments going on in the county. Hopefully the National Harbor will be the impetus for better things to come.

The school system is finally a priority with it being fully funded and with an excellent superintendent heading the school system to improve it and bring stability. Things are finally going in the right direction albeit there is some catching up to do relative the surrounding jurisdictions.

I personally live close to the Woodmore Town center project and look forward to the Wegman's. Whole Foods is finally right around the corner.

BTW how would you compare Prince Georges to your experience in Atlanta?

[fishfister]

Originally Posted by howsitgoingdude3

Icecalder, I only have one thing in here I totally disagree with and that is " I mean the homes and communities are all beautiful. And also the nicer areas you live in every county the better the schools are." This is totally not true. There is one school in PG county that "was" a really good school at one point. It no longer is as good as it used to be when I attended, but its still the best one in the county and that's ERHS in Greenbelt. In fact little known fact that is not talked about much is that Sergey Brin the billionaire founder of Google went to ERHS. However, the PG county public schools in all of the "wealthier" area's of the county are equally as bad as the ones in the poor areas and that's a problem. In most areas like Moco and Fairfax you would be correct as the schools located in the upper scale neighborhoods do tend to be a lot better overall than a lot of the schools located in the poorer areas, but again NO PG school compares favorable to most of the schools in these two counties and that's sad. I'm sorry to say if you cared about your community you should be more outraged about this stuff and not supporting the continuation of such sub par standard for black children. I'm sorry i'm a black male currently in college and that's the way i look it. PG, has given the majority of kids there a get out of jail free card and they've allowed these substandards to persist by electing the same officals to ruin the school board year after year and it just bothers me that most of the parents seem not to care about their childrens education. Raising standards and expecting people to be responsible for following through on such a raised bar is in no way racist, but what is racist is accepting these kids sub standard performances as "culturally" acceptable and making up every excuse in the book to keep them performing the same without dealling with the real problem. PG has consistently done that in its school system.

Dude,
You are my hero! You are black and can state all of the above with little racial backlash. I live in a majority black neighborhood and talk to parents and their children as well as watching what becomes of most of them after school. Most have very little career guidance - most of this is a responsibility of the parents.
PG schools have a policy of pushing the kids through and few are held back to repeat a grade. This serves none other than the coffers of the school administration when it comes to their report cards.

[kimh2]

Every county has their issues - but PG County has substantially more than the others -- highest crime rate next to Baltimore City or DC proper. I'd drive further or take the metro. If you decide to move there and can't afford the pricier areas of PG County - get a big dog (hope no one steals it), an alarm on your house and car, and plenty of mace - you'll need it.

[lscalder]

Kimh2: It seems to me you have never ever been to the county if you have you will never make such statments about the entire county. I guess say advice goes for Montogmery and Nova with all the rapist loose in Nova why not tell all women to walk around with mace in Nova or do not walk at all.

[1973 Forced Busing]

Maybe you should walk around with a dictionary, as well as a book on grammar!

[fishfister]

Originally Posted by 1973 Forced Busing

Maybe you should walk around with a dictionary, as well as a book on grammar!

ROTFLMAO

[lscalder]

I get so caught up in my work I sometimes forget to spell check. I run one business and just started up another so I will double check no matter how busy I get.