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I currently live in Upper Marlboro, MD with my husband and newborn baby, and we are considering buying a home in either Bowie, MD (PG County) or Burke, Va (Fairfax County). We moved here from the Midwest two years ago and are still trying to get a handle on the area. My question:
Which of these 2 suburbs would be best for raising bi-racial children amongst diversity but with really good schools? Obviously the schools in Burke, VA are incredibly good, but they're hardly any black students (< 5% typically) attending. In addition, our budget for a home is in the $400,000 range and all you can get in Burke for that price is a 1970s outdated rambler or split level!
I really love Bowie area, the Town Center is so nice and the homes are new and spacious (important because we'd like to have a total of 4 children eventually), and the elementary schools seem okay. But when I went to www.schooldigger.com I notice that some schools that had 400 white students a in 2003 are down to only 70 today! What is happening? Is "White Flight" taking place there? We don't want to buy a home if the neighborhood and schools are gonna go downhill, and we worry about the riff-raff moving in with there being so many foreclosures in PG County. Can someone please give me the full scoop on Bowie schools?!
We are an upper-middleclass family who highly value education (husband has Ph.D in science), but after all the years spent in college and hard work, we are ready to "live the dream" and buy a McMansion, not an overpriced fixer-upper but that's all we can get in the best school districts. HELP!!!!
I would consider visiting both towns before choosing which one to live in. While Bowie is definitely a middle class and an affordable town, it's definitely experiencing a slight form of "white flight," particularly in the southern part. As for the schools, even though it is diverse, racial cliques are more of the norm, and the schools themselves, while decent (compared to other Prince Georges County Schools), aren't as academically proficient as schools in Fairfax County, including Burke. Now Burke's lack of diversity will probably not be much of an issue (depending on the average age of the neighbors) as I have personally found that Fairfax County in general is more racially integrated and has a more affable race relations among nearly all ethnic groups, even for blacks (in other words, as long as one doesn't bring in the "I'm so hood and gangsta" attitude, you should be fine). For a greater amount of racial diversity w/ genuine and affable integration, I would also look into places like Herndon, Reston, Vienna, and Falls Church. As for home prices, Fairfax (and most of Northern VA in general) is expensive, which might limit your options to an older home, or a townhouse/condominium for the first few years, just until your family's income is enough to buy a new McMansion.
Have you considered Calvert county, about 10 miles down from Upper Marlboro? Very good schools--amongst the top in the state in towns like Dunkirk, Huntingtown, Owings, etc. Not as a 'urban' as Bowie (relatively rural actually) but your money would go pretty far down there and a pretty nice house could be found I suspect.
Okay, I've looked at Calvert County and the commute looks like a nightmare!! I work in Downtown DC and hubby works in DC off 295 across from Alexandria, and since we have a baby and most daycares close by 6:30pm, a marathon commute is not doable. Does anyone know roughly how long that commute would be? Also, coming from Chicago I really do appreciate a more urban experience.
Northern Virginia seems to have pretty good race relations, but we prefer schools that are at least 10% black so that our children will have several "cliques" to choose from instead of just being relegated to outsider status with only 2 or 3 other black children in their classes. We like Bowie because then our children wouldn't have to be a minority and could have more community pride, but I'm just scared about if I'm "cheating" my kid out of a good education by choosing to make Bowie my new hometown.
Gaithersburg is way too far up north for us, and way too expensive too for a SFH. We are looking to BUY, have been renters for 10+ years, and we're in our early Thirites and ready to become Homeowners. We need a nice home in a nice community for $400k range. Only Bowie fits that criteria, but I need more data about the schools.
Tricky.... Have you considered taking the train? Frederick County has some good schools.
Bowie, MD vs Burke, VA? Schools/VA. Surroundings and down home people, Bowie, MD. Schools are PG County, and that being said, can be good, or bad. It depends. Having left PG for Anne Arundel six years ago, my three children were all A students in PG. Here, they struggled to maintain C's. Once they had the hang of what was expected - which is much more than PG, they earned A's, and are now in college.
You could look at it this way, too. Big fish in little pool, or little fish in big pool. Better schools, higher expectations generate parents who are consumed with making sure their kids are involved in every activity, every class, every opportunity. This is not a bad thing, but there is a lot of "keeping up with the Jone's" here, and I'm not sure that kids should have to deal with all that crap.
You could try Greenbelt. I know that there is a really good HS over there. I don't know how old your kids are though. Check out Greatschools.net regardless. We are like you all and we live in Silver Spring. My husband had the same exact drive as your husband and it took him 35-45 mins to get to/from work. You could take the train to DC. Montgomery County is very diverse. There are some areas to be wary of though.
We wanted to give PG a chance because you can get more house for the money, but the property taxes are higher and the school district is not good. (improving but not good). One thing that is a real problem is the disciplinary problems that seem to prevail in most PG schools--even in the so-called high income areas.
I currently live in Upper Marlboro, MD with my husband and newborn baby, and we are considering buying a home in either Bowie, MD (PG County) or Burke, Va (Fairfax County). We moved here from the Midwest two years ago and are still trying to get a handle on the area. My question:
Which of these 2 suburbs would be best for raising bi-racial children amongst diversity but with really good schools? Obviously the schools in Burke, VA are incredibly good, but they're hardly any black students (< 5% typically) attending. In addition, our budget for a home is in the $400,000 range and all you can get in Burke for that price is a 1970s outdated rambler or split level!
I really love Bowie area, the Town Center is so nice and the homes are new and spacious (important because we'd like to have a total of 4 children eventually), and the elementary schools seem okay. But when I went to www.schooldigger.com I notice that some schools that had 400 white students a in 2003 are down to only 70 today! What is happening? Is "White Flight" taking place there? We don't want to buy a home if the neighborhood and schools are gonna go downhill, and we worry about the riff-raff moving in with there being so many foreclosures in PG County. Can someone please give me the full scoop on Bowie schools?!
We are an upper-middleclass family who highly value education (husband has Ph.D in science), but after all the years spent in college and hard work, we are ready to "live the dream" and buy a McMansion, not an overpriced fixer-upper but that's all we can get in the best school districts. HELP!!!!
If you are looking for a McMansion in the $400K range, forget every county in Maryland except those that are the farthest from DC, and that means the extreme western (Allegheny) and eastern counties (Wicomico?). Seriously, if you have been looking at Bowie, are there really McM's for 400K there - the final sales price is 400K?? I can't believe it.
But hey, maybe it's true and I'm dense!
Anything in that range is going to be a resale if its a SFH. Now, there are decent resales to be had but they are not in the majority. They are snapped up QUICK. Are they going to have a modern floorplan? More often than not, no. Are they going to look like they have been updated, inside and out? Depends on the current/previous owners. The reason you cannot find anything in that price range that is "decent" visually is because the owners know that the location and the schools are going to command higher prices so they do not necessarily need to update the look of their homes to the times. . .
I completely appreciate you wanting a nice, new house. My hubby has an MBA and I have a Master's degree and it just about killed us that we could not afford a SFH in this area for years and year because of the run up in prices (we bought in 1999). We lived in a new TH in Frederick for 8 years and finally were able to move into a resale SFH that is less than 10 miles from my husband's work due to the current downturn in the market but we still have to stretch it to make the budget. Sure we wanted new but we have always lived with what we could afford (wish everyone did that and we wouldn't be in this economic mess). You have to consider your commuting times since you both work and your kid is in daycare, and you want more children, and how is that all going to play out in the future?
Schools are definitely a priority issue but they are not the only issue.
Schools are NOT "good" or "bad" by clear cut black and white definitions (and I mean the expression "black and white," not the racial indicator). I worked in PG, taught in PG schools; lived in Frederick, taught in MoCo schools. I mean, I've written it before, there is good and bad everywhere. . . EVERYWHERE. As far as "riff raff" moving in, you are in the middle of foreclosure central in this part of the woods and NoVa is way up there on the list of foreclosures along with PGCo, with MoCo right behind it. You have no control over that because you have no control over which house around you is going to/not going into foreclosure. Not everyone who appears to be solid financially is. . .as obviously illustrated by the gigantic housing mess.
If it were me, I'd prioritize around the following -
1) Since my child is in daycare and we both work, what is the SHORTEST POSSIBLE COMMUTE TIME I CAN GET so that I/hubby can get to said child in the event of illness or anything else. . .and that allows me to spend as much non-work time with said child(ren) as possible.
2) see #1
The rest will work itself out. As far as bi-raciality and all that stuff, you are living in a very diverse region and your kids are members of 2 worlds. You have no control over how that is going to play out in school no matter what school district you are trying to get your kid into - kids are kids and think what they think. I know, I am in a bi-racial marriage and have bi-racial children. Just raise your kids with confidence and be there for them and that is probably the most you can do.
Allegany is the correct spelling of the county in Western Maryland. We don't have "McMansions" out here. We are outside of the commuter culture that defines the downstate region and are quite happy about it.
My wife works at McPherson Square and we live in Chesapeake Beach. We work slightly off hours (9:30-6:30) so our drive is about 45 to 1 hour each way. It definitely isn't urban though.
Actually, tin Bowie, there are more houses close to the $400k range than you may think. thanks to the whole foreclosure mess. But the houses (mostly resales, but some new ones in the upper $400s) in that range are mainly foreclosures and short sales. One in my neighborhood, Fairwood, is going for $385,900. Because of a LOT of speculators that flocked to Fairwood, the subdivision has been hard hit by foreclosures.That being said, the elementary school zoned for Fairwood has lower test scores than the Bowie schools (Fairwood is just outside the Bowie city limits). But a new school is being planned for Fairwood; hopefully it will arrive in a couple of years.And Fairwood is diverse. I have African, Indian, Asian, black American and white neighbors.Good luck to you.
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What is happening? Is "White Flight" taking place there? We don't want to buy a home if the neighborhood and schools are gonna go downhill, and we worry about the riff-raff moving in with there being so many foreclosures in PG County. Can someone please give me the full scoop on Bowie schools?!
PG to DC /VA
