Looking for good schools and short commute (Charlotte, Welcome: real estate, houses)
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We will be moving to Charlotte this summer and I’m enrolling three kids in elementary school (plus one in pre K) in the fall. We are looking to spend in the 1.5 to 1.8M range and need 5 bedrooms. So far have toured schools in Dilworth Selwyn and Eastover, all of which seem good. We want to make another trip to check out Cotswold, Beverly Woods, and Sharon elementary as the housing prices seem more reasonable in those school districts, but maybe there’s a reason for that? A short commute is really important to us to be home for dinner with our young kids, so really trying to figure out how far out the city we can go for more bang for our buck, while still retaining a short commute defined as under 30 minutes and ideally only 15 minutes, and still having good quality public education. Can anyone compare Sharon and Beverly Woods elementary to Dilworth Selwyn and Eastover? If there are differences, when are they? Thanks in advance!
The housing price variance is largely due to distance and prestige. Dilworth, Myers Park, and Eastover are some of the most expensive real estate in the region due to the quality of the housing stock, proximity to Uptown Charlotte, "old money" wealth, and beautiful tree lined neighborhoods. Saying you live in "Myers Park" or "Eastover" comes with a prestige that is reflected in the price per square foot. At your budget, you could certainly find a very nice house in those neighborhoods and have an "it" address and have an extremely reasonable commute to Uptown that is the envy of most people in the metro area.
The South Park, Beverly Woods, Carmel Road area, etc... is very nice and beautiful as well, but due to being further from Uptown Charlotte, the housing prices are a little more reasonable on a price per square foot basis. You also have more of a mix of old 1960's ranches, etc... in addition to neighborhoods of mansions like Foxcroft. If you see yourself shopping at the mall often, being close to South Park could be nice, but realistically all the areas you are looking at are not far from the mall. You'll likely find more housing stock that is newer in the Sharon Elementary and Beverly Woods Elementary boundaries.
All of those schools are good, so the price of homes isn't really adjusted for the quality of the schools, but rather proximity to Uptown. Please note that Cotswold Elementary is now combined with Billingsville Elementary and Dilworth Elementary is merged with Sedgefield Elementary. Students attend K-2 at one campus and then 3-5 at the other campus. The school district is experimenting with this concept of merging schools to reduce socioeconomic disparity between campuses that are adjacent.
Question - for the commute, is the job located in Uptown / Center City Charlotte?
Thank you, that is very helpful. Yes I toured the Dilworth “Sedgefield campus”- I was a little nervous about the recent merger of the two schools but from what I observed the kids seem very happy well looked after the facilities as lovely etc. Coming from Westchester NY, the class sizes are smaller than what we have up here so if all seemed fine to me. I have heard about the Billingsville/Cotswold merger too but have not had the chance to check that out in person yet.
Our jobs are Uptown, yes. “Prestigious address” is not important to me, but the housing stock does seem more charming on the whole in MP and Eastover, however if Sharon is comparable quality to the other schools, the Foxcroft seems really attractive as there are some v nice bigger homes there and the commute still seems manageable. With 4 active young kids, I’d love a fenced in back yard they can play in and in my price range the MP/Eastover houses seem to have very small yards on the whole.
I don't think you can go wrong either way. Foxcroft area has good schools and is a great area. I think it will just come down to finding the right house that balances the amenities you are looking for, with the proximity to Uptown. Being north of Fairview should put you within 30 minutes of Uptown even at rush hour.
Depending on how long you plan on staying in your home and the age of your kids, you may also want to pay attention to the middle school districting for the houses you're looking at. There are some clusters of homes that are zoned for a great elementary school and a not-so-great middle &/or high school.
Welcome to Charlotte. I applaud your interest in public schools and there are good ones in your target areas.
As you likely have seen, the curvilinear and radial street networks of the inner housing areas of the city make for lovely pleasant drives but difficult commutes if one is more than a few miles from the center of town. Dilworth has an attractive connection to the city by the light rail which is convenient to the oldest part of that section, our oldest suburb from 1890. One must love old houses for that neighborhood. There is a shortage of home stock in many areas of the city presently and your price range is naturally limiting due to numbers involved. You will need the best agent. I wish you the best and hope to see you here soon.
Depending on how long you plan on staying in your home and the age of your kids, you may also want to pay attention to the middle school districting for the houses you're looking at. There are some clusters of homes that are zoned for a great elementary school and a not-so-great middle &/or high school.
A lot happens districting-wise over the course of a decade. I'd make sure you are happy with the zoned elementary and middle school as well as the next few closest schools. You can be certain that boundaries will change and additional school pairings will occur. The closer you are the the edge of the "wedge", the more likely you are to paired with or zoned into a low performing school down the road.
Depending on how long you plan on staying in your home and the age of your kids, you may also want to pay attention to the middle school districting for the houses you're looking at. There are some clusters of homes that are zoned for a great elementary school and a not-so-great middle &/or high school.
My oldest is a rising 2nd grader so Middle School is def a near term (ish) concern. I would be very interested to hear opinions of which middle schools (or HS for that matter) are in the “stay away” zone.
Yes, I am hearing how the constant rezoning is driving a lot of people into private or parochial schools. I’d like to avoid going private if at all possible but rezoning certainly adds unwelcome drama and uncertainty into the process! (Even though I think the underlying goal of addressing economic inequality is laudable).
Yes, I am hearing how the constant rezoning is driving a lot of people into private or parochial schools. I’d like to avoid going private if at all possible but rezoning certainly adds unwelcome drama and uncertainty into the process! (Even though I think the underlying goal of addressing economic inequality is laudable).
So I'll be the one to throw some cold water on the CMS great school dream. The few high performing schools (read: high performing families) are constant targets of the school board for redistribution schemes to achieve 'equity' since outright bussing is not going to fly. They keep trying to peel off slices of neighborhoods to send to the 'bad' schools. I talk to Sharon, Eastover, Cotswold Ele. parents and the affluent parents PTA is assumed to be responsible for providing extra stuff while more funding goes to the underperforming schools. We bought in the same $ range as you in the 'good' zone but went private starting in K. Private here is not as pricey as NY/NYC, ranging from 10-25k a year depending on grade and school. Just be prepared to swallow private, I see lots of families who moved to the 'good' zone or even way out in Union County, then a few years later they are driving their kids to a private anyway.
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