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Old 04-04-2019, 09:25 PM
 
9 posts, read 6,046 times
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Hi all, as the title suggests, I would request any input on Bowie, MD (Fairwood area developments in particular. We looked at a few houses and they are within our price range. Somewhat concerned about the schools based on greatschools ratings, so I would really appreciate if anyone can chime in with actual ground truth.


Some details:
Work Place: Bolling AFB
2x kids: 7 and 1 years old so elementary and middle schools are the primary concern
Price range: Topping around 650K.




Any area details/suggestions much appreciated. Thanks in advance.
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Old 04-05-2019, 07:19 AM
 
Location: Bowie but New Orleans born and bred
712 posts, read 1,085,608 times
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Fairwood is in the geographical area known as Bowie but not actually in the City of Bowie limits. In Fairwood you don't pay Bowie municipality taxes and as a result don't receive City of Bowie services such as policing, trash/yard waste/recycling pickup, etc... Those are all handled by Prince George's county. The schools zoned for Fairwood are not in the City of Bowie and as you've seen, are not rated highly compared to schools in the northern part of the City of Bowie such as Whitehall, Yorktown, and Samuel Ogle.

Fairwood is generally a safe area and you have good access to shopping and transit routes. Fairwood and the rest of unincorporated Bowie contain mostly modern housing developments while the City of Bowie's housing stock is mostly older (late 1960s) and consists mostly of Levitt homes styled by Levitt and Sons. If you want higher rated schools and the benefits that the City of Bowie provides, and don't mind paying a city tax, then the trade off will more than likely be moving into an older home (Colonial or Cape Code for you I'm assuming) that has been rehabbed and is selling in the $350 to $400k range. There are a few modern housing developments in the City of Bowie that are in the zones of the good schools along the part of Race Track Rd alongside and just south of the race track, but Redfin is not showing any homes for sale in this area.
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Old 04-05-2019, 05:33 PM
 
4,362 posts, read 4,211,582 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by WhoDatInMD View Post
Fairwood is in the geographical area known as Bowie but not actually in the City of Bowie limits. In Fairwood you don't pay Bowie municipality taxes and as a result don't receive City of Bowie services such as policing, trash/yard waste/recycling pickup, etc... Those are all handled by Prince George's county. The schools zoned for Fairwood are not in the City of Bowie and as you've seen, are not rated highly compared to schools in the northern part of the City of Bowie such as Whitehall, Yorktown, and Samuel Ogle.

Fairwood is generally a safe area and you have good access to shopping and transit routes. Fairwood and the rest of unincorporated Bowie contain mostly modern housing developments while the City of Bowie's housing stock is mostly older (late 1960s) and consists mostly of Levitt homes styled by Levitt and Sons. If you want higher rated schools and the benefits that the City of Bowie provides, and don't mind paying a city tax, then the trade off will more than likely be moving into an older home (Colonial or Cape Code for you I'm assuming) that has been rehabbed and is selling in the $350 to $400k range. There are a few modern housing developments in the City of Bowie that are in the zones of the good schools along the part of Race Track Rd alongside and just south of the race track, but Redfin is not showing any homes for sale in this area.
There's also Northridge and the neighborhood just behind Baysox stadium. The A and E sections in South Bowie might work as well. Not sure about the school though.
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Old 04-06-2019, 03:39 PM
 
Location: Bowie but New Orleans born and bred
712 posts, read 1,085,608 times
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^ Good catch. The neighborhood behind Baysox stadium is zoned for Yorktown and Samuel Ogle, so a good choice. The schools for the A and E sections are questionable (Northview & Benjamin Tasker).

To the OP, if you do consider purchasing in the City of Bowie, just know that there's only one public high school for the whole city and it's also questionable.
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