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Need advice on where to live/schools (long)
We own a townhome which is steadily becoming too small. We plan to rent it out.
We plan to buy a 2nd property to be our new primary property but I'm having a hard time figuring out what I want!!! What I really want is to be a SAHM. In doing this we have to afford a house on DH's salary (I plan on doing some stuff to bring in $ but the potential is unknown at this point).
My issue is which neighborhood to be in. Due to our moderate budget we're forced to go farther north and it can be less desireable areas (not bad, just less desireable than where we live now). Also, the schools play a large factor. I have no idea if we'll be able to afford private school so I want to back that up by having a good school district. Our 1st day out w/ our agent we looked at a few brand new amazing homes in a 2 or a 4 school district and not very nice areas driving into the neighborhood. Pass!
Today we looked at some nice-ish homes but I'm just not in love w/ the location. And we are in a good school district but some are only 3 bedrooms in our budget and we would really love a 4 BR.
DH thinks we should live wherever and just make the private school thing happen (for what it's worth I was private schooled my whole life and DH was public schooled his whole life).
I'm just so torn and am looking for advice. I know no one can really answer these questions for me...and we still have lots more looking to do, just wondering if anyone has any experiences with this. I feel like it's all about 'location location location' and I'm nervous to go to an area that I won't absolutely love. If I continue to work we drop all of these issues but I after having our DC in daycare...I really don't want to do that again when we have #2 eventually. Thanks!
(FWIW this is an old screen name I used to use years ago on the knot but I guess my count is starting over)
Re: Need advice on where to live/schools (long)
I just went through this dilemma myself. We don't have children yet, but are planning to start a family in two years.
Is this your "forever" house? If not, I've heard it helps your resale possibilities to be in the best school district you can afford.
I couldn't afford the houses in the good school districts around here. I found a quiet little town that we loved (and could afford) with its own (really great) public elementary school. For middle and high schools, though, kids go to the same not-good schools as in neighboring towns. I figured we could buy there, and by the time our children were old enough for middle school, we might A) be ready to move into a bigger house (this is our first home) or
be able to afford private school.
We moved 2 1/2 years ago, right before DD #1 started in the public school system, because we weren't happy with the quality of education where we were living (but we adored her private preschool/kindergarten, so we stayed to get her through that).
No way could we afford a move in condition home in the district we wanted. So we compromised and bought a foreclosure that was in pretty bad shape. It had no running water due to 12 burst pipes, needed new flooring in every room, had to be completely repainted, the upstairs hall bath wasn't functional, etc. We're still working on the renovations because DH is doing a lot of the work himself. The final stage - expanding/gutting the kitchen, renovating the master bath, doubling the size of the garage - is scheduled for next year and then we'll be done. It's been a LONG road, and if we hadn't been able to do so much ourselves (DH is the plumber and electrician for the renovation, for example!) we could never have afforded it. But it'll all be worth it when it's done because not only will the house finally be in great shape, my girls are in their third and first year respectively in the schools here now and we are absolutely thrilled with the quality of their education.
Depends on how "iffy" the neighborhood is. Are you moving into a neighborhood where EVERYONE home schools?
The issue is, that your kids neighborhood friends may be hte ones going to these poor schools, and they may fall into the wrong crowd.
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I would want to be able to fall back on the public school if the private school doesn't work out for some reason (finances, child that has a learning disability and needs more resources, resale, etc.). We are also in a townhouse with two kids right now, but since we were not finding what we wanted in our price range (schools are pretty much our #1 factor), we are waiting to move. Yep, it's getting tight and DH's commute is over an hour, but the kids aren't in grade school yet so we are making do.
Also, when we were looking at different areas, we realized that while the property taxes were a little higher in the burbs, if we paid for private school for two kids that would be a heck of a lot more in the long run. So I would factor that into your housing costs. For example, we were looking at homes in Chicago in nicer family neighborhood and taxes were around 5k a year. However, a similar home in a suburb with great schools is about 7-10k a year in taxes. If we stayed in Chicago and paid 5k a year in taxes and then had two kids in private school (~10-24k per child, per year), we'd be paying a ton more than if we lived in the burbs and paid 10k a year in taxes.
I couldn't agree more.
My Valentine Bookends (2~13~13, 2~15~09)
I agree 100%. We bought far less of a home to be in a top school district. Not only does it benefit you and you family (you'll have a large range of community activities/programs) but it helps with resale.
Baby Boy loved for 15 weeks, 5/31/11
Baby Girl loved for 16.5 weeks. 3/1/12
Thank you so much everyone! Sorry to post and run. We were looking at homes all day today!
DS is 2 and we hope to have 1 more so we have plenty of time.
We have lots more thinking to do but I really appreciate everyone's feedback!