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My family and I are moving to Virginia for my husband's job, which will be close to the Metro Center stop. Can anyone summarize the differences between Arlington and Falls Chruch (or for that matter, any other farther-out areas you might recommend) with regard to (1) schools (particularly elementary) and (2) reasonalble commuting via Metro?
We currently live in the Bay Area and have a $900k house that is too much for us. We are looking to get more for our money, no more than $600k, maybe a 4 bed 2 bath with a yard for our three kids. Ideally we would be walking distance to the Metro station as well.
One last question - are the commute times on the Metro schedule accurate? I.e., is it really only 22 minutes to commute in from West Falls Church? My husband currently spends 45 minutes at a minimum to commute via BART into San Francisco, so something less than that would be great!
My family and I are moving to Virginia for my husband's job, which will be close to the Metro Center stop. Can anyone summarize the differences between Arlington and Falls Chruch (or for that matter, any other farther-out areas you might recommend) with regard to (1) schools (particularly elementary) and (2) reasonalble commuting via Metro?
We currently live in the Bay Area and have a $900k house that is too much for us. We are looking to get more for our money, no more than $600k, maybe a 4 bed 2 bath with a yard for our three kids. Ideally we would be walking distance to the Metro station as well.
One last question - are the commute times on the Metro schedule accurate? I.e., is it really only 22 minutes to commute in from West Falls Church? My husband currently spends 45 minutes at a minimum to commute via BART into San Francisco, so something less than that would be great!
Thanks in advance!
Julia
Differences:
EDIT: In my advice below, I've assumed that by "Falls Church" you mean the City of Falls Church, which is an island surrounded by Fairfax County--rather than the part of the Fairfax County called Falls Church.
The main difference is that Arlington is more urban-feeling along the Metro route. There are tall condo buildings and new shopping areas in Arlington, particularly at Courthouse and Clarendon. (And increasingly at Ballston and the area around the East Falls Church station--which is in Arlington, not Falls Church. Go figure.) Falls Church is more traditional suburbia. It's important to note that MUCH of Arlington is just as suburban--but the presence of the developed areas does have a ripple effect, particularly on the priorities of the County Board. (More on that later.)
Arlington is a larger area, being a county. Falls Church is a tiny city. I suspect that the FC government is more friendly and easy to deal with. (I once e-mailed its finance department to find out the city's real-estate tax rate, and I got a friendly answer in minutes!)
Arlington is run by a five-member County Board whose members are elected at large, in staggered elections. They have all been Democrats for about 15 years. Falls Church has a seven-member city council (whose members are paid much less than Arlington's) and a mayor. Arlington's government bureacracy is HUGE, and getting a response of it can be frustrating. Basic services like trash pickup are OK, but enforcement of quality-of-life laws, like the leash law or the speed limit in the neighborhoods, is often lacking. In Arlington, I get the sense that the government here is more focused on being "world class" (which apparently means bragging rights at urban-planning conventions) than on serving the residents of the County--particularly the residents of single-family homes.
Schools vary in both. Both have very affluent neighborhoods with great schools, as well as lower-income neighborhoods with struggling schools. The farther north in Arlington you go--or the closer you get to the Metro--the more expensive. In the Fairfax County part of Falls Church (i.e., NOT in the City of Falls Church), there are apartments (particulary in Culmore, Seven Corners, and Bailey's Crossroads) occupied mostly by undocumented immigrants. In Arlington, the lower-income areas are Nauck, the western end of Columbia Pike, a couple of odd pockets near Lee Highway, some County-subsidized apartments in Buckingham (which is actually in N. Arlington), and a few older apartment buildings scattered around that probably won't survive another 5 years.
My sense of the "feel" of both (having lived in Arlington for 10 years and looked at lots of houses in both areas) is that FC is overall more conservative and overall more family-oriented. I say this because FC doesn't have the urban development that Arlington has. Parking at businesses is easier, and there are still some semi-industrial areas. Falls Church to me seems like what Arlington was probably like 30 years ago--90% single-family homes, with small apartment buildings here and there. Arlington has vast swaths that are still like that--but the County Board is very big into developing the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor. Some people (principally young singles and empty nesters) love that, and some people don't.
The housing stock in FC is also different. There are fewer houses from the 1930s and 1920s and more from the '50s. (There are a very few 19th century farmhouses left.) There seem to be more McMansions in FC (especially between I-66 and Broad Street) than in Arlington, though Arlington has plenty. (Edit: This is based on my own personal recollection; it's a debatable point.) There are more large lots in FC than in Arlington. And out here, anything over 7,000 SF is getting into "large" territory.
Oh, this is important: Arlington County is trying to put a homeless shelter in at the Court House Metro.
Metro commute:
First off: For people in NOVA or DC, if your entire commute (including walk to/from the Metro) is 45 minutes or less, you're doing really well.
The Metro scheduled times are not ridiculously inaccurate, but they're based on a best-case scenario. Often, there are delays due to various causes: sick passenger, snow, even rain. I have commuted extensively via the train and the bus, and ultimately, I found the train too frustrating to tolerate. It was too unpredictably unreliable. It would be reliable for may 70% of the time--but then there would be that one evening ride home, where the train would stop for no reason, and then 10 minutes after sitting there with the doors closed in the tunnel, the driver would announce that the train is being offloaded due to some mechanical problem. I know I'm being a downer, but I don't want you to be surprised.
On a morning without any such problems, I recall that from the Ballston Metro, I could get to the McPherson Square station in about 30 minutes.
The train is often very crowded; if you live closer in, you'll be lucky sometimes to even get on the train at all, never mind getting a seat. Heading into DC, the farther west you start on the Metro, the better your chance of either one. So starting at Vienna (currently the western terminus of the Orange Line) means you'll definitely get on and have a good shot at getting a seat, but your commute will be a few minutes longer. Folks living in Clarendon have a very short commute, but they almost never get a seat, and often they have to wait for more than one packed train to roll by before they can get on. Living near Ballston, I would occasionally get a seat--but then I know where to stand on the platform!
Don't ignore the buses, by the way. The buses here are generally reliable and safe--especially in NOVA. I used to take the 3Y along Lee Highway (Arlington) to downtown DC. It was very reliable and overall comfortable; there were a lot of stops, but that's what buses do. Other folks here on the forum take the commuter buses from as far as Haymarket and Herndon, and they generally like them.
Housing:
It's going to be difficult (but not impossible) to find a 4BR anything for under 600K that's close to the Metro, not in an iffy area, and not falling apart. You might get an older 3BR house, particularly if it's a fixer-upper for a 1950s rambler or on a busier street. You definitely won't get anything at that price that's a quick walk to the Metro unless it's a townhouse or a condo--and you'd be doing well to find a 2BR condo at that price near the Metro. Then again, people do get lucky sometimes, and prices have been dropping steadily in the past year.
I do think it's most likely you'll have to sacrifice number of bedrooms, proximity to Metro, and/or distance from DC. You could easily find a 4BR house for that price in Herndon or even parts of Vienna--but probably not near the Metro. Likewise, you could find an older 3BR house in N. Arlington for that if you're lucky and you strike fast, but it might not be the most picturesque house on the block and/or the kitchen/bathrooms will need updating.
Good luck!
Last edited by Carlingtonian; 12-26-2011 at 10:54 AM..
Reason: Edit to clarify FC City rather than Fairfax FC
My family and I are moving to Virginia for my husband's job, which will be close to the Metro Center stop. Can anyone summarize the differences between Arlington and Falls Chruch (or for that matter, any other farther-out areas you might recommend) with regard to (1) schools (particularly elementary) and (2) reasonalble commuting via Metro?
We currently live in the Bay Area and have a $900k house that is too much for us. We are looking to get more for our money, no more than $600k, maybe a 4 bed 2 bath with a yard for our three kids. Ideally we would be walking distance to the Metro station as well.
One last question - are the commute times on the Metro schedule accurate? I.e., is it really only 22 minutes to commute in from West Falls Church? My husband currently spends 45 minutes at a minimum to commute via BART into San Francisco, so something less than that would be great!
Thanks in advance!
Julia
I have a very specific recommendation for you. When you have a local realtor, ask him/her about the Falls Hill subdivision. It's technically in Fairfax County, right along the western border of the City of Falls Church, and has a Falls Church mailing address. Homes (built mostly in the 1950s) in that neighborhood are selling in the $600,000 range, and most are the 4 bed, 2 bath variety that you described desiring. The neighborhood has an almost ideal location. It's within reasonable walking distance of the West Falls Church Metro station, a shopping center with a very large Giant Food store, and the schools that the kids in this neighborhood attend are all very good. The high school (George C. Marshall) has an IB program. The neighborhood also has very easy access to I-66, the Beltway (I-495), and the Tysons Corner area. Good luck!
You may want to use the sub-forum's "Search" feature to get more information about Falls Church.
People get confused between the tiny city of Falls Church and the far larger area of Fairfax County with Falls Church mailing addresses. It doesn't help that the East Falls Church metro station is actually in Arlington County and that the West Falls Church metro station is actually in Fairfax County. Neither is in the City of Falls Church.
I know this may sound patronizing, so I apologize to Carlingtonian in advance, but I think his description of Falls Church, while well-intentioned, may only add to your confusion about Falls Church in some respects. The City of Falls Church has its own school system, and the schools that he's describing (McLean HS, for example, which serves some neighborhoods in the West Falls Church part of Fairfax County) and some of the neighborhoods (the Seven Corners/Culmore/Bailey's Crossroads stretch) are in Fairfax County, not the City of Falls Church. There are also sections of Arlington County, particularly near Bailey's Crossroads and South Arlington, that are now heavily Hispanic areas similar to the Seven Corners/Culmore/Bailey's Crossroads part of Fairfax County. I'd also submit that there are more homes that I'd think others would label "McMansions" (big new homes replacing older homes on relatively small lots) in Arlington, particularly Central Arlington, than in Falls Church. McLean is a different story.
This could be relevant in your case, because $600K doesn't necessarily go far in either Arlington or Falls Church. You'll have more options if you are prepared to spend $900K, particularly if you want to be relatively close to a Metro station. Just to follow up on the prior post, I also thought of the Falls Hill neighborhood near the WFC Metro, though I had the impression that most of the homes there in good condition are a bit more than $600K. Marshall HS, which the prior poster mentioned, is also a Fairfax County school, not a City of Falls Church school.
You may want to use the sub-forum's "Search" feature to get more information about Falls Church.
People get confused between the tiny city of Falls Church and the larger area of Fairfax County with Falls Church mailing addresses. It doesn't help that the East Falls Church metro station is actually in Arlington County and that the West Falls Church metro station is actually in Fairfax County. Neither is in the City of Falls Church.
I know this may sound patronizing, so I apologize to Carlingtonian in advance, but I think his description of Falls Church, while well-intentioned, may only add to your confusion about Falls Church in some respects. The City of Falls Church has its own school system, and the schools that he's describing (McLean HS, for example, which serves some neighborhoods in the West Falls Church part of Fairfax County) and some of the neighborhoods (the Seven Corners/Culmore/Bailey's Crossroads stretch) are in Fairfax County, not the City of Falls Church. There are also sections of Arlington County, particularly near Bailey's Crossroads and South Arlington, that are now heavily Hispanic areas similar to the Seven Corners/Culmore/Bailey's Crossroads part of Fairfax County. There are considerably more homes that I'd think others would label "McMansions" (big new homes replacing older homes on small lots) in Arlington than in Falls Church. McLean is a different story.
This is particularly relevant in your case, because $600K doesn't necessarily go far in either Arlington or Falls Church. You'll have more options if you are prepared to spend $900K, particularly if you want to be relatively close to a Metro station.
Just to follow up on the prior post, I also thought of the Falls Hill area near the WFC Metro, though I had the impression that most of the homes there in good condition are a bit more than $600K.
You're right. I referred to Falls Hill homes as selling in the $600,000 range. I guess I should have defined that more precisely. I believe that recent sales have gone for more than $600,00 but less than $700,000. So, that's what I meant as the $600,000 range.
I agree with others who have commented about price. If you check online calculators, you will see that the housing prices do not differ as much between the SF metro and DC metro areas as you may believe. I guess it depends on what you mean by your current $900K house's being too much for you. Is it way too big, so you are prepared to downsize and let go of a lot of nice features and updates? Or do you just mean you are tired of paying so much for housing? The latter is understandable but you won't find a big price drop for similar housing here.
You are asking about close-in areas that are desirable for many reasons, so they are on the upper end in price per square foot for the region, and the houses in these older areas tend to be small, or if they are added onto, much more expensive than $600K. And, "four bedrooms" in Arlington tends to mean at least one bedroom is in the basement.
Many newcomers to the area who post here have similar impressions that it is cheaper to live here than it really is, so we don't mean to jump on you, but rather give you relevant info that you can use. Welcome to NoVA!
You may want to use the sub-forum's "Search" feature to get more information about Falls Church.
People get confused between the tiny city of Falls Church and the far larger area of Fairfax County with Falls Church mailing addresses. It doesn't help that the East Falls Church metro station is actually in Arlington County and that the West Falls Church metro station is actually in Fairfax County. Neither is in the City of Falls Church.
I know this may sound patronizing, so I apologize to Carlingtonian in advance, but I think his description of Falls Church, while well-intentioned, may only add to your confusion about Falls Church in some respects. The City of Falls Church has its own school system, and the schools that he's describing (McLean HS, for example, which serves some neighborhoods in the West Falls Church part of Fairfax County) and some of the neighborhoods (the Seven Corners/Culmore/Bailey's Crossroads stretch) are in Fairfax County, not the City of Falls Church. There are also sections of Arlington County, particularly near Bailey's Crossroads and South Arlington, that are now heavily Hispanic areas similar to the Seven Corners/Culmore/Bailey's Crossroads part of Fairfax County. I'd also submit that there are more homes that I'd think others would label "McMansions" (big new homes replacing older homes on relatively small lots) in Arlington, particularly Central Arlington, than in Falls Church. McLean is a different story.
This could be relevant in your case, because $600K doesn't necessarily go far in either Arlington or Falls Church. You'll have more options if you are prepared to spend $900K, particularly if you want to be relatively close to a Metro station. Just to follow up on the prior post, I also thought of the Falls Hill neighborhood near the WFC Metro, though I had the impression that most of the homes there in good condition are a bit more than $600K. Marshall HS, which the prior poster mentioned, is also a Fairfax County school, not a City of Falls Church school.
Not patronizing at all, JEB, so no apology necessary, but thanks. I did indeed assume the OP meant "City"--and in retrospect, someone not from here probably isn't yet aware of the distinction. So good point there. And I did forget that the Bailey's Crossroads and Seven Corners are Fairfax County.
The only part of Arlington I can think of that's near Bailey's and is still low-income is along Carlin Springs Road, south of Route 50, because the heavy traffic drives down the home prices. Even a block off of Carlin Springs, there are some nice houses. If you go down S. 5th Road (which after crossing into FFX goes past the Greek church and hits Route 7 in Culmore), there are some very large, well-kept houses--but after a block or two from Carlin Springs, you're in FFX County. Boulevard Manor (north of 50 and south of Wilson) seems at least middle-income if not high-income. (There are some quite attractive 1980s all-brick houses there.) I don't know much about GlennCarlyn--so maybe it's as you describe.
Last edited by Carlingtonian; 12-26-2011 at 10:42 AM..
Not patronizing at all, JEB, so no apology necessary, but thanks. I did indeed assume the OP meant "City"--and in retrospect, someone not from here probably isn't yet aware of the distinction. So good point there. And I did forget that the Bailey's Crossroads and Seven Corners are Fairfax County.
The only part of Arlington I can think of that's near Bailey's and is still low-income is along Carlin Springs Road, south of Route 50, because the heavy traffic drives down the home prices. Even a block off of Carlin Springs, there are some nice houses. If you go down S. 5th Road (which goes past the Greek church), there are some very large, well-kept houses--but after a block or two from Carlin Springs, you're in FFX County. Boulevard Manor (north of 50 and south of Wilson) seems at least middle-income if not high-income. (There are some quite attractive 1980s all-brick houses there.) I don't know much about GlennCarlyn--so maybe it's as you describe.
There are a number of elementary schools in Arlington where the percentage of kids receiving free or reduced lunches is similar to that in the Seven Corners/Culmore/Bailey's sections of Fairfax County. They are in South or Central Arlington and include Abingdon ES, Barcroft ES, Barrett ES, Drew ES, Campbell ES, Henry ES, Hoffman-Boston ES, Carlin Spring ES, and Randolph ES. Carlin Springs, Campbell, and Claremont are all fairly close to the Bailey's part of Fairfax County.
There are a number of elementary schools in Arlington where the percentage of kids receiving free or reduced lunches is similar to that in the Seven Corners/Culmore/Bailey's sections of Fairfax County. They are in South or Central Arlington and include Abingdon ES, Barcroft ES, Barrett ES, Drew ES, Campbell ES, Henry ES, Hoffman-Boston ES, Carlin Spring ES, and Randolph ES. Carlin Springs, Campbell, and Claremont are all fairly close to the Bailey's part of Fairfax County.
That's true--and not to split hairs, but the only one of those that I'd consider to be in Central Arlington would be Barrett--and it's only a "failing" school because it draws from the remaining low-income subsidized apartments in Buckingham (some of which have been replaced by $700,000 condos). Some of the top-rated elementary schools are in the lower part of North Arlington: McKinley, Ashlawn, and Arlington Traditional.
To the OP: "North Arlington" is north of Route 50, and "South Arlington" is south of it. (People sometimes refer to "Central Arlington," but it's less common; I perceive this as being somewhere south of Lee Highway but north of Route 50 and probably west of Court House.)
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