Lee's hill subdivision in spotslyvania county(fredericksburg) (Burke, Springfield: low crime, credit card) - Northern Virginia - Virginia (VA) - City-Data Forum

Smittys8 · 10-10-2012, 07:52 AM

Although my ultimate goal is to be in fairfax county I have been offered a home in fredericksburg that has enough room for my family of 8 and would save me nearly 1000.00/month. Granted I hear the commute is brutal but I truly am considering this option. Can anyone give me some input on the area (Lee Hill subdivision and surrounding area in particular). How far is the nearest vre station? schools? crime? etc..

cb at sea · 10-10-2012, 07:18 PM

Lovely area....Fredericksburg/Spotsy is fine...no more crime than any other suburban area. Can't help with VRE....there's not enough money in the world to entice me to commute. Brutal, is right! I-95 is horrendous from Fredericksburg to NoVa! Maybe at 2-3am, traffic will run at speed...otherwise, it's a "creep along" sort of thing.

If you could tele-commute, that would be the ticket!

Smittys8 · 10-11-2012, 12:52 PM

I suppose traffic is like that from most places in va when driving on I95. I'll be at home since work would have taken me into alexandria and I'm not willing to spend that much time away from my brood of 6. The husband however has decided he will commute and adjust his hours as necessary. Thanks again cb at sea for the reassurance on the area.

Middlin · 10-11-2012, 12:56 PM

I would take a look at greatschools.org before you come to a decision

Fundman · 10-11-2012, 01:17 PM

The commute up I 95 is not that bad. Driving in the HOV lanes will cut your time in half.

michgc · 10-11-2012, 11:48 PM

Smittys8,

Where are you moving from? Or what other big cities have you lived in? The traffic in NoVA really, REALLY stinks and can be very eye-opening (and not in a good way) to someone who is not used to living in a large city like NY, Chicago, LA, etc.

A commute from Fredericksburg to Pentagon would be pretty awful, I would think. It is 50 miles one way. On a good day with no traffic (i.e. 2 am on Sunday morning), it would take you an hour to get to work. In rush hour (which lasts several hours), who knows? Doing that day in and day out twice a day can add a lot of stress to you and your family. Even on VRE, your husband would have a 1 hour 10 minute train ride each way. That does not include driving to the train station, parking, walking on the other end, etc.

One-thousand dollars sounds like a lot of money, but I would research very carefully before you commit to it. A commute from Burke or Springfield would be much, much better - about half the time. VRE costs would be less, as would gas costs if he drives to work. But (to steal an overused saying from a credit card ad), the extra hour per day that your husband is home with you and the kids: PRICELESS!

Lastly, while I'm sure some of the schools in the Fredericksburg area are adequate, I'm not sure they would be called "excellent" at least compared to Fairfax schools. If that's what you are looking for, then again, check out Burke or somewhere else in Fairfax.

Smittys8 · 10-12-2012, 03:12 AM

Thanks everyone for the input. We have a rob of things to consider #1 being the commute.

jacmadhel · 10-12-2012, 06:29 PM

I live in Spotsy but I cannot speak to the commute. I can tell you that most of the schools are good. Greatschools.org is a terrible resource. The local school acheivement results can be seen here . Spotsy schools did far better than Stafford although I believe that Lee's Hill is in the Massaponax HS district and that is not so great.
It is a nice place to live with relatively low crime.

Smittys8 · 10-12-2012, 08:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jacmadhel

I live in Spotsy but I cannot speak to the commute. I can tell you that most of the schools are good. Greatschools.org is a terrible resource. The local school acheivement results can be seen here . Spotsy schools did far better than Stafford although I believe that Lee's Hill is in the Massaponax HS district and that is not so great.
It is a nice place to live with relatively low crime.

It is in the Massaponax High district and I have a high schooler in all AP classes should I be worried to transfer him there? Is it crime, drugs, low test scores or something in particular?

jacmadhel · 10-13-2012, 03:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Smittys8

It is in the Massaponax High district and I have a high schooler in all AP classes should I be worried to transfer him there? Is it crime, drugs, low test scores or something in particular?

I cannot honestly say that I know, other than it is not crime. That district leaves a bit to be desired but it is comprised of mostly middle/upper middle class folks. My point is that is not a complete ___hole. I actually know a few teachers there, I would like to ask them but I am afraid of insulting them.