Living in / Commuting from Haymarket & Gainesville to Dulles/DC (Centreville: for sale, 2013)

[f.cerberus]

I'm increasing the radius of my "potential search for a 3 BR condo under 250-275K in NOVA" to now include Haymarket/Gainesville. I thought Manassas too but Greatschools rating seems to show lot of low performing schools.

I'd much appreciate your comments on

- How is the commute from Haymarket / Gainesville to Dulles airport as I may need to do it very often (like twice every week for months at a stretch)

- I see there's a VRE from Broad Run or Amtrak from Manassas straight to DC, which is great, as I need to be in our DC office about once a week. How reliable is this service / how crowded?

- General quality of life in Haymarket / Gainesville (and schools - daughter is elementary school going). And info on any upcoming new condo constructions in good school areas.

- We are ethnically Indian so some access to a grocery store and an Indian restaurant or two would be nice, if we can avoid going all the way to Chantilly.

Thank you!

[Bigfoot424]

I'll only address what I can. My experiences come from living in PWC since 1973 and a recently retired PWC LEO for 30 years. I know the Gainesville/Haymarket area extremely well.

I would not hesitate living in either community. I eat at few of the restaurants in the area but I've seen advertisements for many ethnic type eating places in the area. As far as safety I wouldn't hesitate living there but keep in mind there is no such thing as the perfectly safe neighborhood. Scum can live anywhere and you may not know it.

My kids did not go to schools there but they have always been considered safe schools within the PD. Good reputations.

I also do not use VRE but it generally seems to be very dependable. Traffic from G'ville and Haymarket will be a PITA during typical rush hours. Usually 6-0930 in the AM and 4-7 or so on the reverse side coming home.

[VAFan]

I responded on your other thread for one that was in Ashburn.

As you can see from the link below there are condos. that meet your criteria in Gainesville.

Gainesville, VA Condos for Sale | Homes.com

Your drive to Dulles would not be bad depending upon what time you leave at. We're in Bristow and fly out of Dulles all the time. The VRE out of the Broad Run Station is very reliable. The parking lot does fill up early though. You could drive up further to the Manassas Station for more parking.

I'm not aware of any Indian Restaurants in the direct area as of yet. I have heard of talks of some restaurants wanting to open up but the economy for the last couple of years put that on hold. There is one in Manassas, then Centreville and Chantilly. There are ones in Woodbridge also but none of these would be a short drive from your home. I know of no specific grocer for just Indian but there is a wonderful Wegman's in Gainesville. The closest you would get in that area would be Noras - A Taste of Lebanon which has very good food and is quite popular. But things are still growing and changing in this area so you never know what the future holds.

The schools are good in this area also. I know several people in Gainesville, Bristow and Haymarket. No complaints that I have heard of.

Good luck in your search.

[f.cerberus]

Thank you both, that's comforting to hear. We don't go to Indian groceries every other day, so going to Chantilly for that is fine.

It seems Buckland Mills schools comes up as the school for most of the properties we search, is that a good school? (greatschools rating of 7), whereas Mountain View has 10 - but it seems to be surrounded by SFHs which we don't want.

Any major developments planned for the area in the near future? (malls, roads,...)

[Middlin]

There has been major development going on in the Bristow/Gainesville/Haymarket area for over 15 years and continues now and into the future. The 29/Gainesville interchange is going through a major overall to direct traffic over the train tracks. Atlas Walk was one strip with a grocery store and a couple of Chinese restaurants when I first moved to the area in 2003 and now is ginormous with more restaurants, Target, Lowe's, BJ's, etc and new movie theater and restaurants to open in the spring. Haymarket recently got a Kohl's and Walmart and more stores slated to open. A new hospital in Haymarket has broken ground and the Heritage Hunt area has a ton of doctor offices. Gainesville has exploded around the Route 29 area and we also have a Wegman's. I only know of one area that has strictly condos and not surrounded by TH's and SFH's in the same neighborhood. Almost the entire area are neighborhoods with TH's and SFH's since I assume builders build what they think will sell in the area. In Bristow there are 7 elementary schools withhin a 6 mile radius with plans to build another one so that should give you an idea of the demographics. If your perference is to have zero yard there are TH's that would fit that criteria. Not sure what the appeal of a condo is, especially factoring in condo fees.

Why this one ES in particular doesn't rate as high as others....not sure. THe commute to the airport is not going to be great if you leave at the height of rush hour. My husband commutes to Herndon near the airport and drives a hybrid and leaves at the height of rush and it generally takes an hour. Sometimes more, sometimes less.

[stpickrell]

I'd look at how Asians do at a particular school. If a school has an overall rating of 6-7, but has White/Asian ratings of 9-10, I think your kid(s) will do well there. You should consider that, if your search for condos in ES zones with a 9/10 doesn't work out.

[HEATHER72]

The Promenade with the new stores, restaurants and theater in Gainesville are now slated to open in the Fall of 2013.

[f.cerberus]

Originally Posted by stpickrell

I'd look at how Asians do at a particular school. If a school has an overall rating of 6-7, but has White/Asian ratings of 9-10, I think your kid(s) will do well there. You should consider that, if your search for condos in ES zones with a 9/10 doesn't work out.

@stpickrell - Interesting you say that. Before I looked into NOVA I had plans of moving to Raleigh/Cary, and I noticed the same - i.e. performance of specific demographics within the schools, using the county schools data, even if the school wasn't highly rated, and it did often turn out these groups performed very well. It indicates that (from limited data) that other groups did poorly pulling overall scores down, but that them being there had no effect on better performing groups - which is a sign of good schools/good students overall regardless of their economic standing or support at home.

And you are right, with my budget restriction it does appear I might not that get into any school that has 9/10 rating because of they are in areas with larger/SFH type developments which we totally do not need. Sucks though.


@middlin - Thanks for the great info. The commute to Dulles doesn't worry me too much because if I go to the airport it almost always is very early in the morning (like leave home at 5 - 5:30) or late in the evening after rush hour. If I can get to the airport in 30 - 40m I'm fine. If commute to Herndon takes X, then I assume to Dulles would be about 10m less.

Overall I'm getting a warm, fuzzy feeling about Haymarket/Gainesville. But it's painful to research housing in NOVA after doing it for Cary/Raleigh...

[MySonsDad]

I live in Gainesville. To give you some perspective, I commute from Gainesville to Ft Meade DAILY. In my opinion, its more important to find an area you feel comfortable raising a family rather than moving to an area that is closer to your job. I have kids too. I am very picky when it comes to where I live. And yes, you did a good job on your homework. Greatschools.net is a great resource and the review there don't look highly on City of Manassas elementary schools.
Funny, I spent about 15 min arguing with a women who worked at Fosters Grill because she was trying to defend the Manassas schools even there is evidence to the contrary. She even lauded Osbourn HS which is known to have SERIOUS issues. If you read reviews and 7 out of 10 people have less than stellar comments about Manassas elementary schools than that should tell you something.

Everyone here will agree that commute times vary depending on what time you leave in the morning. It would take you approximately 45-50 min to get to Dulles if you took the I66-28 route assuming there are no accidents or distractions. However, this is only if you leave before 7:30 in the morning.

[stpickrell]

Originally Posted by MySonsDad

I live in Gainesville. To give you some perspective, I commute from Gainesville to Ft Meade DAILY. In my opinion, its more important to find an area you feel comfortable raising a family rather than moving to an area that is closer to your job. I have kids too. I am very picky when it comes to where I live. And yes, you did a good job on your homework. Greatschools.net is a great resource and the review there don't look highly on City of Manassas elementary schools.
Funny, I spent about 15 min arguing with a women who worked at Fosters Grill because she was trying to defend the Manassas schools even there is evidence to the contrary. She even lauded Osbourn HS which is known to have SERIOUS issues. If you read reviews and 7 out of 10 people have less than stellar comments about Manassas elementary schools than that should tell you something.

Everyone here will agree that commute times vary depending on what time you leave in the morning. It would take you approximately 45-50 min to get to Dulles if you took the I66-28 route assuming there are no accidents or distractions. However, this is only if you leave before 7:30 in the morning.

But still ... a 2 hour commute? Aren't there places in Columbia or Frederick you'd like?