Dulles Airport Area (Reston, Chantilly, Leesburg: apartments, condos, townhouses)

[rukycop]

I am looking to move my family to VA, but more specifically I will be working out of Dulles Airport. I hear the traffic is terrible and I hate commuting. Other than living at the airport and sticking my family in a footlocker while I'm gone, where does anyone suggest to get a 4 bedroom home, nice yard, good schools, playgrounds...ect...we don't need the picket fence though. I have found a realtor but all they are interested in is making money and my time is limited to go up there and look around so I am looking for info from the common folk like my self before the journey begins......thanks.

Ruk

[jmarkd]

1. South Riding (Part of Loudoun County officially known as Chantilly 20152) is on the SW corner of Dulles, you might be able to use the gates to get onto the airport, otherwise it would be about 20-30 minutes during rush hour. 4BR TH goes for $350-400K. Some of those carry a $175/mo. condo fee, some do not.
Nice planned community, 3 elem. schools, pools, shopping, golf course, the works.
2. Sterling. Closer to Dulles, slightly cheaper. Search "Sterling" on these forums for more info.
3. Herndon. Nice parts, not-so-nice parts. Search the forum on all these towns and read up.
4. Reston. Planned community, a couple bad parts but mostly nice.
5. Chantilly (in Fairfax). Lot of shopping centers, not many 4BR THs. Oak Hill/Franklin Farms have some between $350 and 400K.
6. Ashburn. See DullnBoring's many comments on Ashburn.
7. Leesburg. The actual town is probably 30-40 min. from Dulles but the area north of Ashburn is technically Leesburg and there are a lot of new developments there.
I think that's everything in the immediate vicinity. I would check out South Riding first.

[dullnboring]

Jmarkd listed all of the communities that I would recommend confining your search to as well and gave a good brief synopsis of them.

A commute to Dulles Airport is inevitably going to run at least 20 minutes just due to traffic immediately around the airport's entrances. Not to mention, there's Employee Parking and an employee shuttle bus that you have to take into account when commuting (could add anywhere from 5-20 minutes...I'm not sure).

Schools in all of the communities are good. At the elementary level, there's some lower-performing schools in Herndon and Reston. Still decent schools, just not as good as surrounding schools, and the schools at the intermediate and high school level are all terrific. Townhouses go roughly from 350K-450K. These are standard townhomes (usually three bedrooms, two bathrooms, quite a few with finished basements with an additional bedroom and bathroom), not the luxury ones of course which can be just as expensive as single-family homes. Yard sizes in townhomes are fairly small; not the type where young kids can run around and play generally, and it seems that even in newer single-family home communities, yards are shrinking. Single family homes generally start somewhere in the 400s and are more or less similar throughout the region. A bit more expensive in Reston and Chantilly.

The areas to the immediate west of Dulles Airport are fairly undeveloped and are sort of an ambiguous area (is it Ashburn, South Riding, Chantilly or Dulles?) but traffic seems to be less coming from this area. Development is coming fast and furious I'm sure but from what I've seen, mostly has come in the way of apartments and condos as opposed to townhouses and single-family homes.

[tarp]

Immediately west of Dulles Airport is the village of Arcola, at the intersections of Evergreen Mills Road and Gum Springs Road.

[dullnboring]

Arcola? Interesting. I had heard of it but didn't realize it was located so close-in. I pictured it further west in Loudoun County. I actually just mapquested Arcola and that general west of Dulles, South Riding/Ashburn/Arcola area to get a better idea of things because to this day, that area just confuses me. The area that I was referring to earlier that seems to be popping up fairly quickly with developments is north of Arcola, apparently to the northwest (as opposed to the immediate west) is located off of Loudoun County Parkway and actually has an Ashburn postal address. A friend of mine lives in an apartment back there and even though it's only five minutes or so from heavily strip-malled and residential Ashburn (beyond Waxpool Road), it feels incredibly isolated at the moment. They're building some new apartments and a shopping center out there and there's a lot of potential for growth, but at the moment, it's surprisingly barren.

I have to add to my other post rukycop, that for commuting purposes, I would actually steer clear of Leesburg and Reston, unless you happen to get a place right near the toll roads (and don't mind paying the toll each day). I think Chantilly and Herndon are probably the best locations, followed by South Riding. If they ever build a road that allows access from the west to Dulles Airport, then South Riding would definitely be the best location, but at the moment, I don't think there are any plans to do so.

[DavidS827]

Check out western Prince William County as well. I live in Gainesville and my neighbor is an airtraffic controller at Dulles. He said that it takes him about 35 - 40 minutes to get to work each day. You could also look in Catharpin and Bull Run Mtn.

[tarp]

The area you're referring to, dullnboring, is the planned community of Brambleton and the surrounding areas. That road is Ryan Rd where it intersects with Belmont Ridge Road. Ryan Road, is taken north/east, turns into Loudoun County Parkway. I'm assuming someday they plan on connecting this Loudoun County Parkway with the renamed Old Ox Road (Route 606) near South Riding, which is also called Loudoun County Parkway.

That area is very isolated, but a large shopping center with a supermarket is planned for that area. It does seem like an incredibly sprawling, far-out area to me. I have family that lives there and I hate driving out that far.

To the original poster, I would recommend, as has been said, sticking to Herndon, Chantilly, or Sterling.