Manassas Neighborhoods (Forest, Sudley, Occoquan: fit in, apartment, felony)

[El General]

Ironwood is in the county, along 234. It is worse than Georgetown South.

[pyl]

Originally Posted by goldenmom7500

Hi,

There are several branches of 234. You have 234 business (that is the segment going through Manassas), and you have the 234 bypass looping around Manassas. Also, you have 234 "Dumfries" which is the segment heading to 95. Of course the bypass shares a name with the PW Parkway in places, confusing!

Liberia during rush hour: if you mean the segment "below" route 28 with the Wal-Mart, it's not too bad, but you need to find the back roads around Signal Hill. If you do it right, you will pass the VRE station, etc.

If you lived right off of 28, you might be commuting from 28 to 66 and not be hitting 234??? 234 business can be frustrating during rush hour; 234 bypass is fine; 234 Dumfries, not sure. Apparently, our scientific tests have revealed that if you are coming home at night on 66, and need to choose either 28, 234 business, or 234 bypass, that 234 business is best (fastest). Not sure why.

That segment of 28 is one of the not so good parts of Manassas. That's your Manassas Park area. Once you get off of 28 into the residential areas, I would say the east side (heading to Signal Hill) is nicer than the west side (Yorkshire, etc.). In other words, if you are heading down 28 away from Centreville towards Manassas, if you turn left, there are some nicer developments.

Does this help you?

Yes, it helps alot.... The maps I have may not be very clear, but the 234 that I was referring to is the one that begins at I-95 exit 152 (Dumfries) and is Dumfries Road for a while. It passes Independent Hill and later turns into Prince William before reaching I-66. This is distinct from Business 234 which goes through Manassas and it looks like it is Grant Ave for a while. The 234 bypass must be the part that becomes Prince William and goes around Manassas. What I am interested in is the commute from the Manassas area along 234 back down to I-95, in order to pick up 95 and head south in the morning, then return north on 95 in the evening and take 234 back toward Manassas. I would probably not be going on 234 as far as I-66. Would that be an easy commute? Besides knowing about the commute, I'm interested in townhomes in the Manassas area that would be an easy commute along the route I described, as well as safe and not too enormous. There seem to be alot of enormous townhomes in the area (3-4 stories, 2200 sq ft), but I just want a normal townhome to rent for a year or so, 2-3 bedrooms, in a safe area, convenient location. Appreciate additional insights and suggestions. Thanks.

[goldenmom7500]

Hi,

Here are a few thoughts, hopefully others will chime in on these ideas and others:

o first, that stretch of 234 has some interesting parts. There are a few new communities (Ashland) and some nice older communities (Woodbine Woods, just sfh). [This is zip 20112 if you want to browse realtor.com]. I also believe I've seen flags for other new communities, but I don't really know much about them.

o There is a large road called Hoadly that connects 234 Dumfries with the Prince William Parkway. That section can be quite nice, but I don't know of any specific townhouse communities. However, there are many. My daughter did gymnastics right at Hoadly and the PW Parkway and there were a lot of nice townhouse complexes. I don't know if your address would be Manassas or Woodbridge. Hoadly also connects with Dale Boulevard, but right there it's not bad at all. [Dale City is definitely not all bad, but definitely as a whole is known as where the crime hits].

o Continuing on 234, you'll eventually hit an area called Wellington right before you get to Georgetown South. Wellington itself is quite nice and has many townhouses. [zip 20111]

o Then there is the area you were asking about before, off of route 28. My problem is that I don't see why you would want to commute that far. However, right in there close to the VRE station there are newish apartments, condos, carriage homes, etc., etc. [zip 20111]. This is called "Signal Hill".

I'm sure there are many other places I haven't thought of. So look at Woodbridge, zip 20112, zip 20111 (Wellington, Signal Hill).

I wish I knew of a specific complex to recommend ...

[jaywallace]

Originally Posted by El General

Ironwood is in the county, along 234. It is worse than Georgetown South.

I believe you are referencing Irongate. An no, it's not worse than Gtown South. It's still an S#$% Hole, but not as bad as Gtown.

[jaywallace]

Originally Posted by bcemail

My wife and I are moving from DC to NoVA, and are looking at Woodbridge, Springfield, Manassas, etc. Woodbridge and the Potomac Mills areas seem to be pretty consistently strip mall suburbia. What about Manassas? Are there different neighborhoods that we should be looking at or avoiding? I've heard that there is some part that is more old town type area, not just the typical commercial area. Someone told us that there are a lot of gangs in Manassas, but the person is someone who overreacts and is slightly sheltered.

Any ideas or suggestions are gladly welcomed. Thanks!

Personally, i would stay away from Manassas and the entire east end of PWC to include 234. I would stick with Gainesville in the Piedmont or surrounding areas. Just my opinion, take it for what it's worth.

[El General]

Wellington is 20110. There are two foreclosures, SFRs, for 360K. No one has been by to look. It IS a pretty, well planned community. Ironically, as prices were skyrocketing; the neighborhood itself, was on the decline.

There is a beautiful Cape Cod on the corner of Portner and West, in Old Towne. It is an estate sale. It is listed for 449K. Would be a steal at 375K.
About as classy as you're going to find in Manassas. A good combo of an historic neighborhood, proximate to shopping and the VRE. You could do without a car if you really wanted to. I've never been inside the house, but it is all brick, from the 40's or 50's. I'm not a realtor, but I'm throwing in my two pesos (again).

[goldenmom7500]

I wonder if that's the cape cod I just saw (online) in old town, but it was 465K. Lovely.

This person is looking for townhouses-rentals. I just don't know townhouse complexes very well. Gainesville is great, but wouldn't that be a long drive? I guess he'd head over on the bypass.

I have a lot of friends in Wellington and it is nice. I did go to one townhouse in Wellington that I hated, but it was probably not a good representative example.

[goldenmom7500]

Oops, I meant this second person on this thread is looking for townhouse-rentals, not the original person.

[lchoro]

The Manassas market looks like a full-blown crash. The ratio for the average sale price to the average listing price is now at 80% for Manassas Park and at 88% at Manassas City.

Monthy Real Estate Trend Indicator (http://www.mris.com/reports/stats/monthly_reti.cfm - broken link)

[El General]

Originally Posted by jrlikens

if you are considering Manassas, but want more of a "development" I would look at Victory Lakes or Braemar, both in Bristow, VA - about 5 mins from Manassas.

Five minutes by helicopter.