another "moving to Chantilly for work" thread (Reston: rent, condo)

[spencgr]

Sully Station is a neighborhood in Centreville, right next to Chantilly.

[sullyguy]

Yeah, Sully Station is probably just the marketing name of a subdivision. It's at the border of Centreville (south) and Chantilly (north). If you are looking at that Google Maps display, you can "visit" Sully Station by heading south from the Chantilly marker on Route 28 and "turning right" at Westfield Blvd. As you pass the shopping center on your left, part of Sully Station, the housing to the left is "Sully Station". There also is a Sully Station II but, even after 25-ish years, I =still= don't know where it is! Someplace close, I'm sure...

Anyway, Google "Street View' is FANTASTIC for checking out neighborhoods - on the Maps display, grab the little yellow man and drop him onto a road - you'll see the street view then and you can roam around at that view.

Unfortunately, I'm currently on the wrong computer to post a street view link however the previous "Lousy Commute" link I gave can be used - just find Route 28/Westfield near point 'A' and drop the little man there!

[addendum - Fairfax County has the "interesting" habit of changing street names every 10 feet it seems, so what was "Westfields Blvd" will soon be Poplar Tree will soon be Stone Road will, in the other direction, soon be Walney Road then Centreville Road and maybe Eldon street or something even further north. Be careful roaming around!]

[choff5]

Originally Posted by cav987654321

The relocation is pretty much something I have to do. I can't quit so moving is just something that we have to deal with. Luckily the trip to to Arundel mall is only twice a month at most so I don't think it will be too bad.

I typed in Sully Station VA using Zillow, and it came up with quite a few 3/2 homes with a max budget of $400,000. What I didn't understand is why I couldn't find Sully Station. I did find Centreville, and Clifton. Does Sully Station encompass those areas? Or is it a separate area on its own?

Sullyguy has done a good job covering that area. There are a lot of neighborhoods in this area. Franklin Farm is a big one, look for the Fairfax County Bypass and Frankin Farm Road to see it. A lot of that has an Oak Hill address. Is the mall Fair Oaks? Lots of townhouses also in the area. If your max is $400 you may be stretching it. One nice, but older neighborhood in the area is Greenbriar where you may still find a SFH for that. Its address will be a Fairfax one. Until you've hooked up with a realtor, I would use Zillow and Redfin to see what's in the area as well as google maps, especially street view to get an idea of the area. Good luck.

[VADude]

Originally Posted by sullyguy

Hmmm...though I do not live in Chantilly (just south of it) I think you are confused.

It depends on what you consider Chantilly. There are nice neighborhoods like Greenbriar but it's heart is along Route 50, Walney Road and Sully Road and it's a sea of strip malls, gas stations and traffic lights.

[spencgr]

Originally Posted by choff5

One nice, but older neighborhood in the area is Greenbriar where you may still find a SFH for that.

I don't think the OP ever mentioned needing a SFH.

[Jon_In_NOVA]

If OP isn't moving with a healthy six figure salary, I would wager a bet to say they will be hating life very shortly. I live in southern PWC and work in Chantilly, and at all hours of the day that entire area can be a bear. During any of the typical work hours I would have to say Chantilly to Arundel Mills is an easy hour and a half minimum. I used to live in Anne Arundel and I knew better than to drive into VA if I didn't have too during any sort of work hours.

[cav987654321]

Is it a requirement to have a healthy six figure salary?

[sullyguy]

Originally Posted by cav987654321

Is it a requirement to have a healthy six figure salary?

Could be!

As noted somewhere above, my "mortgage" payment (actually tax/insurance/mortgage) is on the order of $2000/month ONLY because I bought so long ago (probably everyone else around "here" is paying at least twice that based off of house appraisals). When I was trying to figure out what my MINIMUM income would have to be to maintain a not-that-interesting lifestyle for a family of three, it turned out to be about $5000/month or about $60,000/year AFTER taxes.

Extrapolating current housing prices into mortgage payments estimates would add another $2000/month into that AFTER-TAX cost (or $80,000-ish/year), approaching that magical "6 figures pre-tax income". With just a little more extravagance (you know, FLYING to somewhere for a vacation rather than driving, having cars less than 10 years old, etc, for minimal examples) or, say, having a boatload of kids, would pretty easily push the necessary PRE-TAX earnings into the 6-figure range.

====

BTW, there's LOTS of online info about Fairfax county. For example, I did a quickie Google for "fairfax county average income" and got: Fairfax Median Income. Of course, that's the median, not mean, and is from 2009-ish but close enough for forum posting!

This has a bunch of graphs, including income, from 2011-ish: Fairfax demographics

Note that 60% of the households in the county make more than $100,000/year. in fact, from the Wikipedia entry for the county:

...Fairfax was the first county in the United States to reach a six-figure median household income, and has the second-highest median household income of any local jurisdiction in the United States after neighbor Loudoun County...

[VADude]

Regarding those trips to Maryland, a good way to simulate the experience is to use Google Maps, select the traffic feature then have it give you driving directions between the two places. Try to do it as a time of day when you think you will actually have to commute it. It will report the time in current traffic. If you can leave after 10 AM you'll probably save yourself at least a half an hour sitting in traffic. During rush hour you'll be lucky to do it in 90 minutes. You'll likely have to drive east on I-66 and that is usually a parking lot during rush hours. There is something about Nutley Street and I-66 that guarantees accidents and bottlenecks pretty much anytime of the day, but every morning and evening without fail during rush hour.

So many people give up. Telecommuting is a great option if that is available. Get a web cam and use Webex or similar service instead.

[CleoShahateet]

Since you will mainly be in Chantilly, why don't you check out Bristow, Gainesville and Haymarket? You can get a SFH in Bristow or Gainesville for 350,000 and it is very family friendly but as someone said before NOVA in general is anyway. Commuting to Chantilly won't be bad especially if you don't work the usual 9-5 hours. I think anywhere is more comfortable with more money but a bare minimum for a family of 5 from my experience would be 80,000.