Frustrated, moving to NoVa (Reston, Tysons Corner: cul-de-sac, condominium, crime)

[joewee22]

I visited Reston today and spent time in the town center. Its quaint. Something new to get used to. The 35 min commute on the Silverline doesn't sound bad at all. Friends have told me Reston is safer than Arlington/Alexandria. So that sounds interesting.

Right now my agent is refocusing around the Ballston and Arlington Square stations. I've also increased my budget to 4K if we are in a nice home in a great school distract. But I'm seeing nice places around 3,500. So, slowly adjusting.

If the next round (next two days) dont work out for Arlington then I will shift to Reston and other areas recommended. I fully expect to have at least one car, its just a matter of how much time we will be spending in on a daily basis, and should we get an additional car. I've never lived in a home, perhaps this will be that time in my life when I fully embrace it and give it a try.

Thanks again, and if you have more advice let me know.

[ChristineVA]

Originally Posted by joewee22

Interesting. Its does say a lot about you that you think the only time someone would not put location on the top of their list is if they were jobless and had no choice. Believe it or not, some people decide on the work they do based on the actual job they would be doing. Hard to believe, I know! Some people even put the work they do above salary expectations. Shocking for you I'm sure.

Well, this puts everything into perspective. Thanks for the little bit of advice you managed to squeeze in between insulting the thousands of people who work for the FED, Military or who simply are passionate about their line of work who don't have the options you have.

Okay, you are obviously very sensitive to what I had to say. I work for the FED myself and have been in the military. I see where you are coming from. I was just initially responding to your "Frustrated" thread title. You have to remember that those of us "regulars" on this forum read these types of post several times a week of those who have already accepted jobs and then are shocked by what they find here. It does surprise me a bit that not just a little bit of homework is done before the decision is made. I agree that you don't need to revolve all your choices around that but to be shocked at that point? Yes, it always surprises me. I don't think I'm think only one reading this thread who agrees with that as evidenced by the number of personal message agreements on my original post. It's just a frustration of those of us who post regularly here.

But you are correct, my comment was not helpful to you and was borne from my own frustration. I do have to temper those comments with realizing that many people out on the internet don't take things well if it's not all sunshine and rainbows. I did not intend to hit you in the wrong way, but I see that I have based on your above comeback to me. I apologize.

[Carlingtonian]

Originally Posted by ChristineVA

You have to remember that those of us "regulars" on this forum read these types of post several times a week of those who have already accepted jobs and then are shocked by what they find here. It does surprise me a bit that not just a little bit of homework is done before the decision is made. I agree that you don't need to revolve all your choices around that but to be shocked at that point? Yes, it always surprises me. I don't think I'm think only one reading this thread who agrees with that as evidenced by the number of personal message agreements on my original post. It's just a frustration of those of us who post regularly here.

Agreed. Plus isn't the expense of the DC area pretty widely known? We're not SFO, NYC, or Honolulu, but we're getting there. I think word is getting out; this forum does get a lot of folks inquiring about costs while they're still deciding if it's worth it to make the move.

OP, if you actually have no choice and will be moving here if you want to keep your job, might be good to state that up front.

Also, Arlington is plenty safe, long as you don't go hanging around the Metro alone at 3AM. Alexandria varies. (It's much bigger.)

My standard advice to newcomers stands: Rent first. No point in making a major commitment like a home purchase while under avoidable pressure.

[joewee22]

The main thing I find shocking compared to NYC and Tokyo is that expensive in DC/NoVa doesn't always correlate to decent public schools (based on standardized test). Take for example, a home I was looking at in Alexandria for $4000. The high end of my budget but not bad if I'm sending my kid to a public school, but the zoned public school has a rating of 2.

Now I understand there is variance in all public schools, but 2? That just doesn't exist in NYC. And schools are very good across the board in Tokyo.

In NYC expensive rentals or homes generally correlate to the best public school zones. So yes, its shocking to find out this isn't the case in the NoVa area.

I understand your point about researching before moving. When I moved to Tokyo everyone told me Roppongi was a great place to live because of all the foreigners and restaurants. Well, I moved there and after a week I got tired of people trying to get me to come into their bars when I walked home.

You just really never know what a community is like until you hit the ground.

I'm quickly adjusting my standards of "urban." And Ballston seems to be topping my list for urban with a great school district. Live and learn.

[Opacy]

Originally Posted by Carlingtonian

Agreed. Plus isn't the expense of the DC area pretty widely known? We're not SFO, NYC, or Honolulu, but we're getting there. I think word is getting out; this forum does get a lot of folks inquiring about costs while they're still deciding if it's worth it to make the move.

OP, if you actually have no choice and will be moving here if you want to keep your job, might be good to state that up front.

Seriously. I'm finding it very difficult to sympathize with the OP when they're making snide little remarks to people that are trying to help them and give them good advice.

If you're military or government and didn't have a choice in the relocation, that's one thing (and as stated above, you should mention it), but if not, no need to get angry at others because you didn't do your homework.

[ChristineVA]

Originally Posted by joewee22

The main thing I find shocking compared to NYC and Tokyo is that expensive in DC/NoVa doesn't always correlate to decent public schools (based on standardized test). Take for example, a home I was looking at in Alexandria for $4000. The high end of my budget but not bad if I'm sending my kid to a public school, but the zoned public school has a rating of 2.

Now I understand there is variance in all public schools, but 2? That just doesn't exist in NYC. And schools are very good across the board in Tokyo.

In NYC expensive rentals or homes generally correlate to the best public school zones. So yes, its shocking to find out this isn't the case in the NoVa area.

I understand your point about researching before moving. When I moved to Tokyo everyone told me Roppongi was a great place to live because of all the foreigners and restaurants. Well, I moved there and after a week I got tired of people trying to get me to come into their bars when I walked home.

You just really never know what a community is like until you hit the ground.

I'm quickly adjusting my standards of "urban." And Ballston seems to be topping my list for urban with a great school district. Live and learn.

joewee--is that rating of a "2" from greatschools.com? If so, I hear that one should take that with a grain of salt when comparing state to state. Someone on here a few months ago posted some very good info about using greatschools.com as your only reference point. I wish I could find that post because it gave some good information.

Some of the things that can lower a school's score is the old economic diversity. You will find that in areas like Alexandria and Arlington, you have some very wealthy areas and some low-income areas, yet they feed into the same school. Depending on that ratio, if you have many kids who have ESL needs, the non-ESL parents don't care for that. The instruction often needs to be slowed down (or not). This is a situation that the elementary schools in my area often face so a lot of people scramble to make sure they don't move into a school area that has a lot of that. That's not to say that your child can't get a GREAT education in these schools--most do; but it is an added frustration and it does affect the overall test scores of the school.

As for Japan, your post definitely made me miss it. I've only been to Tokyo twice and did a stroll through Roppongi! I loved it. I lived in the northern part of the main island for 4 years and loved every minute of it.

[airjay75]

Originally Posted by ChristineVA

joewee--is that rating of a "2" from greatschools.com? If so, I hear that one should take that with a grain of salt when comparing state to state. Someone on here a few months ago posted some very good info about using greatschools.com as your only reference point. I wish I could find that post because it gave some good information.

I don't know if this is the article to which you're referring but it is one I saw recently that I think could be helpful to the OP: What an average school rating means - Find a School | GreatSchools

And I would echo what you're saying about using the greatschools rating solely as a measure of whether a school is "good" or "bad." The greatschools rating is oftentimes merely a rating that reflects the average socioeconomic status of the students at that school. It doesn't mean all students are performing poorly nor does it mean there isn't a critical mass of high performing students at that school. I think this is particularly true in a place like Northern Virginia. Almost every school in NoVA is going to have at least a portion of the school coming from high income families where the students perform well - what differs is the percentages at each respective school. Of course, a lot of people still have difficulty thinking a good education could be had at a lower rated school.

[dkf747]

Originally Posted by Carlingtonian

Agreed. Plus isn't the expense of the DC area pretty widely known? We're not SFO, NYC, or Honolulu, but we're getting there. I think word is getting out; this forum does get a lot of folks inquiring about costs while they're still deciding if it's worth it to make the move.

Maybe word is getting out, but I have yet to meet anyone when I travel who knew just how expensive it can be here.

[robbobobbo]

The most urban part of Alexandria is Old Town (22314). Lyles Crouch Elementary has a greatschools rating of 7. Some parts of Old Town (northern edge) go to Maury Elementary. It has a rating of 8. Jefferson-Houston (for much of Old Town) and Mt. Vernon (for much of Del Ray) rate a 2. I believe people in J-H have the option to attend a different school since they lost accreditation. Traditionally the well-off in Alexandria sent their kids to private school and the city had a large poor population attending public, and the middle-class/moderately well-off often moved to Fairfax County when their kids got to school age - both for reasons of schools and for larger houses. That has been changing, however, but results haven't been equal across all the schools.

[The_Bishop]

Originally Posted by airjay75

I don't know if this is the article to which you're referring but it is one I saw recently that I think could be helpful to the OP: What an average school rating means - Find a School | GreatSchools

On balance, greatschools ratings probably do a disservice to parents, most of whom have no idea how to evaluate the numbers they are given nor any means to find out how. The notion that these 1-10 numbers are actual ratings is misleading nonsense. They are rote rankings within a particular state that take nothing but averaged standardized test scores into account. There are no other inputs involved. The data are barely if at all relevant to the parents of an individual child, but society is deeply invested in the Letterman Top Ten List mindset and is too often willing to put stock in simple-sounding numbers that are actually no better than worthless and misleading.