Moving Back to Alexandria this summer (Lake Ridge, Fairfax: real estate market, rental, townhomes)

[fittmom]

Hello all...

We are military family moving back to Alexandria or thereabouts this summer. Hubby will be at Ft Belvoir (though we are Air Force) and we lived in Lake Devereaux, but know that the traffic has gotten pretty horrible and would like to live closer to Ft Belvoir this time...On the Other side of Hayfield High.....We have the standard 06 BAH which I believe is around $2600+ these days......We've been out of the area (Southern VA) for about 2 years now, so I know things have changed.

If you know of anyone who is leaving this summer who would like a great family with amazingly well mannered pets and 2 great teen girls....We'd love to hear from you.

We are looking on Militarybyowner of course, but at this time of year...not much "official" posted yet.

Thanks all in advance

[irisheyes13]

You might want to look around the Island Creek or Kingstown area. We live right by Island Creek in a small community (Hawthorne) and walk through Island Creek very often. I see a number of nice looking townhomes for rent in that area. We are very close to Belvoir, just under three miles from my house to the PX/commisary. I don't know anything about the high schoool though so you may want to check that out.

[fittmom]

Thanks...

We are looking for a SFH...Guess I should have mentioned that.... We'll do the standard of Military By Owner and hope something comes up. As I mentioned we were in Lake Devereux last time, but honestly....Telegraph road has become so congested, we want to live South of Ft B, but close enough so the kids can go to the Hayfield School System, which we really liked last time.

[ggjacobsen]

Hmm . . . pets will be a problem, well-mannered or not.

[fittmom]

We've rented 8 houses in the 23 years my husband has been in the service, 3 of them in Northern Va....Fairfax Station, Lynnwood in Lake Ridge, and Lake Devereaux in Alexandria. I have letters of recommendation from every property management company and individual that we have ever rented from saying that we left the house in better condition than in which we received it and that if you didn't physically see our pets that you would never know that we own them.

I'm sure your comment wasn't really meant to be negative, but as a licensed real estate agent myself, I can tell you that in this day and age...anyone that wants to rent their home to a "family," are going to have to adapt to the pet factor. Very "few" families are sans pets and the remedy is to have a pet deposit, which we've always paid...and always had returned to us.

Thank you.

[Fern435]

Hello fittmom!

You should not have a problem securing a rental home in this area as a pet family. A couple letters of recommendation and your rental history should be more than plenty. Best wishes on the house search!

[seldomseen]

O6 pay in the DC Metro will be enough to offer a large array of good housing options in the Alexandria area. Check out craigslist as a resource too, if you already haven't. Good Luck!

[slduvall]

I'm also relocating back to the same area, also knowing exactly where we want to be for the same reasons. We have elected to live in Kingstowne, for the amentities...fitness center etc. Island creek also had a lot to offer, but no fitness center. The houses are a couple hundred dollars cheaper for Island Creek. Both of these areas are above Ft Belvior, and personally I think the traffic and quality of the neighorhoods below it can be iffy.

We are also 06's and the BHA is $2768, plenty for the 2 garage TH we are looking at. The average SFH is running upwards of $2900+. Again these are cheaper in Island Creek. I would recommend the new Automated Houseing Referral Network page...the old housing office list. Automated Housing Referral Network (AHRN.com) v5.0

We are not concerned about HS, as we have a 5 year old...maybe we can be neighbors and your girls can babysit!

Shannon in FL...can't wait to get out of here!!!!

[fittmom]

Hi....My daughters love to babsit...Sounds like a plan

We like Hayfield elementary and Hayfield High. Our oldest will be in 9th and our youngest 6th next year.

We are actually headed up tomorrow and will stay at Ft B, so we can reaquaint ourselves to the area and just get a feel for where we'd like to be. Our last home in Lake D. was 3900 sq. ft and was $2450.00 per month. We found it on Militarybyowner. We just want to be on the South side of Hayfield this time. I found one in Island Creek for $2900 and we can pay a bit out of pocket as long as it meets all our needs. I've talked to the property manager and she says that it's not out of the ordinary for some homes to stay on rental market for awhile, so she'll keep us in mind.

I'm on AHRN as well..Not too much listed yet...We're a bit early, but Steve is most likely to take command in June/July, so we just want to have our place settled out and be taken care of beforehand.

Which base are you coming from? Hubby AF/Army? Or another branch?

Keep in touch

Cynthia

[slduvall]

We are Air Force too, currently at Tyndall AFB, well I'm still at Tyndall, Larry has already moved up to DC and has been living in billeting at Bolling. He is currently TDY to TX for 6 weeks and we didn't want to move up there before Christmas just to have him leave. So I'm still working and my daughter is in a good preschool. We also are waiting to get our house rented here in FL...the real estate market here is horrible, so we are renting it out. We want military so we are waiting for the spring influx.

We started looking back in the late summer (when we thought we were all leaving together) and there were lots more places on both web sites. I expect the number of houses to go up in the next couple months.

Which unit will your husband be in at Belvoir? Mine is working outside the pentagon on a DoD Safety Board in some gov't rented buildings on Eishenhower road. He is thrilled not to be in the pentagon again. He has his own cubicle The commute from Kingstowne will be 10-15 mintues at rush hour!