RE: Moving to Northern Virginia and don't know where to start

[Yankeesfan]

Oh, it was a scandal on the front page of the Washington Post last September, but the people responsible got re-elected anyhow:

Some in Fairfax Public Housing Make Six Figures

The article is archived now so I can't post it but this shows the summary. I had heard about this even earlier from community activists. I don't remember the details but some people who make high salaries get to stay in housing that is designed as "workforce housing" or low-income housing.

You can do a google search on "workforce housing Fairfax County" or similar language and find some information. Here's an example of one program that sounds like it might apply for your situation:

NACo | Magnet Housing program helps employees live in county they serve (http://www.naco.org/Template.cfm?Section=housing&template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=21437 - broken link)

[ariadel]

Huh. Edited because I actually searched for things.

There are currently 3 rental properties available in fairfax for no more than 1100 a month that have 2+ bedrooms. This is just searching ________, so they might not be 100% reliable, but I just searched for curiosity.

There's an actual HOUSE for rent in Chantilly for under 1k. There's a townhouse in a decent but sterotypically low income area of Centreville for 1,050. There's a Reston smallish apartment for $1100 even.

I'd seriously suggest looking for people in who are having to rent their condos/townhouses out. Some friends of mine were renting a 2br/1.5 bath condo (with another 'den' room they also used for a bedroom) in Centreville for 1300/mo last year. I work in an office where the starting salary is below 30k, and we have a large number of people getting their first jobs here, so I know a lot about lower cost housing.

I myself was looking for 2br condos to rent last year, and found a good number in the 1400-1600 range, especially in the Centreville area (I eventually ended up not leaving my apartment), and I was looking EXCLUSIVELY at places with two full baths and over 1000sq ft. Note also that this was at the peak of housing prices, so there may be bigger bargains available now. While people may say "the area won't be very clean or safe" it really depends on where you are used to. I'd rate most of the less expensive neighborhoods as 'will want to lock your door at night/when you are not home, might not want to go for walks alone at midnight' kind of neighborhoods, but nothing really dangerous. The problem is that a LOT of Fairfax County is very very clean, bright, and sterile, so people sometimes have very high expectations.

Herndon and Centreville are the most affordable areas around here, so I'd suggest looking at them. Depending where in fairfax county your husband will actually be stationed, Manassas may be a far lower cost alternative, but it can also be a hell commute and some parts are substantially more dangerous than surrounding areas.

Honestly, I think the current real estate situation may actually help you. I know many people who are moving who are opting to rent out their house or condo rather than take crippling losses with a sale. I still think you might have to be willing to go to about 12-1300 to get something you would actually consider 'nice," but I think there's at least a decent chance you'll be able to scrounge something on that budget.

EDIT:
Something rather insane here that makes it hard for me to believe that it would be impossible to obtain housing for under 1k/mo.

There is currently a 2br/1.5 bath townhouse for sale in Herndon (which is in FFX county) for 140k. That would be a monthly mortgage payment with 0 down at 7% interest of less than 1k. I'm not using that as a recommendation to buy/claiming that someone could get a 0 down loan or anything of the sort, however they say that rental rates are influenced by mortgage rates, and that's a 'good sign'.

[nelly 555]

Most areas in Northern Virginia have some section 8 (subsidized housing) program. These apartments are sometimes in really nice areas. You might want to look up the info online. I did a little looking and found that Fairfax county does not currently have a waiting list to get in.

[chrspadg]

Originally Posted by ariadel

Huh. Edited because I actually searched for things.

There are currently 3 rental properties available in fairfax for no more than 1100 a month that have 2+ bedrooms. This is just searching ________, so they might not be 100% reliable, but I just searched for curiosity.

There's an actual HOUSE for rent in Chantilly for under 1k. There's a townhouse in a decent but sterotypically low income area of Centreville for 1,050. There's a Reston smallish apartment for $1100 even.

I'd seriously suggest looking for people in who are having to rent their condos/townhouses out. Some friends of mine were renting a 2br/1.5 bath condo (with another 'den' room they also used for a bedroom) in Centreville for 1300/mo last year. I work in an office where the starting salary is below 30k, and we have a large number of people getting their first jobs here, so I know a lot about lower cost housing.

I myself was looking for 2br condos to rent last year, and found a good number in the 1400-1600 range, especially in the Centreville area (I eventually ended up not leaving my apartment), and I was looking EXCLUSIVELY at places with two full baths and over 1000sq ft. Note also that this was at the peak of housing prices, so there may be bigger bargains available now. While people may say "the area won't be very clean or safe" it really depends on where you are used to. I'd rate most of the less expensive neighborhoods as 'will want to lock your door at night/when you are not home, might not want to go for walks alone at midnight' kind of neighborhoods, but nothing really dangerous. The problem is that a LOT of Fairfax County is very very clean, bright, and sterile, so people sometimes have very high expectations.

Herndon and Centreville are the most affordable areas around here, so I'd suggest looking at them. Depending where in fairfax county your husband will actually be stationed, Manassas may be a far lower cost alternative, but it can also be a hell commute and some parts are substantially more dangerous than surrounding areas.

Honestly, I think the current real estate situation may actually help you. I know many people who are moving who are opting to rent out their house or condo rather than take crippling losses with a sale. I still think you might have to be willing to go to about 12-1300 to get something you would actually consider 'nice," but I think there's at least a decent chance you'll be able to scrounge something on that budget.

EDIT:
Something rather insane here that makes it hard for me to believe that it would be impossible to obtain housing for under 1k/mo.

There is currently a 2br/1.5 bath townhouse for sale in Herndon (which is in FFX county) for 140k. That would be a monthly mortgage payment with 0 down at 7% interest of less than 1k. I'm not using that as a recommendation to buy/claiming that someone could get a 0 down loan or anything of the sort, however they say that rental rates are influenced by mortgage rates, and that's a 'good sign'.

Thank you very much for the info. We are applying for the Magnet program and hope to get in. This will allow is to live within Fairfax for a reasonable rent for 2 years. That will give us plenty of time to get to know the surrounding areas and school systems in where to move after the lease will be up. Otherwise we will have to bit the bullet and pay a bit more than we expected. It's just unfortunate that these days the real estate goes up which raises the rents yet it seems that your salary does not match the inflation.....funny... It's actually upsetting. This is why my husban and I feel we never are able to get ahead...you are always paying such high rent that it's impossible to save money for a home.