Best place to live if working at Stone Springs Hospital.

[flyingbird]

I'm living in Ashburn now. There're many new construction houses in 20148 with good schools. However, the houses/lots here are packed due to limited residential space. I do hear airplane noise from time to time, but not bad. Driving down to south is ok if you take 659, instead of 606

[PAsurgeon]

Thank you middlin for the extra info. I will be taking all of that into consideration when my wife and I are checking things out. No doubt I selfishly want the shortest trip to work possible. Occasionally I need to make 4 or 5 trips back and forth in one day (emergencies rarely com in at normal working hours). and nothing is more painful than driving in traffic for an hour, pulling into the driveway and being called right back.

flying bird, that is very helpful. I would like to have a little property between me and the neighbor if possible (my wife grew up on 7 acres). We are very aware that we wont find that in the neighborhoods we are looking at but we currently have 1/3 acre and are pretty happy. The same or a little more would be great for us.

[shamrock847]

Originally Posted by PAsurgeon

Shamrock847, All aspects of your post were incredibly helpful! I always wished there could be a "Star Trek" transporter to take me from home to the hospital . What you describe in regard to the mentioned Aldie and Chantilly communities sounds like the next best thing. I love that.

I wasn't aware that "good grades" was based on state exams only. I am not a fan of how schools work since no child left behind began. What ever happened to teaching kids to understand rather than how to pass a test? But I digress. I am very excited about your comments in regards to SAT scores and the proportion of kids who are college bound. My stress level has just decreased exponentially!!!

For completeness sake, do you have any comments on Ashburn, Leesburg, and Haymarket? I realize they are a little further (worse for me), but maybe you know of some aspects of these areas that might be better for my wife and kids. If you don't see any benefit to those areas, I know where I will be heading with the real estate agent later this month. Thank you again for this excellent information! I truly appreciate the time you put into creating this very informative response.

You are correct that the commute from Ashburn, Leesburg, or Haymarket will be longer. In general Ashburn will have the shortest of the three, although it depends on the specific neighborhood. Ashburn "feels" very similar to Stone Ridge and South Riding - mostly newer construction planned communities, lots of families, etc. Leesburg is the county seat of Loudoun county and has a small, cute downtown and a lot of recent planned communities on the outskirts. I'm not sure which high schools serve that area but I would expect them to be comparable to the ones in Stone Ridge and South Riding. Haymarket has nice, newer communities but feels a little more rural and has worse access to DC, shopping, restaurants etc. It is also in Prince William County so I believe the schools are slightly lower ranked but still very good quality.


As far as acreage, you should be able to find 1/3 acre lots in your price range. Some of the larger, newer, houses have those types of lots and will be in your price range. Many of the post-2000 houses have 1/4 acre or less lots, but some of the '90s vintage houses have lots around 1/3 acre.


Good luck!

[Middlin]

Battlefield HS in Haymarket ranks similarly to Loudoun County schools. It drives me nuts that people will lump an entire county and make a comment that like.