Relocating from Miami to Reston, VA

[brooklynborndad]

Originally Posted by WVJeep556

Anywhere in Reston will have decent schools except the South Lakes area. South Lakes is the "worst" area of Reston. You will not be able to afford to buy anything in Reston or Herndon on $140k salary. Most newer townhomes are starting at $500,000+ in both that area of Fairfax and even 30 mins away in Loudoun county. Wife and I make $180k+ combined and we had to move to West Virginia to afford a SFH in a decent school district.

Lots of older TH's in Reston for under 500k.


This one is only 20 years old and lists for 465k.

https://www.redfin.com/city/25657/VA...1362:-77.40804

[Lusitan]

Originally Posted by CaptainAaamerica

Sites like Redfin use GreatSchools to show the rating of a school. South Lakes High is somehow rated 4 out of 10 (very low). Its clearly a mistake based on the more objective links that you provided.

GreatSchools has become a joke. I laughed out loud last year when I read that they changed their algorithm to LOWER a school's rating if it didn't have "enough" non-White students and students of "diverse" economic status (read: free/reduced lunches). Yes, I said LOWERED the rating.





Edited to add: Forgot the OP's question LOL! I'd suggest taking a look at the Mantua neighborhood in Fairfax County - lots of quiet, tree-lined streets, and lots of families with young children.

[gibbsnm]

Originally Posted by Lusitan

GreatSchools has become a joke. I laughed out loud last year when I read that they changed their algorithm to LOWER a school's rating if it didn't have "enough" non-White students and students of "diverse" economic status (read: free/reduced lunches). Yes, I said LOWERED the rating.

Do you have this verbiage on standby to cut and paste at the ready? You posted pretty much this exact same comment, including your reiteration and capitalization of LOWERED, on a different moving thread not long ago. We get it, you don't think diversification of race and socioeconomic status is important. At least not important enough to factor into a school's rating. As strange as this may seem to you, some parents actually value the concept their kids being exposed to people who aren't essentially clones of themselves. Being exposed to people who are different from themselves often helps to form more well-rounded human beings who aren't blindsided by culture shock when they go out into the real world. Don't worry, the "non-white" and "poor" doesn't rub off on your kid.

[jobber123rd]

Originally Posted by EmiSky

Who says Reston Southlakes area is the worst? -You?!

U.S. News Best High Schools 2019: Reston School Makes List

South Lakes High was ranked the 39th best high school in Virginia (out of hundreds of schools) and No. 1,340 nationwide with an overall score of 92.23 out of 100.

https://patch.com/virginia/reston/u-...ool-makes-list

That is below average for Fairfax County (15 high schools in FCPS ranked higher), and lower than the best schools in Loudoun, Prince William, and some other places across the state.

39th out of 300+ sounds very nice, until you consider that #1-4 and 8 of the top 9 are in the same system.

[personone]

Originally Posted by WVJeep556

Anywhere in Reston will have decent schools except the South Lakes area. South Lakes is the "worst" area of Reston. You will not be able to afford to buy anything in Reston or Herndon on $140k salary. Most newer townhomes are starting at $500,000+ in both that area of Fairfax and even 30 mins away in Loudoun county. Wife and I make $180k+ combined and we had to move to West Virginia to afford a SFH in a decent school district.

"Anything" or do you mean townhomes/SFHs? I just did a search on Redfin and there are plenty of condos around $300K (or lower) in Reston, which is definitely affordable on a $140K salary (assuming not much other debt).

[CaptainAaamerica]

How is an income of 140k low for Reston or any other parts of NoVa? Median household income in Fairfax County currently sits at around $118,279. Meaning the OP will be alone making what a household income in Fairfax County makes, which is not an easy task because Fairfax is always top ten in the country in this regard.

It’s not just Reston. There are other parts of Nova that’s I think OP can comfortably afford. Maybe we have different value systems whereby you don’t think more than a percentage of your income should go to mortgage payments.

[novaman]

Originally Posted by Lusitan

GreatSchools has become a joke. I laughed out loud last year when I read that they changed their algorithm to LOWER a school's rating if it didn't have "enough" non-White students and students of "diverse" economic status (read: free/reduced lunches). Yes, I said LOWERED the rating.





Edited to add: Forgot the OP's question LOL! I'd suggest taking a look at the Mantua neighborhood in Fairfax County - lots of quiet, tree-lined streets, and lots of families with young children.

I agree that GreatSchool's ranking system has become a joke, but the lowered ranking for not having enough non white students is inaccurate. Schools that have a higher ESOL population, say in the 5-10% range are getting their rankings lowered versus schools with a homogenous population and negligible ESOL population. Just look at Langley, which has no ESOL students versus McLean which has a 9% ESOL population. Both are fairly comparable in testing scores but Langley gets a 9/10 while McLean a 7/10