Fredericksburg (Alexandria, Burke, Woodbridge: rental homes, townhome, transfer to)

[MrBoz]

Help. I'm moving to NOVA to work in DC. I am looking for family friendly, good schools, and value for my rental dollar. While just about anything looks gruesome in terms of commute, my choices are down to Burke/W.Springfield, Alexandria, and somewhere along the Woodbridge-Fredericksburg corridor. I am leaning towards F-burg and riding VRE. Might I get some comments on the community, the high schools, and the commute? Looking at the VRE schedule, it looks like leaving at 6:10 gets me to L'enfant at about 7:30. Are there slug lines that cut the ride down?

[onevthoki]

Mr. Boz - If you go up to the "Search" tab above, and put in either my name or Eric D and then select "Show Threads", you will see a lot of information on the Spotsylvania and Fredericksburg areas. Eric grew up in the area, and I was there from 2003-2008. Honestly though, the commute north for my husband is the whole reason we left. Make sure you realize what you are getting into if you choose to be that far south. And know that the kids and I enjoyed our life there; it was the commuter who didn't. Anyway, after you browse those posts, let us know if you have any questions and we can elaborate further for you.

I will reitterate that VRE is definitely the way to go. My husband took it for two years, drove for 1 year, and then had the reverse commute for one year when he worked night shift.

Good luck with the move and welcome to Virginia!

[EricD]

Hey, you talked about me!

I've been basically missing from this forum for a while now, since no-one seems to post about Fredericksburg anymore.

One place to look at (And they have a ton of rantal homes) is the Idlewild community in Fredericksburg city. They actually have a bus that will pick you up from one of two stops, and take you right to the VRE in the morning, and drop you off in the evening. The community is really nice too, and convenient to everything...

But I'm not sure what you budget is... but at least check them out.

I've seen some nice rental homes in Stafford for like $1700 for a 4 bedroom colonial.

Lets see... doing a quick internet search, a nice 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath 2 car garage endunit townhome in idlewild is $1650 per month. A 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath 2 car garage live/work unit is $1850 per month (And you can operate a store out of the ground level)

$1295 will get you a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath, 1 car garage townhome in Salem Fields, in Spotsylvania... it's maybe a 20 minute drive into the train station in Fredericksburg though.

I didn't cath any single family homes... but I only did a quick internet search... I'm sure you could get some better info looking a little deeper.

[onevthoki]

Eric - VRE is also running feeder lines from the Rt. 3/Gordon Road and Ukrops commuter lots to the train station. Last article I saw on the FLS website said that the number of riders had increased... I'm sure the cost of gas had something to do with that.

[MrBoz]

Thanks for feedback - the thoughts running through my head are that F-Burg would be a safe and affordable place to land while I become familiar with the area. I'm coming from Montana and am a small town community type guy. As suggested by Eric D, if my wife and kids can feel comfortable then I will endure for awhile. If it becomes unbearable, I can scope out Alexandria and become more familiar with the neighborhoods - throwing the dart at the map from 2000 miles away though, seems that my chances are better by starting in F-Burg. I'm looking to go up to about $1800 per month in rent - less is better. Is the slug line from F-burg to say - Pentagon even worth considering?

[MrBoz]

oops, as suggested by Onevthoki

[onevthoki]

Mr. Boz -

Fredericksburg/Spotsylvania is great. I was also raised in a small-town (here in VA), and like I mentioned, loved my life in Spotsy. You can slug to the Pentagon, but here is the problem with that... if you slug, yes, you can use the HOV lanes, but if there is a problem (accident, increased summer volume...) on 95, you will still sit in traffic no matter how many people are in your car! If you are going to be working at the Pentagon (you mentioned that in your earlier post), I would definitely take the VRE, because then you should be able to transfer to the Metro, which has a stop right under the Pentagon.

If you have any questions on specific developments I'll tell you what I know. Keep the questions coming!

[EricD]

$1800 should get you a nice place.

And doing the slug thing from Fredericksburg can be a bit unpredictable. Van-pools are fairly big though... you could probably find a van-pool that goes right to the Pentagon. They meet in the commuter lots. Again, you might still run into problems with traffic... but that goes with any travel up the highway. The major problem with driving is the total lack of alternate ways to cross the rappahanock. There's just I-95, or 3 smaller bridges which go into downtown Fredericksburg... but to get to any of the three smaller bridges, you have to go through the intersection of Rt. 17 and Rt. 1 in southern Stafford county (Falmouth)... and that intersection is just a HUGE mess, especially if the highway is backed up. So if there's backup heading home, you're basically stuck on the highway.

They really need to build a new bridge to the west of the I-95 bridge... but they can't come up with the funding, or a good location to do it.

Anyways, like Onevthoki said... ask more questions! I'm sure other people have similar questions to ask.

[MrBoz]

Awesome feedback. Thank you, thank you. Fred sounds like a great town - the commute and traffic worries me some so I'm trying to investigate the communities along the 95 corridor. If you have comments and/or suggestions I would definately appreciate. Certainly I understand that the density typically increases as we get nearer the beltway. Security for my high school kids (no gangs) is most important.

[roanoker 4]

I drive the 3 hours to Fred often on business to catch the VRE train to DC.
Most of the time there is limited parking at Fred. I saw a sign recently that said if you were a Fred. resident you had priority parking spaces. What is that all about? If I had a job in downtown DC I would try to live much closer to the City(even though the costs there are outrageous!). I know people who live even further out in Winchester who commute to DC. I don't know how they do it by car!! It would drive me crazy!!