Help? Job in Falls Church (Burke, Annandale: apartments, rentals, condo)

[Elenarie]

My DH has a job in Falls Church, so we will be moving to the area.

We'd like to have no more than an hour commute, but need to keep rent to about $2000. We have kids.

Where should we look?

Alternately, where are the closest nice areas we could live for 2K a month?

[sxybeast]

Exactly where in falls church? I used to commute from manassas to Falls church every day. I believe in leesburg pike there are a couple of apartments next to Skyline building. I used to see a lot of kids playing.

[Elenarie]

Originally Posted by sxybeast

Exactly where in falls church? I used to commute from manassas to Falls church every day. I believe in leesburg pike there are a couple of apartments next to Skyline building. I used to see a lot of kids playing.

No idea yet. I'll know more next week.

I've been browsing these forums, and it looks like Manassas is not a desirable place to live? What did you think? How bad was that commute?

[knopfler]

Originally Posted by Elenarie

No idea yet. I'll know more next week.

I've been browsing these forums, and it looks like Manassas is not a desirable place to live? What did you think? How bad was that commute?

Manassas can be a very desirable place to live, but the commute to Falls Church is a different story. If I already lived in Manassas and got a sweet job in Falls Church I'd take public transport and live with it, but there's no reason you have to invite that upon yourselves. It'd be well over an hour to drive to Falls Church from Manassas every day as a single passenger auto.

Try looking in Annandale zip 22003 in the neighborhoods which feed to Woodson HS, not Annandale HS. Other alternatives include Falls Church (zips 22042, 22041 and parts of 22043 in Fairfax County, Falls Church City 22046 is likely out of your price range) and Fairfax (zips 22031, 22030, 22032, 22033) both in Fairfax City and in Fairfax County.

(how old are your kids? and do you specifically want a rental single family home, townhome, apartment/condo, or does it not matter?)

Welcome, in advance, to Northern Virginia!

[Elenarie]

Originally Posted by knopfler

(how old are your kids? and do you specifically want a rental single family home, townhome, apartment/condo, or does it not matter?)

Welcome, in advance, to Northern Virginia!

Thank you! Those zip codes will be very helpful.

Ideally we'd like a single family home, but will take a townhome. Would rather not live in an apartment/condo. We have four children, ranging in age from 6-12. We homeschool, so we likely won't be sending the kids to the area schools ... but it's always desirable to be in a good school system, anyway.

Since we do homeschool, the kids are home far more often, obviously. We can live in a smaller space if we have to, but a bigger townhome or house with a yard would be better.

My husband is prepared for an hour commute, but we'd *really* like it to not go over that, if possible. So it's a balancing act - as with everyone else in the area, it seems!

[DCguy03]

Why not just live in Falls Church? That will keep your commuting costs down, and your husband will get to spend more time with the family (& less time in traffic!).

You won't be able to rent a single-family house for $2,000 in FC (most likely), but you can find a decent 3 br apartment / townhouse for around that price.

[Elenarie]

Originally Posted by DCguy03

Why not just live in Falls Church? That will keep your commuting costs down, and your husband will get to spend more time with the family (& less time in traffic!).

You won't be able to rent a single-family house for $2,000 in FC (most likely), but you can find a decent 3 br apartment / townhouse for around that price.

I've been looking around on realty sites, and haven't been finding anything in that range that isn't just tiny. With four kids ... a three bedroom can work, if it's a pretty sizeable three-bedroom. I was getting the impression from the sites I was looking at that this was nearly out of the question. I'd love to just live in Falls Church, and keep down the commute. Can we do it? In a decent-sized place, and no more than $2000?

[knopfler]

Originally Posted by Elenarie

I've been looking around on realty sites, and haven't been finding anything in that range that isn't just tiny. With four kids ... a three bedroom can work, if it's a pretty sizeable three-bedroom. I was getting the impression from the sites I was looking at that this was nearly out of the question. I'd love to just live in Falls Church, and keep down the commute. Can we do it? In a decent-sized place, and no more than $2000?

Ahh...there's a difference between "have kids" and "have FOUR kids."

Try Burke (zip 22015) and Annandale (zip 22003) primarily, and Springfield (zips 22152, 22151, 22153, 22150) as an option as well. Those are all pretty commuter friendly to Falls Church.

[kruella]

Are you looking for a house to rent or an apt? You can find a decent house to rent for under $2500/$2400 in the area of Falls Church. You may have to go out pretty far to get $2000.

[saganista]

A somewhat out of the way site that sometimes has rentals you don't find elsewhere is MilitaryByOwner.com. You don't have to be military to use the site, and sometimes you can discover a gem in there. You'd need to select a military base from the list. Fort Myer will work fine...