mclean area info (Arlington, Reston, Tuckahoe: house, neighborhoods, construction)

[jenniferd110]

I know there have been many questions regarding similar subjects, but I'm having a difficult time finding what I'm looking for. We will be relocating to NoVa later this year. My husband will be working in west McLean. We want to live somewhere within a 20 min. commute. We have about 1 mil. to spend on a house. We want a family-oriented neighborhood, decent sized yards, parks, pools, etc. A QUIET neighborhood (are there gated communities?), we don't need to be in the middle of everything (ie. proximity to tysons corner isn't important) but we still want to be within a few minutes of a grocery store and be able to have pizza delivered. On mapquest I see things like Spring Hill, Glendale, and Colvin Run, but I can't find more info about those places. Are these master-planned communities? Any info anyone can provide would be great. We're coming from AZ and are totally lost.

[claremarie]

Where, exactly in "west McLean" will your husband be working? An approximate address or intersection will be helpful, because a 20 minute commute might not take you very far during rush hour.
I live in McLean, in the Chesterbrook area. On a map, it's near the intersection of Kirby Road and Old Dominion Drive. You can easily find a house in your price range here. Try the Kent Gardens, El Nido, and Potomac Hills neighborhoods. Also Chesterbrook Woods and Franklin Park, though many of the larger homes in those areas will be significantly above $1 million. The schools are wonderful, there are five swim/tennis clubs within a 10 minute drive (Tuckahoe, Kent Gardens, McLean, Highlands, Chesterbrook -- though some have waiting lists), and if you're lucky you can find a house that backs to the woods and is very quiet. It takes me 15 minutes to get to Tyson's in non-rush hour traffic; it might be 25-30 during rush hour, depending upon the exact destination. There are three full-service grocery stores and one specialty store within five miles.

McLean Hamlet is another nice neighborhood, near the Spring Hill Rec Center and Spring Hill Elementary School, but parts of the neighborhood back to the Dulles Toll Road and can be very noisy. It's a bit further from the commercial parts of McLean, so a longer drive to the grocery store, etc.

There might be other options, but it would help to have a better idea of the workplace destination, because traffic in the Tyson's area is only going to get worse in the next few years as several construction projects get underway.

[NOVAmtneer82]

Claremarie provided excellent information and because I never owned a home in McLean I can't give specifics other than you will find plenty in your price range.

As for the commute, many places in Tysons use a McLean address it can be hard to tell WHERE exactly it is. This is the DC area, twenty minutes won't get you far at all during the rush hours. The summer before my last year in college (5 summers ago to be exact) I interned for a firm along Rt.7 just past Tysons Corner mall. The drive to the office was 5ish miles at most but I RARELY made it to the office in under half an hour.

From what I remember there are some great grocery stores in McLean, namely 2 Safeways, a nice Giant, and Balduccis. There are some nice restaurants along Chain Bridge Road through the McLean business district and you are right next to everything in Tysons and a very easy drive (during non rush hours) to Arlington and Georgetown. McLean is an awesome place, I definitely plan on heading back out there once I settle down and get tired of Arlington.

[novaman]

If you want to be in close proximity to grocery stores, pizza, etc you should look in the areas around the intersection of old Chain Bridge Road and Old Dominion. This is the center part of Mclean. Like the previous poster said, there are a bunch of grocery stores right nearby. All around here are homes of varying prices all within excellent school districts and neighborhood pools. If you choose to look around SpringHill you'll be 15-20 minutes from these grocery stores. If you want a true gated community you'll have to look at Evans Farm, or Maplewoood of Mclean.

[Rest-on]

Originally Posted by claremarie

Where, exactly in "west McLean" will your husband be working? An approximate address or intersection will be helpful, because a 20 minute commute might not take you very far during rush hour.
I live in McLean, in the Chesterbrook area. On a map, it's near the intersection of Kirby Road and Old Dominion Drive. You can easily find a house in your price range here. Try the Kent Gardens, El Nido, and Potomac Hills neighborhoods. Also Chesterbrook Woods and Franklin Park, though many of the larger homes in those areas will be significantly above $1 million.

I used to live in the Potomac Hills section of McLean, and it is a very nice, quiet neighborhood. Like Chesterbrook, it's only a couple of minutes from a grocery store and you can have pizza delivered in a snap. The schools are good too, as is true just about anywhere in McLean and Langley.

McLean proper is the 22101 zip code. The Tysons area is the 22102 zip code. Like Clairemarie said, 20 minutes in a car in some part of McLean and Tysons will get you maybe a few yards' worth of travel. The Tysons area is heavily congested and will be getting much worse now that the subway is being built.

If your husband's office is close to the Dulles Toll Road, you could have a number of options on where to live besides McLean.

Good luck with your search!

Chuck

[jenniferd110]

thank you all. he'll be working at liberty crossing - which is on lewinsville rd. just east of the 495 - at least that's what it says on mapquest. but, this is some great information.

[jenniferd110]

any opinions on vienna? it seems like you can get more for your money there.

[Rest-on]

Vienna is a great place to live, and there's the Vienna Metro subway station. Prices within walking distance of the Metro reflect that fact. There are some very nice homes elsewhere in Vienna that have quiet neighborhoods. One unfortunate issue with Vienna is that Route 123, the main artery connecting Vienna to Tysons is that it's very heavily congested during rush hours.

A personal favorite of mine, if you're considering some other nearby localities, is Reston. It's a planned community, with tons of amenities. For the price range that you're looking at, you can get a very nice home either near Route 7 (sometimes gets congested too) or the Dulles Toll Road (Rt. 267). In my opinion, of all the major highways in the DC area, the Toll Road is the least congested of them all.

Good luck!

Chuck

[smaug20000]

I do a reverse commute. I live in Falls Church and drive to Reston to go to work, and it seems to me that people driving from out west like Reston to Tysons during normal commuting hours have a pretty slow drive in to work. The tollroad going west to east in the morning looks backed up to me every day of the week, so I personally wouldn't like to have that drive into work every day if I could help it. My commute is much nicer than my co-workers who live in Leesburg, South Riding and Brambleton.

[Denton56]

Vienna is a great town with great schools and great stores like Whole Foods.