What's Purcellville like? (McLean, Leesburg, Fairfax: for sale, real estate, 2009)

[wickednoodle]

Hi everyone,

We're possibly moving to Northern Virginia and are looking into affordable (ha!) housing options. My husband will be commuting to McLean. Fredericksburg looked nice until the reality of traffic set in; what are other options? We're raising a young family so schools are important, but we'd also like a bit of land (just an acre or so) in a quiet community. We know the realities of commuting (we moved from SoCal three years ago), and are simply trying to reduce the pain as much as possible. Purcellville looks to have some nice homes, but what's the reality of living there? How badly does the toll road get backed up?

Thanks!!

[Margery]

What is your price range? If money is no object, I have plenty of suggestions. Check out HomesDatabase to get an idea of what is available, Purcellville is a great town, but it would be a long commute.

[wickednoodle]

Our price range is up to 500,000. We've checked out a lot of the homes on the internet, which is why we're curious about Purcellville (and possible Leesburg).

[NOVAmtneer82]

I can't imagine being able to make it from Purcellville to McLean in under 90 minutes during peak commute periods. Leesburg is still a rather long haul to McLean but will be more tolerable than Purcellville and the rest of western Loudoun County.

The toll road inbound in the mornings tends to be rather slow although it is better than Rt. 7. There is usually a very long back-up from the Route 7 Tysons exit through the toll booth and on to the Beltway. Before that one encounters a series of mini backups usually around the exit/on ramps.

[Denton56]

Purcellville is a very nice, small town, with a couple of grocery stores and a few restaurants. But it is a LONG way from McLean, at least an hour, without traffic. I agree that it would be 90 minutes during rush hour.

It all depends on what's important to you. More time with family? Or a larger house with more land? Your husband is likely to spend 3 hours commuting for the trade off the larger home and land. There is no way you can get a home on an acre of land in Fairfax county for under $500,000.

Sorry.

[Denton56]

Another good source for houses, with good maps, Trulia - Real Estate, Homes For Sale, Sold Properties, Real Estate Maps

[barryhussein]

Purcellville is a mixture of the hunt country and commuter hell. It's quite nice; but it all depends on where (and when, and if) you must go to work. They could have had a horse racing track and Redskin's Stadium in Loudon. Instead they built 100,000 townhomes.

[Novamom06]

Where are there 100,000 townhomes in Purcellville?

[Novamom06]

We almost moved to Purcellville, it is very nice and the schools are excellent. however, they are having some trouble with getting approval from the town to build a new high school on the designated land and that is holding up the process and frustrating residents. If you have very young kids I'm sure the issue will be ironed out by the time they are of high school age.

We looked at Purcellville but decided against it only because due to zoning many of the properties had three acres which in the end was more than we really wanted. But we did want some space. The other thing is that for shopping you really need to drive to Leesburg, which can take up to 20 min.

We found what we were looking for, about an acre, in a neighborhood in Aldie and it has been a great move for us becuase we are not very far from the toll road, and much closer in that we would have been in Purcellville. Lots of shopping is coming this way in 2009, too much in my opinion, and while it is still very quiet out here we are definately prepared for the sprawl to work its way out here over the years.

Good luck with the move.

[Margery]

Originally Posted by barryhussein

Purcellville is a mixture of the hunt country and commuter hell. It's quite nice; but it all depends on where (and when, and if) you must go to work. They could have had a horse racing track and Redskin's Stadium in Loudon. Instead they built 100,000 townhomes.

I also would be interested in where you got your figure of 100,000 townhomes. I did a tax search of townhomes, both fee simple and condominium, and got the number 36,585.