Fairfax County vs Prince Williams County (Arlington, Centreville: short sales, real estate, 2010)

[jsbower]

I was hoping some of you could provide some insite related to these two counties. My husband is looking at a position in Fairfax County (Chantilly area) which may within 2 years move to Prince Williams County.
We love the area, and would relocate however, I was hoping to get some insites to the different areas.
I have been reading the blogs and was hoping to be able to narrow things down.
We drove around and looks at the different neighborhoods in Ashburn (like it but it may be a bit far out). We looked at South Riding (seemed like another neighborhood). We also thought we may look in Centerville - in efforts to stay within Fairfax County but possibly be a bit more affordable.

What is your opinions on Prince Williams County - we drove through some beautiful neighborhoods throughout and in a town called Bristow.

Anyway any opinions would be appreciated. We have a 4 years old so we are concerned with school districts and I am not a stay at home mom. I work in the legal field.
Thanks.

[American Arrogance]

I live in Prince William county and have been living here since 2001. Dumfries to be exact. Prince William county is beautiful. My husband works in Chantilly and I work in Tysons Corner. We commute everyday. I woudl suggest Manassas area. There is Manassas City, Manassas Park and then Manassas. I think Manassas Park is the one you should stay away from, but I'll ask around cuz I heard some distrubing things about that. I live close to Manassas off 234 and its nice. Bristow, Gainesville and haymarket are all nice and are sprouting new communities and getting alot of new reail and business there.

Any community off of the 234 area is nice, Lake Ridge, and Woodbridge off the Sprigss rd, hoadley rd and Ridgfield Blvd area nice as well. If you look over on the other side of 95 whihc has dumfries, and woodbridge, I would suggest Southbridge, Princeton Woods, Eagles Pointe, Port Potomac, Powells Landing, Potomac club....well pretty much any community near cardinal dr, rt 1 from Northern Virginia community college on south to Dumfries is great. We are experiencing alot of new developments in real estate, schools and shopping.

As for the schools, Prince William schools are great not as great as Fairfax county but we are still great. We have alot of christian private schools, montessori and new and improved elementary schools.

You can find great affordable homes now. many new communities used to be $700K+ but since the real estate bubble popped and many going into foreclosures and short sales you can get alot of home that are less than 2 years old or new home construction for $200K-400K.

[VRE332]

PWC has the VRE and Omnibus. Loudoun has 1 bus to DC.

[jaywallace]

Originally Posted by American Arrogance

I live in Prince William county and have been living here since 2001. Dumfries to be exact. Prince William county is beautiful. My husband works in Chantilly and I work in Tysons Corner. We commute everyday. I woudl suggest Manassas area. There is Manassas City, Manassas Park and then Manassas. I think Manassas Park is the one you should stay away from, but I'll ask around cuz I heard some distrubing things about that. I live close to Manassas off 234 and its nice. Bristow, Gainesville and haymarket are all nice and are sprouting new communities and getting alot of new reail and business there.

Any community off of the 234 area is nice, Lake Ridge, and Woodbridge off the Sprigss rd, hoadley rd and Ridgfield Blvd area nice as well. If you look over on the other side of 95 whihc has dumfries, and woodbridge, I would suggest Southbridge, Princeton Woods, Eagles Pointe, Port Potomac, Powells Landing, Potomac club....well pretty much any community near cardinal dr, rt 1 from Northern Virginia community college on south to Dumfries is great. We are experiencing alot of new developments in real estate, schools and shopping.

As for the schools, Prince William schools are great not as great as Fairfax county but we are still great. We have alot of christian private schools, montessori and new and improved elementary schools.

You can find great affordable homes now. many new communities used to be $700K+ but since the real estate bubble popped and many going into foreclosures and short sales you can get alot of home that are less than 2 years old or new home construction for $200K-400K.

I would stay away from anything off of Rt.1 if you are looking for good schools. Stick with Gainesville or Nokesville if you pick PWC, otherwise go to Fairfax.

[quedeque]

If schools are important I would stick with Fairfax County. House prices in PW are lower so that may be a consideration, but I think overall that Fairfax schools are better and the people are more tolerant.

I grew up in Fairfax, lived in Prince William, and now live in Arlington. I think Fairfax has great resources (parks, recreation centers, etc.) and has well-developed community services. PW is still developing (and you can tell, with all of the new communities that spring up everywhere).

[jsbower]

THank you all for your comments. Does anyone have any opinions of Louden County as well?

[stockdale.35]

Prince William is known as P-Willy. That should give you some idea right away.

P-Willy is a lower cost of living area. At the Wawa at Leesylvania there are local fisherman who sell crabs out of a pattywagon(they are very good mind you). You will not find this in Fairfax county. Two very different counties.

Fairfax cnty. you will find alot more higher end restaurants, example: Tims Rivershore restaurant in PW, shirts are optional(though this is one of my top 5 restaurants). The malls in PW are far inferior to Pentagon City, Fair Oaks, Tysons Corner I & II. ect.

Correct me if I am wrong but there are still trailer parks in PW. There are none in FFX cnty.

[knopfler]

Regarding Prince William County - for your husband's commute, looking in Bristow, Gainesville, and the northern part of Manassas (zip code 20109) would all be fine. The schools are pretty decent to excellent across the board, certainly equivalent or better to those in Centreville. Once you narrow things down a little more I'm sure folks can give advice on particular school districts - I know Brentsville and Battlefield HS districts are considered primo, and Stonewall Jackson rates pretty well also, particularly for their IB program. Obviously with a 4 year old HS isn't on your minds, but good high schools typically have good elementary and middle feeder schools.

Some of this may depend on your commute as well - you didn't mention where you'll have to commute to?

[car54]

Originally Posted by stockdale.35

Correct me if I am wrong but there are still trailer parks in PW. There are none in FFX cnty.

There are still a few trailer parks in Fairfax County (and one in Fairfax City)....so I'm sure Prince William must still have them.

[NOVA.123]

I was born and raised in Fairfax. I now live in Bristow, VA in PW County. My husband and I have been here just about 5 years. First, the cost of homes is far cheaper here then in Fairfax thus one of the reasons we choose here. I've owned in the past in Fairfax and felt like a slave to a mortgage and that is not my style of living (but I was also single then).

We do not have children as we married later in life, but if I did have kids - I would honestly choose living in Fairfax County over PW UNLESS we lived where we do now. Don't take me wrong, there are some good schools in PW but the newer neighborhoods, etc. in this area has brought about some really good schools. Yes, the roads aren't the greatest right now but they are working on them and things have improved traffic wise whether people think so or not. The next phase down on 29 is going to take about 4 years and that is going to be pretty bad but the quality of stores, etc. that they have brought into this area is superior compared to Manassas, etc. Although I will throw in a HUGE plug for my favorite store in Manassas which is FLOWER GALLERY! Really, really nice store.

As far as a mall in PW - what a joke. Manassas Mall is so sad. I shop most of the time at Fair Oaks if I need to go to a Mall or the Leesburg Outlet Mall which is quite nice. I'm not a fan of Potomac Mills.