Once And For All Manassas/Woodbridge/Dumfries? (Dale City, Fairfax: 2011, house prices)

[mleasx3]

I wish we had the answer. My family and I are moving out to NoVa next week. We will definitely be buying in the above mentioned areas - affordability reasons. I have read opinions that are both good and bad about the areas. So I am wondering what are the best areas in these cities? I can not even find a good answer about the school systems. Every website has different ratings and rating systems. We would like to feel safe in our new area and not run into a "language barrier" at the stores. Any ideas? If you were moving here - where would you move? We are looking in the 300k range. Montclair? Dale City? Manassas Park? Thanks in advance for any response.

[tgbwc]

We live in the community of Ashland. Most of the addresses in the community are "Manassas", but part of the community is "Woodbridge". This is in the area of Forest Park HS and is in the area of Montclair. Montclair is also nice. As you head away from I95 towards Manassas, there are some very nice neighborhoods also.

[blossom4792]

We lived in Manassas (20111), I think it's called western Prince William County and it's sort of "below" Manassas Park. I would recommend the area, including Blooms Crossing and Signal Hill. We lived closer to Clifton on acreage, but I'm sure prices have come down enough to have some nice homes (townhomes?) at 300K. Anyhow, I know people were happy with the elementary and middle schools. I have heard mixed things about the high school. This area is close to grocery, Wal Mart, Panera, etc., etc. I don't really know the other areas (Woodbridge, Dumfries) that well, specifically. There are many areas of Manassas that I like, but I don't know about the schools so I'll just stick with the area I know extremely well.

[Nemesis15]

For the most part, all the places you listed are safe. $300k isn't going to get you a whole lot even with the drop of house prices. You're either going to get a "luxury" townhome or a crap/older single home. All of the schools in this region are at par or exceed average expectations across the country.

[barryhussein]

In 20110, there are townhomes that are assessed at 295,000, that you can buy for 89,000. They are probably nicer now that a lot of the illegals have moved to Fairfax.

[mleasx3]

thanks to all. we fly out tomorrow and start the house hunt this weekend.

[jaywallace]

Originally Posted by mleasx3

I wish we had the answer. My family and I are moving out to NoVa next week. We will definitely be buying in the above mentioned areas - affordability reasons. I have read opinions that are both good and bad about the areas. So I am wondering what are the best areas in these cities? I can not even find a good answer about the school systems. Every website has different ratings and rating systems. We would like to feel safe in our new area and not run into a "language barrier" at the stores. Any ideas? If you were moving here - where would you move? We are looking in the 300k range. Montclair? Dale City? Manassas Park? Thanks in advance for any response.

Montclair or Westridge on the east end, Bristow or Gainesville on the west end.

[American Arrogance]

Southbridge has townhomes from 130K and sfh from $250K. I live in Southbridge and will be moving into a SFH home within my community. Princeton Woods is good too. River oaks has brand new townhomes being built from $244K. Ryan homes building more newer home back in Southbridge.

Triangle has some new communities such as Cramer Ridge, StoneWall Manor, Lionsfield Valley to name a few.

Dumfries 22025 area has Forest Park, Presidential hill loop, Talon, Brittany. Montclair as well

[Mike From NIU]

Originally Posted by mleasx3

We would like to feel safe in our new area and not run into a "language barrier" at the stores.

You won't find a place that meets the second half of this criteria, especially if "language barrier" means brown-skinned people who were born in another country. NoVA is a very diverse area, and you will run into people in stores who speak all sorts of languages. If you have a problem with Spanish-, Urdu-, or Korean-speaking people owning or employed in stores, go somewhere else.

If you don't mean this, I apologize for my tone. But then in the future, avoid writing things like "language barrier", because that's usually code for "Spanish-speakers."

[American Arrogance]

Well PWC has passed legislation against Illegal immigration and since then I havent seen an overrun of illegals. I personally think it has cleaned up the county quite a bit. No more overfull walmarts.

But then thats me. There is a huge population of diverse cultures but mostly ppl I come across speak very well in english.