Prince William County vs. Loudon County (Dale City, Woodbridge: low income, apartments, rentals)

[lavendersunrise]

What are the Pros and Cons of these counties?

I'm a teacher and am looking to relocate, these counties are two of my options, any information would be greatly appreciated.

*What are average apartment costs in SAFE neighborhoods?*

[Alanboy395]

PW pros: cheap for DC area, safe cons: commute to DC will be bad unless you take omnilink

Loudon pros: very safe, high reputation cons: worse commute than prince william, very expensive

[LynnS]

As a teacher, you'd probably appreciate Loudoun County more than PW County. PW County has a high Latino population and this has had some effects on the public school systems and on housing. PW County is also more populated, roughly 350,000 in PW County and 250,000 in Loudoun.

Both Counties are expensive areas to live in. Loudoun County has more modern facilities, more open areas, more rural areas. Loudoun County also has 1 large recreational facility just finishing up (called Claude Moore) in Sterling (Loudoun Co) with an indoor pool, an indoor jogging/walking track, exercise room w/ equipment. Another of these facilities (an exact dup) is now in the works over at South Riding in Loudoun County.

For population and census numbers, look here for each County:
http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/51/51107.html

Go here for Virginia SOLs and public education system

http://www.pen.k12.va.us/VDOE/src/index.shtml

To check actual schools and see their 'report card', go to:

https://p1pe.doe.virginia.gov/reportcard

You can get detailed stats for each county by checking the counties that interest you.

Hope this helps you.

[lavendersunrise]

Thank you both very much.

Any clue what an average, safe 1 bed apt. would go for?

[dullnboring]

It depends where you go within each county, but I'd say Loudoun is averaging around $1100 for a nice one-bedroom, whereas Prince William is maybe around $950.

[DavidS827]

Just some more info to muddy the waters, but it also depends on what part of either county you are talking about. The difference between the far eastern part of Loudoun and the war western part is night and day. As too is the difference between southern Prince William and Northern Prince William.

[5stones]

since I live in Loudoun I can comment about it not PW.

For REC centers....
IN Leesburg Loudoun has a Huge rec facilility called IDA LEE. OUtdoor lighted tennis courts, (4 new ones commming with a bubble for winter use). Indoor pool, weight room, racquet ball, basetball etc... Adding a new outdoor pool & splash center, lazy river, slides etc...(2008?)
you can do yearly memberships..winter only, 6mothe or go monthly or by the visit.

Ashburn has The ashburn Sports complex. it's expensive and if you don't live in Ashburn village there is a wait for membership.

Landsown Resort...spa and all hte extras! high end.

as the previous poster mentioned Sterling is getting the new indoor rec center.

If you are single... I'd look at renting in Cascades of Sterling. it's adjacent to a nice shopping area with resturants bars etc... more action and more singles.

Near Dullas Town center (the mall) they are building new condo/TH that look nice and it's a good location for getting around the county...(off 28 and 7)

Asburn is nice and pretty cental in in northeastrn Loudoun. but it's also suburbia haven...good schools and load of families. but they also have lots of nice amienties. (see sports complex)

I live in Leesburg in westren Loudoun. It has a great old historic downtown. some neat old houses and possible some very cool rental properties. It's close to all the westren Loudoun schools and the biggest town in the area. Good facilites and more shopping and resturants.
Again it's pretty suburbian..lots of families.
there are a few rental complexes but I would steer clear of most. they are located in the not so nice area of Leesburg...(lol, they aren't that bad mostly low income) Probably the best rentals would be in TH or a downtown apt. in the historic distict.


I have found Loudoun County schools to be excellent and with a high teacher rentention rate. Before long I see it surpassing Fairfax Co. We have a few teachers that left Fairfax because of the high cost of living etc...

Hope that helps with Loudoun Co. hopefully someone who lives in PW county can give you a brief rundown...

[lavendersunrise]

Thank you all. I don't know what is considered "low income" in these counties, but I know teachers aren't making a killing (although they are paid better than most areas)...so I think my max rent would be 900..which seems to put me in the "worse" areas. Gulp.

[ashbrn4]

Loudoun also pays better. The median household income for Loudoun is close to 100K. For 900 rent, you are really not going to find much. Most 1 bedroom apts in this whole area go for at least 1000. And the nicer ones are more like $1300 and up. I'd suggest doing a rental search of the areas you're interested in. Avoid Sterling cheaper areas. Also, parts of Dale City and Woodbridge aren't the greatest area due to gang problems in some of the schools.

[dullnboring]

Another option at $900/month would be renting out a basement in someone's townhome (or maybe a single-family home) as they are generally cheaper than apartments and many come with their own entranceways as well and have their own bathrooms and are just as large as a one-bedroom apartment. The biggest drawback is that generally there is no kitchen in the basement.