Herndon, Ashburn, Leesburg - Where should I live? - work in Tysons (Reston: apartments, townhouses)

[tysons2008]

I work in Tysons Corner and looking to move with my wife and two preschool aged children to somewhere in the Dulles Corridor region. We have narrowed our search to Herndon, Ashburn, and Leesburg. Would love to get any feedback to help with our decision.

[VRE332]

Leesburg/Ashburn will cost you more for transportation because of the Dulles Toll Road and Dulles Greenway tolls.

use the following links to assist the cost of your commute

Virginia State Route 267 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dulles Greenway

Virginia Toll Facilities

[vlh71]

I have lived in both Herndon and now out towards the Ashburn area. The Toll Rd. is convenient to Herndon, Leesburg, & Ashburn. Of course, the further out you are the more you will pay in tolls. However, with that said, you can get SO much more for the money in the Leesburg and Ashburn areas. These areas also have great amenities, lots of great neighborhood choices and terrific schools (which is very important with small children). Herndon is a bit more "sketchy" when it comes to good areas. Your choices will be a bit more limited - but the trade off is that you will be a little closer in.

[JEB77]

Originally Posted by vlh71

I have lived in both Herndon and now out towards the Ashburn area. The Toll Rd. is convenient to Herndon, Leesburg, & Ashburn. Of course, the further out you are the more you will pay in tolls. However, with that said, you can get SO much more for the money in the Leesburg and Ashburn areas. These areas also have great amenities, lots of great neighborhood choices and terrific schools (which is very important with small children). Herndon is a bit more "sketchy" when it comes to good areas. Your choices will be a bit more limited - but the trade off is that you will be a little closer in.

Leesburg to Tysons seems like a long commute - the areas around Leesburg and further out such as Purcellville seem like wonderful places to retire, but I'd definitely do a few trial-run commutes back and forth between Leesburg and Tysons before deciding on Leesburg.

Ashburn is as described by the prior poster - still very new, with good amenities and schools and nice neighborhoods. In my mind, it really comes down to whether you are prepared to wholeheartedly embrace a somewhat generic version of suburbia that could just as readily be found outside Raleigh or Atlanta, and doesn't immediately feel like part of the DC area, because it does offer many things that matter to young families: good schools and amenities, reasonably priced housing and a safe environment to raise one's kids. If so, Ashburn's a good choice. If not, you'll get bored quickly.

Herndon is obviously the closest to Tysons. The prior poster refers to parts of the town as "sketchy" - which I assume is a reference to the fact that there are some sections where lower-income apartments and townhouses are concentrated and/or day laborers tend to congregate. At the same time, there are parts of Herndon that are traditionally suburban. Floris Elementary and Carson Middle in Herndon are considered among the county's best elementary and middle schools. In addition, there are quite a few other schools in the Herndon area that very much mirror the overall demographics of Fairfax County - an affluent county where the test scores far exceed national norms. Examples include Aldrin, Dranesville and Forest Edge elementaries in Reston/Herndon, and both Herndon Middle and High Schools. Herndon High may get a bad rap because its test scores aren't as high as at, say, neighboring Oakton, but to put things in perspective, Herndon's SAT scores last year were higher than those at any of Loudoun County's 10 high schools. I would add that, if you are considering Herndon and have young kids, you need to take into account the fact that a new elementary school has just been built in the Coppermine area, which is changing the elementary school boundaries. Make sure you know what the new boundaries (approved by the School Board last week) will be, and not just what the current boundaries are.

In any event, good luck with your choice.

[Novamom06]

I'd check out the Potomac Falls section of Sterling, zip 20165. It will be your fastest commute to tysons and a great area for young families. Great schools and housing values as well.

[5stones]

^^

I was going to suggest that area as well. Not a bad commute into Tysons.

We did the Leesburg to Tysons commute for 2 years (hubby used rt7 not greenway..too much $$$) and for 2 years it was fine, but if we going to stay longer I think the commute would have gotten really draining. Time in isn't that bad (if you go beofre 6:45am) then it's about 45minutes. The return trip was always worse an hour+, so he just usually stayed until after 6:30 and then got home in just under an hour.

[VEIK]

Herndon has two parts to it.
Town of Herndon (area around old town) and Herndon, Fairfax County.
Having said that - commute via Rt7 or via Toll Road to Tysons is not bad.

[dinad]

I live in Potomac Falls and I love it here. Commute on Route 7 can be bad. The earlier you go to work the better. (Before 7 am)! Rt 7 is wider from rt 28 west...

The further west you go, the more house your money will get you. Of all the areas mentioned above, for the same house, you are likely to pay more in Herndon and Potomac Falls, then Ashburn, then Leesburg....

It is a good time to be a buyer, but moving is always hard. So good luck to you.

[A-BIG-NOTHING]

Originally Posted by dinad

I live in Potomac Falls and I love it here. Commute on Route 7 can be bad. The earlier you go to work the better. (Before 7 am)! Rt 7 is wider from rt 28 west...

The further west you go, the more house your money will get you. Of all the areas mentioned above, for the same house, you are likely to pay more in Herndon and Potomac Falls, then Ashburn, then Leesburg....

It is a good time to be a buyer, but moving is always hard. So good luck to you.

ditto.
Also check out Sterling, VA.

[GoHokiesGo]

We just moved to Ashburn and my fiancee works in Tysons. We live right near waxpool, so she takes the toll road from rt28 to avoid the Greenway toll price. It takes her roughly 45 minutes to get to Tysons, leaving around 7:20 each morning. She originally was taking Rt 7 and the times varied greatly. If she left at 7am, it would be about a 50 minutes commute. But the later it got, the longer it took, with 60-90 minutes being her average if she left around 7:30am. The toll road is consistently 45 minutes for her though. So keep your commute in mind when moving further out.

We like Ashburn a lot so far though. We got a lot of house (townhouse) for our money compared to Sterling and Herndon. There are a lot of nice conveniences with shopping centers all over. It is a rather "cookie-cutter" suburbia, but we seem to like it so far. Still mostly new neighborhoods, and it's still building. Loudoun seems to be adding a few large commercial/residential complexes as well, like Loudoun One, which will bring a lot to the area if it's ever truly finished.