What do homes cost in Chantilly, VA? (Reston, Centreville: for sale, to rent)

[missarose22]

I have read that homes in Chantilly, VA cost $500k+ but I have been able to go online to realtor.com and homes.com and find homes for under 175k. Can someone who lives in that area please let me know what it actually costs to live down there? My other half may get a job making $65k a year and I want to know how we would live if we moved down there. Would we be dirt poor making $65k in Chantilly?

Also, the job he is looking at is in Chantilly, VA. Is there a neighboring town that has lower priced homes that is only like 30 minutes away? We are looking for an extremely safe place to live with good schools.

Thanks for your help.

[JfromReston]

Originally Posted by missarose22

I have read that homes in Chantilly, VA cost $500k+ but I have been able to go online to realtor.com and homes.com and find homes for under 175k. Can someone who lives in that area please let me know what it actually costs to live down there? My other half may get a job making $65k a year and I want to know how we would live if we moved down there. Would we be dirt poor making $65k in Chantilly?

Also, the job he is looking at is in Chantilly, VA. Is there a neighboring town that has lower priced homes that is only like 30 minutes away? We are looking for an extremely safe place to live with good schools.

Thanks for your help.

Yes homes in Chantilly and the surrounding area can cost $500K+ but they don't all. Based on the $65K salary you stated you probably should be looking at houses in the $250K range. My recommendation to you would be to stay as close to Chantilly as possible in your search - you may want to look at Centreville. You will definately get more house for the money in Manassas but then you will have to deal with the I-66 conga line (traffic!!!) and probably won't make Chantilly in 30 minutes. Lots of people like near by South Riding which is new and may be a little on the high side of your budget but I'm not sure as I don't keep up with house prices there.

Good luck!

[missarose22]

How it is possible for someone to afford a $250k home on $65k a year? Currently we live in Barre, VT and have a $200k home. We pay $1425/month payment $400/month in taxes, $45/month insu, $100/month electric $250/month heat and that's not including trash, internet, TV, water, etc... We made roughly $85k a year here before my other half got laid off from IBM and we don't even have any car payments and we only had like $1200 left over a month. If the job is only offering $65k a year would you suggest not taking the job?

[JfromReston]

Originally Posted by missarose22

How it is possible for someone to afford a $250k home on $65k a year? Currently we live in Barre, VT and have a $200k home. We pay $1425/month payment $400/month in taxes, $45/month insu, $100/month electric $250/month heat and that's not including trash, internet, TV, water, etc... We made roughly $85k a year here before my other half got laid off from IBM and we don't even have any car payments and we only had like $1200 left over a month. If the job is only offering $65k a year would you suggest not taking the job?

I was just looking for a ball park house price and used this calculator:
HomeFair.com: "Error"

With the following assumptions:
5.5% interest rate
30 year term
$20,000 down payment
$300/month in other debt

This is the information the calculator generated. You can refine the inputs for your specific situation. One thing to note that you won't have $250/month heat bills down here. My house is all electric; we heat and cool about 3000 square feet for a yearly average of $180/month.


*************************

We must use the 30% amount of 1,625.00 for PITI* - because this value is lower than the amount 1,812.50 calculated using the 39% monthly debt value.

*PITI=Principal + Interest + Property Tax + Homeowner’s Insurance

Your interest rate of 5.50% over 30 years means every dollar you pay each month buys you $176.12 of loan.

You stated that Tax and Insurance would total 1.5% of the home value and you will have $20,000.00 to cover your down payment.
House value: $250,950.55Loan value: $230,950.55Monthly Principal+Interest: $1,311.31Monthly Prop Tax+Insurance: $313.69Down Payment: 7.97%Loan To Value (LTV): 92.03%
Unfortunately your down payment is less than 20% so you must pay Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI). That's an extra 0.78% of your loan each year. House value:$229,425.05Loan value: $209,425.05Monthly Principal+Interest: $1,189.09Monthly Prop Tax+Insurance: $340.01Monthly PMI: $136.13Down Payment: 8.72%

Closing costs are not included in this calculation.

[missarose22]

Thank you. I have been looking at homes for sale in Manassas, VA and they are SO much cheaper. It looks like we can get just what we want for under $200k. Do you know this area well? Is it a safe place to race children and does it have good schools? Is there any specific location we Would Not want to move? Does it have shops and food near buy? Thanks for all your help.

[JfromReston]

Originally Posted by missarose22

Thank you. I have been looking at homes for sale in Manassas, VA and they are SO much cheaper. It looks like we can get just what we want for under $200k. Do you know this area well? Is it a safe place to race children and does it have good schools? Is there any specific location we Would Not want to move? Does it have shops and food near buy? Thanks for all your help.

I don't know the Manassas area very well at all (I live in Reston just north of Chantilly) but there have been a ton of threads on Manassas. Use the search function at the top of the page and insert "Manassas" in the Search Forum block. You will get a lot of information.

[leighland]

Originally Posted by missarose22

How it is possible for someone to afford a $250k home on $65k a year? Currently we live in Barre, VT and have a $200k home. We pay $1425/month payment $400/month in taxes, $45/month insu, $100/month electric $250/month heat and that's not including trash, internet, TV, water, etc... We made roughly $85k a year here before my other half got laid off from IBM and we don't even have any car payments and we only had like $1200 left over a month. If the job is only offering $65k a year would you suggest not taking the job?

We make mid 5 figures. We live paycheck to paycheck and our rent is 1600.00 a month. We are considered lower income in DC metro.

[leighland]

Originally Posted by leighland

We make mid 5 figures. We live paycheck to paycheck and our rent is 1600.00 a month. We are considered lower income in DC metro.

Oh, and since we will never afford the rich neighborhoods of Fairfax county (mid six figures to afford a house in a 'good, mostly white" neighborhoods like Falls Church City, Chantilly, Reston, Vienna, etc) there are a barrage of threads on this board on how horrible the public schools will be.

[terrence81]

Originally Posted by missarose22

How it is possible for someone to afford a $250k home on $65k a year? Currently we live in Barre, VT and have a $200k home. We pay $1425/month payment $400/month in taxes, $45/month insu, $100/month electric $250/month heat and that's not including trash, internet, TV, water, etc... We made roughly $85k a year here before my other half got laid off from IBM and we don't even have any car payments and we only had like $1200 left over a month. If the job is only offering $65k a year would you suggest not taking the job?

I wouldn't go as far as saying don't take the job. If the choice is unemployment and possibly losing your home versus moving to VA I'd pick VA. I don't know anything about Barre, VT but with the high cost of living here along with the horrible traffic there will definitely be a lifestyle adjustment. At the same time there is pretty high quality of life here especially in the outer suburbs.

If you're willing to look at places further away like Manassas then your chances are better at finding a home similar to what you have in VT. Now if you're willing to trade the house and yard for a nice townhouse then you could live in Chantilly and still be in the $200K range.

Also you could just look into renting instead of owning. I recommend that anyways until you get a feel for the area. You could find a nice place for $2k a month in Chantilly I'm sure.

[missarose22]

If we moved we plan on renting for at least the first year so we can save money. $2k a month to rent though is what we pay on our house for pmt/taxes/insurance so hopefully we could find something cheaper. We are looking in the Manassas area because the houses look great for under $200k. I'm just worried that it'll be tougher to live down there then it is here. We pay such high taxes in VT it's absolutely ridiculous. I currently make $41k and I have no college degree so for me to leave my job is a HUGE issue for me. I guess we'll see where life taxes us.

On another note does anyone know of any jobs that require Top Secret Security clearance? My boyfriend would be working for a place that would pay the $30k fee to get his security clearance and we were told he could make $100k once he got it. Are there a lot of jobs down there that need that possible?