Ashburn/Broadlands vs. Springfield/Burke (Arlington, West Springfield: townhome, neighborhood, purchasing)

[MrWaylandSmither]

My wife and I are considering moving to either the Ashburn/Broadlands area or West Springfield/Burke. She is a stay at home mom with a 4 month old, and I do consulting so my commute varies pretty wildly. We've visited both areas and I like the feel of the Broadlands better (it seems to have a lot more going on for stay-at-home mom's with small children and just a more active community in general). In addition, we can have a bit more house and a garage.

Burke is nice and we can get a reasonable sized townhome in our price range, but I'd like to hear the opinions of other people who have little ones about the community itself. Seems like a great place for "older" families, who have older kids and possibly 2 working parents, but I have no idea what it's like for stay-at-homes mom's with small children.

Finally, how bad is the commute from the Broadlands to Arlington. Are slug-lines/carpools common? Can the bus really make it to Roslyn in 40min as the schedule states? Does the HOV move along at a good clip? I would likely be commuting at 6:30am. Any advice or opinions on these areas is more than welcome!

[South Jersey Styx]

Ashburn/Broadlands offers alot to the stay-at-home mom--new areas for shopping, libraries, community centers for activities for the kids. It has though, gotten VERY crowded out there. I am not sure about commuting from the Springfield/Burke area. Here's a link to a Loudoun commuter service; I think they have a bus route from Broadlands:

Commuter Bus Schedules

Good luck and happy house hunting!

[twinmma]

I live in Ashburn Farm...right next to Broadlands and I was a sahm for awhile before returning to work. It is a great area for sahm. There is a moms club group here as well. (burke probably has one too, I don't know) In the farm we have 3 pools to go to as well and lots of sahm do that in the summer. Broadlands has a cute nature center that is nice too. It is a bit of a hike to Arlington...I went there yesterday from here. Its not bad depending on what time you go. I went in the afternoon. I left at 2pm and got to Arlington at 2:35pm. COming home I left at 3:45 and got home at 4:35pm.
I don't know much about Burke...I do know it has older communities.
Good luck!

[MattVA]

Springfield/Burke would be a great choice. Lot's of great parks, community centers, etc. A very short commute for you to Arlington. Many families with young children and there are at least two stay at home mom groups in the area.

[Ashburnite]

Parts of Burke are nice and the homes are a little older and the area has more trees. I would imagine your experience with young families would vary depending on what street or neighborhood you choose. If it is a big concern for you, do some drive-bys during the late afternoons and see if you see many little kids out playing. I live in Ashburn Village and my street has a lot of kids but naturally not every street does so you might want to take that into consideration when purchasing your home - be sure the neighbors seem friendly and nice and that there are kids nearby.

Broadlands is a very nice community with TONS of kids. It's well maintained and if you DIDN'T have kids you'd be in the minority.

[GoHokiesGo]

Originally Posted by Ashburnite

Parts of Burke are nice and the homes are a little older and the area has more trees. I would imagine your experience with young families would vary depending on what street or neighborhood you choose. If it is a big concern for you, do some drive-bys during the late afternoons and see if you see many little kids out playing. I live in Ashburn Village and my street has a lot of kids but naturally not every street does so you might want to take that into consideration when purchasing your home - be sure the neighbors seem friendly and nice and that there are kids nearby.

Broadlands is a very nice community with TONS of kids. It's well maintained and if you DIDN'T have kids you'd be in the minority.

My wife and I are part of that minority in Ashburn. We moved out here because we felt it offered the best balance of house size without being too far out to get places on the weekends.

The Ashburn area in general (we're also in Ashburn Village) is loaded with families and kids. We're a bit young for the area (mid-20's, married w/o kids) but there are tons of families with lots to do; we figure we'll grow into the area nicely once we're ready for kids. Most of the people we've met so far have been extremely nice, although we haven't met a ton of our neighbors yet since people keep to themselves a bit, they're all very nice and friendly. There are all the conveniences you'd need and plenty of things to keep the family busy with.

Ashburn to seems to be very new and clean to me, most of the homes aren't very old and they community in general is very well kept. Although, I'd imagine that the commute to Arlington would be a bear in traffic. During non-rush hour times (if your consulting jobs allow), I can get to Ballston in about 45 minutes taking Rt 7 to 66.

I don't know enough about Burke and Springfield to compare, but they are closer and probably slightly older house communities.

[Ashburnite]

I think Ashburn Village and Ashburn Farm are about 15-20 years old, depending on where exactly you live. Broadlands is more like 10 years old I think. Burke is older than that by at least 10 years I'd guess. We have friends who used to live in Burke and they liked it but didn't have kids at the time. The neighborhood you choose probably makes all the difference in either place in terms of whether or not you like it.