Commute from Haymarket to Chantilly? (Centreville, Fairfax: rent, house, neighborhoods)

[kangelo526]

Hi,

Will be moving to NoVA in October - price range up to $425k. Schools will be a factor. Anyone know how long it will take to commute from Haymarket and/or Gainesville to Chantilly (possibility of flexible work hours; i.e., go in early/leave early). Have looked in Chantilly and Centreville but it seems like you get much more house/land for the money in Haymarket/Gainesville.

Any advice would be much appreciated!

TX

[jsmo2283]

A flex schedule of 7-3 would be fine. Otherwise, especially during the school year, rush hour tends to go from 6-9am and then again from 3-7pm. (Government gets in really early and leaves very early, beginning the traffic jams, followed by students getting to and from school, followed by everyone else.)Gainesville to Chantilly could be as low as 20 mins (rarely, mostly on weekends or off hours) to as high as an hour, on a normal day. Hour + if there's any kind of accident on I-66. There are back routes as well, as long as you can time it right. Its unfortunate because the distance is small, but the amount of vehicles is huge.Good luck!

[stuntmonkey123]

Schools in Haymarket are good. Schools in the Chantilly High School pyramid in Fairfax County are better.

Have you looked in the neighborhoods in Chantilly like Armfield Farms? You should be able to get a SFH there for $425 no problem. I believe those kids go to Lees Corner ES, Franklin MS, and Chantilly HS -- all three great schools.

I would much prefer to have a slightly smaller house that is closer to work and has great schools than to move way out to Haymarket. I think your commute would be around 45 minutes to Chantilly from there.

[kangelo526]

Hi, and thanks for responding. Yeah, we're tossed up as to do we make the sacrifice and purchase less home/less land for a shorter commute, or do we want more quality of life with more home/more land and more commute....Serious things to think about.

We're military and live in CA right now and the house we rent now is LITERALLY on top of our neighbors' - which means no privacy, dogs barking, etc. Guess we'll have to make that decision first.

Thanks for the advice!

[Margery]

If you would consider an older home, there are some areas of Loudoun County very close to route 28 that have lots of 0.5 acre and up. One of these areas is Broad Run Farms in 20165. It is about 10 miles straight down route 28 to Chantilly, so allow half hour in rush hour. There are other small areas, such as Richland Forest, Old Ashburn which are similar. These are all older homes built in the 50's and 60's on larger lots because at the time they were on well and septic. They now have public water and sewer (for the most part), but still have the larger lots and no HOA. You would also have the Loudoun County school system.