Married w/children, moving from Midwest to Northern VA -- best place to raise family (on a budget)w/in 75 miles of D.C.? (Woodbridge: sale, house)

[dansuz1]

ChewyCarmel,

We just finished our move from Brownsburg to Manassas Park. With your constraints, I think you will find Prince William County your best bet. Manassas, Bristow, Woodridge, Lake Ridge and Manassas Park will all be good values.

Please PM me and we can talk more on the phone. It took 6 months for us to make this move, which gave us plenty of time to research the area.

Good luck,

Dan

[5stones]

seriously check out westren Loudoun county, schools are great, close to good shopping etc... and in non rush hour you can get into DC in about an hour +.

Leesburg will be more expensive and have less land oppotunities...(and more congestion...) but, Purceville, Lovettesville, Barryville, Luckettes, Hamilton etc... LOTs of farms etc... you do feel very far away from the hustle and bustle of the metro area.

spouth you have...Catharpin and Aldie. Middleburg is beautiful but $$$$.

Good luck

[foreverelohims]

Gainesville, VA is a good area and for your budget given the current housing value decline, you can land a good area like Somerset Crossing, HayMarket, or Bristow all of which are very family friendly and close to DC....traffic is a booger, but dependent upon your departure/arrival schedule, you will be fine. Battlefield High, Bull Run Middle, and Gainesville Middle are good schools

[ChewyCarmel]

Originally Posted by anonymous703

Food for thought -- is your income dependent on the number of appointments you can get to in a day? (Ie, a plumber can "work from home" but if he isn't on a client site, he's not getting paid.) If yours isn't, and you can schedule your appointments mid-day (ie 10am-2pm) you should be able to live that far out and not hate the time you spend on the road.

Anon703-
Excellent question -- the answer is "no". I'm on salary and so I'll be setting my appointments at convenient times.

[ChewyCarmel]

Originally Posted by anonymous703

Have you spent any time in the South Riding area to determine that it is in fact too noisy for you?

Honestly, somehow, the Dulles airport was constructed in such a way that really does minimize noise to the surrounding area. Most of the time, the traffic departs to the south. The runways are also very long, meaning a vast majority of the aircraft are going to be quite high overhead as they pass over your house, so you shouldn't hear them.

(My office is under the approach path to the runway that parallels 28 on the east side. We're literally right on the airport property -- adjacent to the employee parking lot on the north side of the airport. I can see aircraft passing overhead during meetings, and when they land, I never hear them. When they take off, they make the tiniest of noise.)

Anon703 -
I've never heard that before. I'm flying into Dulles next week, so I'll check it out. Thank you.

[ChewyCarmel]

Originally Posted by Pom

No!

Check out Shenandoah County - Strasburg has good schools, great prices on houses and is at the crossroads of two major highways, 66 and 81.

It's very safe and friendly, not to mention beautiful, with stunning mountain views.

Pom -
Thank you for the advice. Strasburg sounds great. I'm looking at a map though, and it looks like Strasburg is beyond my 75 mile limit from D.C.

[ChewyCarmel]

Originally Posted by 5stones

seriously check out westren Loudoun county, schools are great, close to good shopping etc... and in non rush hour you can get into DC in about an hour +.

Leesburg will be more expensive and have less land oppotunities...(and more congestion...) but, Purceville, Lovettesville, Barryville, Luckettes, Hamilton etc... LOTs of farms etc... you do feel very far away from the hustle and bustle of the metro area.

spouth you have...Catharpin and Aldie. Middleburg is beautiful but $$$$.

Good luck

5 Stones -
I've been doing some research on the towns you recommended and Purcellville looks very interesting (good schools, especially for a small town!) -- I'll add it to my list of places to check out during my trip next week. Thanks!

[ChewyCarmel]

Originally Posted by foreverelohims

Gainesville, VA is a good area and for your budget given the current housing value decline, you can land a good area like Somerset Crossing, HayMarket, or Bristow all of which are very family friendly and close to DC....traffic is a booger, but dependent upon your departure/arrival schedule, you will be fine. Battlefield High, Bull Run Middle, and Gainesville Middle are good schools

ForeverLohims -
Thank you for the suggestions. I have Gainesville and Haymarket on my short list. Although it looks like there are good schools as well as some so-so schools. Are there any particular areas you would recommend I stay away from?

[5stones]

I think if you are looking for "small town" feel and kinda country but still close to everything you really can't beat Purceville. It is large enough to have library, shopping, rec center and town pool etc... but still very small and quaint. Has a very nice small old "downtown" area.

Leesburg is just about 15 minutes away with all the shopping (outlet mall & big box) that you would need on daily basis.

And yes the schools in Purceville are all very good!

[anonymous703]

Originally Posted by ChewyCarmel

Anon703 -
I've never heard that before. I'm flying into Dulles next week, so I'll check it out. Thank you.

I've worked in aviation for several years (including four of them at Dulles Airport)... my observations aren't something you'll hear most people talk about. When planes depart to the north and fly over my office, the noise they make isn't loud enough to disrupt our meetings.

And another thing... Dulles airport's busiest time of day is around 5pm. You'll get the arrival traffic a bit earlier than that, and the departure traffic a bit later than that.