Considering purchasing family home in Dale City (Manassas, Woodbridge: cul-de-sac, crime)

[CA2VA]

My husband and I just moved from CA and are househunting. My husband will be working in Quantico. If either one of us should get a job in DC in the future, I wanted to find something with an okay commute. From reading the forums, I planned on finding a house in Lake Ridge or Montclair. However, we found a detached house we really like in Dale City. It's located on Naylor Court. Is this area unsafe for a family with two young children? It's a great house with a nice layout, lots of room, and large yard. However, safety is really important to me. All of the posts about Dale City crime has given me the heebyjeebies. Would you recommend a townhouse in Lake Ridge or Montclair instead? Or should we try Manassas, Stafford, or Fredericksburg instead? If we're going to go forward with the house in Dale City, we need to put in a bid this Sunday. We love the house, it's in our price range, I just want it to be safe as well. Thank you for your input.

[Bigfoot424]

Naylor, if it's where I think it is, is not a bad area at all. Too lazy to confirm it's location so where is it exactly?

[CA2VA]

Naylor is on the East side of Dale Blvd. The east end of Princedale turns into Nottingdale and a few streets branch off of that and then there's Naylor.

Map: naylor court woodbridge map - Google Maps

[Tish Thompson]

Not that you'll have a nightmare commute from Dale City, but the ride to Quantico is a little easier from Montclair. Plus many other military families live in Montclair. I think you'll like Manassas and Fredericksburg, but they're pretty far out...which to me doesn't make sense to spend the extra money for gas when you can find just as nice a home in closer proximity to where you're working. Stafford has some really good deals and is a hop, skip, and a jump from MCBQ.

[ChristineVA]

My son's friend lives off Nottingdale. I don't hear that they are unhappy with their neighborhood, but that particular area of Woodbridge *is* going to be one of the less desirable.

I would most definitely look in Montclair. I think it is a far superior location than that end of Dale Blvd. I would also look at homes off of Cardinal Drive (Dale City address but surrounding Montclair).

[GreenGene]

Originally Posted by CA2VA

My husband and I just moved from CA and are househunting. My husband will be working in Quantico. If either one of us should get a job in DC in the future, I wanted to find something with an okay commute. From reading the forums, I planned on finding a house in Lake Ridge or Montclair. However, we found a detached house we really like in Dale City. It's located on Naylor Court. Is this area unsafe for a family with two young children? It's a great house with a nice layout, lots of room, and large yard. However, safety is really important to me. All of the posts about Dale City crime has given me the heebyjeebies. Would you recommend a townhouse in Lake Ridge or Montclair instead? Or should we try Manassas, Stafford, or Fredericksburg instead? If we're going to go forward with the house in Dale City, we need to put in a bid this Sunday. We love the house, it's in our price range, I just want it to be safe as well. Thank you for your input.

Come on over, neighbor! We live in the Nottingdale Community. We've been in this house for 17 years, with zero problems re: crime. But we also take the reasonable precautions that people should take in any urban or suburban area.

There are many other options as well, as other posters have pointed out. Dale City in general is more economical than many other areas, but the houses/neighborhoods are generally older, the houses smaller and without modern features, and so on. The one area in this neck of the woods that I personally would avoid is the "real" Woodbridge - along Route 1.

My wife and I commuted from here to Capitol Hill in DC every day for 16 of the 17 years we've been in this house (we're retired now). It can be an ugly commute, but there are far more options available to commuters now than when we first moved to Dale City in 1981. Our average travel time was 45 minutes door-to-door via carpooling.

Naylor Court is a nice cul-de-sac, so you wouldn't have to worry about thru traffic. And that's a nice aspect of Nottingdale in general - it doesn't connect to any other neighborhood, so you don't have people cutting through on their way to someplace else.

There's an elementary school in the neighborhood (King), and that's also the place we go to vote. Andrew Leitch Park is across Dale Blvd - nice water park, soccer field, two baseball fields, basketball court, playground ... I'm there just about every day walking our dog.

Speaking of which, I've got a dog dancing around me right now, so if the rain has let up, it's off to the park we go!

[CA2VA]

GreenGene thank yo for your reply. I look forward to being your neighbor if we move into your area!