Moving to NOVA/Dulles Airport! Leesburg? (Richmond, Hampton: sales, apartment complex, rental)

[norm6269]

I will be transferring from Richmond to Dulles Airport very soon, and i have seen some apartments in Leesburg (outer Leesburg, not downtown Leesburg), and I heard from a friend who has a friend (you know what I mean), that some areas of Leesburg are not to good, my girlfriend is coming along with me and I would like her to be and feel safe, anyone have any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

[jmarkd]

My wife lived in Leesburg from 1998-2001, and we looked at homes there this past year. She rented a little place right downtown. Downtown Leesburg is fabulous- beautiful, lots of nice shops and restaurants, and generally charming. As you have heard, some of the outskirts are not as great.

Take a look at Google Maps. You see Leesburg is surrounded by the 7/15 bypass, and divided into 4 parts by 15 going north-south and market st./7 business going east-west. The upper right quadrant has most of the shady, crummy parts. Plaza St. at Edwards Ferry Rd, Ft. Evans Rd., North St. NE. West of the outlets near the Hampton Inn, that general area.

This is just my impression, and I don't mean that whole quadrant is crummy, but most of the parts are there. By shady I mean people loitering on stoops/ street corners. Most of the shady people I see are of Hispanic origin.

Some might call that racist, but those same people would lock their car doors when passing through and would not walk around there at night. I'm just telling you what I see.

Some rules of thumb:

If the price or the rent is unusually low, it's probably a crummy area (hence the term 'low rent district.")

Check the local police blotter, usually put out weekly.

Drive through the area during the day and during the early evening, after normal work hours.

Good luck! Make sure your job pays for you to use the stinkin' Dulles Greenway, which on July 1 is going to charge $3 one way. Otherwise you're stuck on 7. This summer when school's out it won't be bad but it can get pretty congested. Even the Greenway is congested sometimes, which always makes me wonder why I'm paying to sit in traffic.

[norm6269]

i was looking at the Fields of Leesburg apartments, whic is located on Plaza, anyone know anything about that?

[mdcrim]

Bad, bad, bad. Plaza Street is not in the greatest section of town (although by most standards, even the worst parts of Leesburg are better than the best parts of some other places). Have you considered Ashburn? You could avoid the Greenway and Route 7 altogether and I can't imagine that the rental rates are much different than Leesburg. The only questionable sections of Ashburn, in my opinion, are the apartments at the corner of Waxpool/ Farmwell and Ashburn Road and some sections of Ashburn Village around Gloucester on the east side of Ashburn Village Blvd. Other than that you can't really go wrong. Just my opinion, of course. Good luck with your search.

[fromWI]

My fiance and I were in Leesburg this past weekend looking at apartments. The Fields on Plaza are income restrictive, so I'm guessing that might not work for you. We found an older place near downtown that we're going to apply for. As for other options, the Windsor at Fieldstone apartments were kept up well, had swimming pool, plenty of parking, etc. Rent an Apartment - Luxury Apartments from Windsor Communities. They're our second choice. Depending on your taste, we found the Manor Apartments Home Page-The Manor Apartments, Leesburg, VA to be pretty decent as well.

[5stones]

windsor at fieldstone is fine. Lots of families. It backs up to my neighborhood. (some petty theft problems ... don't leave your ipod on you car seat! etc...) NO Major crime. it's safe has the walking trail and a nice pool.

Downtown is nice if yo ar walkin distance to oldtown thats a plus.

Manor NO. right next to the fileds....wow the pics make it look alot nicer!
not a lot of crime per se but mostly lower income. has plety of families living there but not where I'd choose.

Look on craigs list. TH/condos around the airport (Tavistock farms etc...)
Exeter TH are nice as well. same with those off of S king st.

Ashburn very nice AS well as the area near Dullas mall (parc dullas)

[jmarkd]

This brings up a good point- a lot of THs have similar rents to the managed apartments. In situations where an "investor" can't sell, they'll often rent it out just to have some income. Check it out!

[rabscuttle385]

Originally Posted by norm6269

i was looking at the Fields of Leesburg apartments, whic is located on Plaza, anyone know anything about that?

My family lives at The Fields of Leesburg...we qualified under the income restrictions last year, briefly. However, now that our income has gone up, we're moving out because the area is so sketchy.

Negatives:
- We have found bedbugs (dead, not full of blood) in the apartment complex. They are not from us. One can only surmise that they come from some of our sketchier neighbors.
- Customer service is terrible. Our sink disposal broke two weeks ago, and despite repeated calls and requests for service, no service.
- Parking. Towing. Be very careful, or they *WILL* tow you. My dad bought a new car recently and parked in "visitor" parking. He was towed because he did not have a "visitor" permit...and only then we learned about "one-day" visitor parking.
- Tons of younger "minority" (black, Hispanic) children. First day we moved in, an elementary school student approached me (brazenly) and asked me for money "to buy ice cream." Forget about using the pool.
- The USPS mail carrier is incompetent. Our mail routinely gets redelivered to other people, and vice versa.
- Plaza St. traffic in the morning SUCKS.

Positives:
+ Rent is dirt cheap.
+ Rent *includes* utilities (except gas).
+ Police and fire stations are next door. They patrol very regularly.
+ Wired for FiOS.

You can do better. Leesburg is a wonderful place to live with a small town atmosphere, but you can still commute down the Greenway. We have not had any problems with security...The Fields is next door to the police station, and there are police officers living on our floor.

We are moving out after Thanksgiving and considering Tuscarora off Clubhouse Drive near the Bypass (SW part of town). Look around, and definitely stay off Plaza St./Edwards Ferry Rd. in the NE part of town.

[rabscuttle385]

Know anything about Tuscarora off S. King St. near the Bypass? We're considering that area and looked at the apartments there recently...they were very nice and the rent rates were reasonable.

My dad works at the Waverly Park office complex near bloom on South King, so the short commute is a Godsend for him.

[newgatedenizen]

Check out the following link and click on the CRIME tab. It will be very useful to give you an indication of what areas tend to have more reported crime.

Crime, Home Sales and Schools in DC, Maryland and Virginia - Local Explorer (washingtonpost.com)