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IMO, a "real" town center is the part of town where the stores and restaurants are clustered around a central gathering spot. A place where you hear concerts and meet your friends and watch the fireworks on the 4th of July and take the kids to get ice cream. A place where the blood mobile sets up in the parking lot, carnivals set up, and the circus pitches its tent. Where 10ks are held. All those things happen in Town Centers and Malls, so I guess that's why I think of them as "real" places.
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Originally Posted by michgc
"Real" town centers grow up over time. A post office exists. Perhaps there is a train station stop here. A general store gets built nearby. Then a barber opens up. Then a restaurant opens and a bank, etc. A "fake" town center is planned by a developer of a community to put in a "downtown" area with all of the typical amenities found in old town centers.
Well, I can see the logic to this thinking even if I don't agree with it. I guess, as you point out, to some people it matters and to others it does not. Personally, I don't care if the center of town sprung up slowly over time or was placed there at the time was built. But that's just my opinion.
Getting back to the OP, the important thing is we've now given the OP a good idea of what makes Nova different from NY. We don't have many old towns here. This is a very new area. Most of the communities we have were built in the last few decades and were built more or less as planned developments. You won't find many towns that sprang up over time (there are a few exceptions, such as Great Falls, Falls Church or Vienna).
If this kind of planned community is not something you find appealling, think twice about moving to Nova because that's a lot of what you'll find here. On the other hand if it sounds appealling, welcome to northern Virginia! Check out Reston, Ashburn, and Cascades if you want my opinion of good places to live.
Fuhgeddaboudit...there's no decent pizza around here!
Well, there is no "outstanding" pizza around here, but there is decent NY-style pizza (Tony's in Fair Lakes; Sal's in Ashburn).
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Originally Posted by LightningMcQueen
I don't know where the employment hub may be for my profession. But if DBA jobs are in Dulles/Chantilly/Reston/Herndon area, then that's where I would be commuting to and the reference to DC I made earlier would be irrelevant. So, what would be the towns with reputable schools that would make sense given what you advised?
Judging what you wrote earlier, I get the sense that the whole old town thing is a preference but not a requirement. It seems more likely that you are seeking to raise income (and house size) vs. housing cost (buying/taxes) ratio while still putting your kids in good, safe schools. Then given the prevalence of the IT jobs in the tech corridor, I would strongly second looking into Reston in Fairfax and Ashburn in Loudoun.
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Originally Posted by Caladium
Getting back to the OP, the important thing is we've now given the OP a good idea of what makes Nova different from NY. We don't have many old towns here. This is a very new area. Most of the communities we have were built in the last few decades and were built more or less as planned developments. You won't find many towns that sprang up over time (there are a few exceptions, such as Great Falls, Falls Church or Vienna).
If this kind of planned community is not something you find appealling, think twice about moving to Nova because that's a lot of what you'll find here. On the other hand if it sounds appealling, welcome to northern Virginia! Check out Reston, Ashburn, and Cascades if you want my opinion of good places to live.
Ditto. In terms of the subjective "feel" and "vibe" this area is not going to feel like much of Westchester. But then I get the sense that the OP is not looking to duplicate the Westchester experience.
Westchester has malls, too, complete with many of the same chains that one finds elsewhere in the country, save for Larchmont and Katonah which have resisted any non-local chain. The difference is that the pattern of development was largely centered upon train stations, as rail transit to NYC has been part of the area for a very long time. As such, the towns grew outward from the stations, as opposed to a newer area where the "towns" have to be created.
And, it depends upon where you live in the county regarding the convenience and proximity to the train and town center. For example, one could live in Somers that's an area that has mixed newer and older subdivisions, something that's not too common in Westchester, and have to drive to town, the mall, and the train (as the nearest stations are not in Somers proper). There are also office parks in the area, including the Pepsi campus, as well.
Westchester and Fairfax do have many similarities, as they are both affluent suburban counties. One nice thing that I forgot to mention for LightningMcQueen is that recreation here is different, another reason for lower taxes (fewer directors/administrators with larger salaries, yet still offer quality services). Fairfax and Loudoun Counties have parks departments, not relying on the town or village for recreation. Many neighborhoods also have their own small pool associations/clubs, as opposed to town facilities, though in Fairfax, the regional recreation centers do have aquatics facilities (indoor). You can buy a pass as you would in Westchester towns for Fairfax County recreation centers, and for the facilities and variety of athletic offerings, it's a good buy if you use them.
__________________
All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.
~William Shakespeare (As You Like It Act II, Scene VII)
But then I get the sense that the OP is not looking to duplicate the Westchester experience.
You are right, although I love where I live now. However, Wage to Cost of Living ratio is what I care about.
I originally posted to confirm what I was hearing about Fairfax County... that is I would get a bigger bang for my buck and IT jobs are available there with equal pay as they are in NY. And it sounds like there is something to look into. I plan to pay attention to these things next time I'm down there.
I would like to sign off by saying, thank you everyone for getting me a bit more familiar.
I live just outside the Beltway in Springfield (Fairfax Co.) in a nice traditional suburban neighborhood. I have a 40-yr-old rambler with 4 BRs and 3 full baths. My home is valued around $425-$450k, for which I pay $4.5k real estate tax annually.
OP, I just moved here from Ridgefield, CT (Fairfield county on the NY line)...the cost of living is significantly less - though the long timers here don't believe it . I sold a 3 bedroom 3 bath 2000 sq foot house on a acre in Ridgefield for more than I paid for a 4 bed/4 bath, 3500 sq foot new constuction on .5 acre in Loudoun county. The tax difference alone is a savings of $4000 per year (and I'm talking about CT Taxes which are even less than NY!).
You will likely end up working in the Dulles Tech Corridor which gives you flexibility in where you want to live. We stuck with Loudoun, it's number 2 behind Fairfax in schools but if you do your research, you can find some amazing schools here. The cost of living drops exponentially as you move west from DC. The commute is nowhere near as bad as metro NYC if you're working in the Dulles area (again local VA folk which swear I must be wrong, but I know I'm not). We live pretty far out in western Loudoun and it takes my husband 35 mins to get to work in Herndon. That's pretty darn good by NY area standards.
Oh and no, there is no good pizza here (actually I am partial to Teddy's in Middleburg and will drive the 45 min round trip just to get some)
ETA to add, yes I think the salaries will be approx equivalent of the NY area...not NYC but the burbs yes. My husband got a raise when he took this job down here even from Metro NYC standards.
If you are used to good schools please move to montgomery county in the Churchill, Whitman, BCC, Wootton, or Walter Johnson school districts. You will pay higher taxes for living in these areas, but you can find affordable housing. Having lived in and experienced Fairfax county high schools and Montgomery Co HS's you will be far, far, better off in Mont. County-News Week top 100 HS in the country-June 13 edition-- Montgomery county had 7 high schools in the top 100. Fairfax may have had one. The numbers speak for themselves. Please do your homework.
If you are used to good schools please move to montgomery county in the Churchill, Whitman, BCC, Wootton, or Walter Johnson school districts. You will pay higher taxes for living in these areas, but you can find affordable housing. Having lived in and experienced Fairfax county high schools and Montgomery Co HS's you will be far, far, better off in Mont. County-News Week top 100 HS in the country-June 13 edition-- Montgomery county had 7 high schools in the top 100. Fairfax may have had one. The numbers speak for themselves. Please do your homework.
Go team!
To respond to your post and maybe get some end-of-year extra credit, however, not everyone swears by Jay Matthews' methodology for the "Challenge Index," which is what the Newsweek rankings are based upon.
In addition, if TJHSST were included in the Newsweek reports (which it is not), Fairfax would have two schools in the top 100. The quasi-magnets in Montgomery (Richard Montgomery and Blair) aren't similarly excluded from the Newsweek rankings.
Moreover, if the students from TJ were at their neighborhood schools, rather than the local magnet, Fairfax would surely have more high schools in the top 100.
As it is, however, Fairfax still has more schools in the top 200 (10, with TJ not counted) than Montgomery (8, with Richard Montgomery and Blair both included).
So, all told, both systems look pretty darn good at the national level. I think you'll have to come up with something a bit more persuasive to make one want to fork over the extra taxes, etc.
I'm a life time New Yorker, mid 30's, family of 4 with 2 children soon to start school, getting tired of the high cost of living in New York Metro. If you're familiar with the NYC burbs, I live in Westchester County where the schools are great but you pay for it thru high housing cost. For an avg middle class family earning $125K, it is very hard to own a home within a 40 minute radius of midtown Manhattan, the employment hub of NY Metro.
So, I'm thinking what else is out there in different parts of this country where similar quality of life/education can be had for more reasonable cost. And I've heard thru people and read several articles that say a lot of good things about Fairfax County in this regard.
Would the members of the Virgina forum tell me as much as you can about Fairfax County. I work in Database Administration (a decipline within the IT field) and I've heard that wages are similar down there. I would think most of the employment opps will be centered around the DC area. What are the towns that are within 30 to 40 minute commute of the employment hub and what kind of housing cost and property tax should you expect for a middle class type home (3bd 2bth, .25acre, 1500 sqft.... that's middle class up here).
Also, would you tell me how your public education is set up and what factors typically drive how people decide where to buy? Up here, within the county I live in, we have 30 or so (not sure the exact number, but numerous) school districts of varying reputation. So when people look to buy a home here, they compare one town vs another in terms of housing cost vs the reputation of the schools in that town.
But I heard that in in Fairfax County, you have one county level school district, as opposed to town level ones. This keeps admin cost as well as other overhead costs down for the tax payers. How does this translate to the quality of the schools among the various towns? Are there towns that are more desirable vs another purely from educational point of view? Or is the quality of the education pretty much equal among the towns and the only thing you would have to consider in buying a home would be where you work and what kind of home/neighborhood you like?
I already wrote a lot so, let me leave it off here. I look forward to reading the responses.
I am a lower Westchester resident that was given the opportunity to work from home literally out of the blue, so once my lease is up I can escape. I was terrified at the idea of having to buy a house in the metro NY area and support armies of union and government cronies until the day I die (and then of course they'd tax that too). 11k+/year property taxes aint a joke, and dont let the line about "the school quality" throw you, value and price are not always proportional. You pay for pensions and little else.
Congrats on getting out! However I have family in Fairfax and they warned me if you hate living in a suburb of NYC...living in a suburb of DC isn't much better quality of life and costs wise. We're planning on moving to the Roanoke area of Virginia, good luck.
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. I sold a 3 bedroom 3 bath 2000 sq foot house on a acre in Ridgefield for more than I paid for a 4 bed/4 bath, 3500 sq foot new constuction on .5 acre in Loudoun county. The tax difference alone is a savings of $4000 per year (and I'm talking about CT Taxes which are even less than NY!).
