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My family is currently looking at moving to NOVA as I may be taking a job with a company near the Ballston metro stop. We are looking for a family friendly neighborhood around the $400K-$550K range. My wife will be staying home for a while to help get our two kids (both under 4) adjusted and may just decide to stay home. So a community with a lot of younger kids and things to do would be great.
I would like to keep my commute under an hour if at all possible. I think I'll be able to adjust my hours so that I can be in the office by 7 or 7:30 and I don't have a problem driving to and picking up the metro somewhere (ie Vienna). Any recommendations?
Would the Kings Park West area around GMU be too much of a hassle to commute into that part of Arlington?
Also is Centreville or Herndon out of the question based on an hour commute time?
We also looked at Arlington, but the schools don't look that great and based on our budget I don't think we could get into Del Ray or Old Towne.
When I read your post, the first neighborhood that entered my mind was Kings Park West -- no joke. It fits the description that you provided.
At the hour you would be leaving, it's a very easy drive to the Vienna Metro. You can take Braddock to Roberts (or Roberts from Kings Park West) or to Burke Station Road to Main Street. East on Main to Pickett, cross Route 50 (Arlington/Fairfax Boulevard), cross Lee Highway, and continue on Blake Lane. At the third traffic light, take a right on Sutton Road, followed by a right at the 4-way stop sign on Country Creek Road (name changes closer to Nutley), and the Metro station parking garage will be on your right, just past the second traffic light.
You could take 123 to I-66 and miss the worst of the backups, too, but I find that takes longer, due to longer lights. And, you could even take 123 to Oakton to a right on Blake and then a left on Sutton. The light at Pickett is timed for the left turn, and the lights at Route 50 and Blake seem shorter (could be my imagination as I have not timed it) at that hour of the morning. Route 50 and Blake do get more truck traffic, even in the early morning, for trucks leaving Pickett Road, so the lights could be on a shorter demand cycle. During the height of rush hour, it's a different story, but still faster to cross to Blake from Fairfax City than deal with 123 and get to the Metro via 66 or Oakton.
I would skip Herndon as the commute would be much more of a hassle, at least in the short term, until the Metro opens on that route. If you found a house you liked there, and could deal with the longer commute right now, it would not be a problem. Parts of Centreville would work, too, but that area can easily take much longer to get to the Metro, even if you leave only a few minutes later, using I-66. If off Braddock Road in the Centreville area, around Hampton Chase or Little Rocky Run, you would have the option of taking Braddock, but Braddock and 123 can be a nightmare, especially in the afternoon when traffic builds in all directions. Living just east of the intersection in KPW would make the commute easier. Is commute the only factor in your decision?
You could even drive to Arlington from KPW without too much of a hassle in the early morning, but the return commute could be a headache.
__________________
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)
Town of Vienna would have most of what you need, if you're cool with a 15 minute or so walk to the Metro, you're golden. Ditto the City of Falls Church.
If you are going to be car-bound, anything in the Woodson (east of Fairfax City) and Marshall (east of Town of Vienna and just south of the City of Falls Church) zones would be fine as well in that price range.
Alexandria is not where you move to for the public schools. If you're a DINK couple, or flat-out plan on sending your kids private for K-12 or 9-12, yeah, it's golden.
Herndon and Centreville would be a longer commute w/o that much in savings. If you want to
Generally, the further north you are in Arlington the better the schools. Yorktown and Wash-Lee are among the top half of Fairfax schools.
If you're open to a townhouse or condo, you'll be able to get into any of the good school zones in Fairfax or Arlington. Vienna may work best for your current job as well as flexibility to other parts of Northern Virginia. I commute 45-50 minutes from Vienna to Leesburg but I get to avoid paying the Australians.
Keep in mind bad by Northern Virginia is good by any other standards. A school like Stuart will be "2/3 top-notch college prep kids" plus "1/3 just sort of marking time" as opposed to say Madison or Oakton which is 80/20 and McLean/Langley which are like 90/10.
Also IF you have a hybrid, you can drive along I-66 inside the Beltway. I was able to get from Town of Vienna to Crystal City in 30-35 minutes going to and 25-30 (!) going from, and this was at the 730am timeframe (it gets worse at like 830am and way worse after I-66 opens up at 9am.)
Along Route 50 if you 29 to Annandale Road to 50, it'd be like 45 minutes or so.
If you are able to set your hours as you plan then you should definitely consider Kings Park West and other neighborhoods close-by, including parts of Annandale. They are safe, family-friendly and have many amenities for small children and stay-at-home parents. You have the option to drive to the metro, take the VRE or a commuter bus. But you must work a schedule that beats the heaviest rush hour to make sure your commute is under an hour from this area. Vienna would be more convenient if you find something in your price range.
Forget Centreville or Herndon. We lived in temporary quarters in Herndon for 4 months when we first relocated to the area and the commute was horrible for my husband. Plus, your public transportation options will be more limited over there. Good luck.
So how long would the commute be from the Kings Park area if I took the Vienna Metro if I left at 6:30?? Would it be about 1/2 hour to 45 minutes? I believe once I got on the metro it would only be about 15 minutes to the Ballston stop and the office is literally a block from Ballston.
I'm wondering whether you overlooked the OP's target price range ($400-500K)?
Quote:
Originally Posted by stpickrell
Town of Vienna would have most of what you need, if you're cool with a 15 minute or so walk to the Metro, you're golden. Ditto the City of Falls Church.
There's very little in the City of Falls Church available in the OP's price range. You can find some older ramblers in the Town of Vienna in that price range, but if the OP is coming from an area where housing is less expensive, he may be underwhelmed by what $400-550K buys there, though Vienna is certainly a very family-friendly area. Kings Park West and perhaps West Springfield neighborhoods such as Rolling Valley - while further from a Metro station - may be better bets.
Quote:
Originally Posted by stpickrell
If you are going to be car-bound, anything in the Woodson (east of Fairfax City) and Marshall (east of Town of Vienna and just south of the City of Falls Church) zones would be fine as well in that price range.
Relatively few SFHs in the Woodson or Marshall districts are available for less than $550K. In the Marshall district, at least, one would be primarily limited to Pimmit Hills and some homes in Dunn Loring Woods. The other Marshall students who live in SFHs live in the 22182 zip code, which is the most expensive zip code in Vienna, or fairly expensive parts of Dunn Loring (22027) or Falls Church (22043). If the OP were open to considering townhouses, I guess he'd have more options in these areas.
Quote:
Originally Posted by stpickrell
Herndon and Centreville would be a longer commute w/o that much in savings.
Agree here - it would be a fairly long commute, and the OP's housing dollars would be competing with folks who work in the Dulles Corredor/Route 28/Tysons areas, not Ballston.
Quote:
Originally Posted by stpickrell
Keep in mind bad by Northern Virginia is good by any other standards. A school like Stuart will be "2/3 top-notch college prep kids" plus "1/3 just sort of marking time" as opposed to say Madison or Oakton which is 80/20 and McLean/Langley which are like 90/10.
I'm not sure that even 2/3 of the current graduates at Stuart (which has high percentages of lower-income students and students who don't speak English as a primary language) are "top-notch college prep kids," but that doesn't mean they are "just sort of marking time." Some could be in vocational courses, acquiring technical skills, while others might join the military after they graduate. Others might be less-than-top-notch students who head off to community college, the first in their families to do so.
I'd submit that the relevant question is whether a school supports the aspirations of all its students, rather than the percentage of students at the school that can be labeled "top-notch college prep kids." The good thing about virtually all NoVa high schools is that students who do aspire to attend college can surround themselves with a cohort of equally motivated peers. I'm less confident that the converse is true (i.e., a student at Annandale who wants to attend a four-year college may get a lot of support, but a student at Langley who might be best served by taking vocational courses may end up a fish out of water).
Sorry, I did mention "if you want a TH or condo, your options open up" but not together ... so yeah, there ain't no SFH's in Falls Church City for <$550k except maybe a COMPLETE fixer-upper/teardown. But if OP is cool with a condo or TH, FCC is an option.
You're right in that OP might be underwhelmed by a 30-50 y/o, 3BR/1-2BA rambler on 1/5-1/3 acre, that is in average to pretty well good shape.
I thank you for your rephrasing about the student bodies at Stuart, Madison, McLean, etc. At *every* HS in Northern Virginia (except maybe Freedom in PWC) there is a medium to large cohort of kids that are going to get 1800+ on the SAT, and go to a four year college or NOVA/four-year college. This cohort is probably larger (as a % of the student body) at the "higher-rated" schools but on the flip side there is probably more competition/stress/etc.
Out of curiosity, what's wrong with Pimmit Hills and Dunn Loring Woods? Older homes, to be sure, not as glamorous as the town of Vienna and definitely not the areas north/west of the town, but hardly terrible neighborhoods.
A simple search on an MLS site revealed 12 houses on 0.20 acre lots or more where I put in "HS=Marshall." 23 houses for "HS=Woodson." Slim pickings, older homes, but hardly "non-existent."
By comparison, that's more than what was available for "HS=Stone Bridge" and comparable to what was available for "HS=Potomac Falls."
If you want fully new and under $550k, you'll need to move to Front Royal (woohoo!) or Winchester.
Out of curiosity, what's wrong with Pimmit Hills and Dunn Loring Woods? Older homes, to be sure, not as glamorous as the town of Vienna and definitely not the areas north/west of the town, but hardly terrible neighborhoods.
A simple search on an MLS site revealed 12 houses on 0.20 acre lots or more where I put in "HS=Marshall." 23 houses for "HS=Woodson." Slim pickings, older homes, but hardly "non-existent."
There's nothing wrong with Pimmit Hills or Dunn Loring Woods (and the latter is pretty similar to Vienna Woods in the Town of Vienna, though I wouldn't really call either "glamorous"). OTOH, if someone is coming from an area where $450K buys a spacious, modern four-bedroom SFH, he may go into cardiac arrest when he finds out what that does - or doesn't - get you in the Tysons/Vienna area. As long as he's willing to have a longer commute, there's going to be less "sticker shock" in West Springfield/Burke. And the good news for him, at least, is that he doesn't have to cross a bridge into DC, so that will save some time.
Nor did I mean to suggest there weren't any properties in this price range in the Woodson or Marshall districts; I'm sure there are some in both. But, again, the pickings may be relatively slim compared to those in other parts of NoVa. For example, if one checked sales since the beginning of 2009 in Falls Hill, which is an older but very nice neighborhood in the 22043/Falls Church zip code that feeds into Marshall, you'd find that, out of over 20 sales, less than a handful were below $550K. So, if someone said they were trying to stay under $750K, a neighborhood like that would be great, but it's less likely to pan out with a smaller budget.
So how long would the commute be from the Kings Park area if I took the Vienna Metro if I left at 6:30?? Would it be about 1/2 hour to 45 minutes? I believe once I got on the metro it would only be about 15 minutes to the Ballston stop and the office is literally a block from Ballston.
It would probably take you about 15-20 minutes to drive to the Metro, and then the 15-20 minutes on the train, at that hour. You should come in under an hour, since parking should not be a hassle at 6:30. Later in the morning, the garages/lots do fill up, but at 6:30, it would be a non-issue.
You could even drive to Ballston in less than an hour from KPW, but the return commute would likely take longer due to school traffic and beginnings of rush hour. If you do drive, some days, avoid I-66W from Ballston as it has heavy volume from around 3:00 and becomes HOV during rush hour; and, you must clear the HOV area before the restrictions come into play at 4:00 until 6:30.
__________________
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)
If you are able to set your hours as you plan then you should definitely consider Kings Park West and other neighborhoods close-by, including parts of Annandale.
I second the motion. Check out Canterbury Woods, Willow Woods, or my favorite--Truro. I just saw a Truro house listed for $475K. Nice new kitchen.
Although I dont share the belief that some school pyramids are better academically for children than others (all Fairfax schools are good), from an investment point of view you are probably better off with a house in one of the sought-after pyramids--like Woodson. (There are others but probably out of your price range).
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