Neighborhood advice needed (Arlington, Jefferson, Williamsburg: apartments, condos, houses)

[Calfan1719]

Hi all,

We are looking to buy a house near/accessible to the East Falls Church or Ballston stop. Can anyone give specific advice about the following neighborhoods/areas, re walkability to Metro, closeness to shops, safety, quality of middle and elementary schools?

Highland Park
Westover
Leeway
Williamsburg
Highview Park

Thanks!
Julia

[Carlingtonian]

Originally Posted by Calfan1719

Hi all,

We are looking to buy a house near/accessible to the East Falls Church or Ballston stop. Can anyone give specific advice about the following neighborhoods/areas, re walkability to Metro, closeness to shops, safety, quality of middle and elementary schools?

Highland Park
Westover
Leeway
Williamsburg
Highview Park

Thanks!
Julia

We live in a neighborhood situated roughly between those two stations. Here's my take:

Highland Park: I don't recall ever hearing this name (though I'm sure someone calls it that); looks like this is area overlaps what most people call Arlington East Falls Church and part of Westover. Arlington EFC is very convenient to I-66 (and the Metro). Schools are excellent. That said, there has recently been a rash of breakins in this neighborhood, and there is some panhandling on the streets right at the Metro station. The station is not at all scary--a ton of people use it all the time--but just FYI. The area right at the Metro is being redeveloped as we speak, so there will soon be many more shops and condos there. This will probably be obvious to you if you look there, Washington Boulevard is a major artery of North Arlington, so people in the houses directly on it see and hear a good deal of traffic (and have a harder time backing out of their driveways). There's a dog park right behind the Metro, on the SW side.

Westover: This neighborhood is anchored by a small, somewhat quaint 1940s shopping area. There's a real independent hardware store, a beer garden/grocery/butcher shop, a couple of small indepedent coffee shops, a post office, a new library, and a Lebanese restaurant. So a lot of people like the area for those amenities. There are some 1930s apartments right there on the east side of the shops; they seem to be a mix of people. I believe some of the apartments are County-subsidized. But Westover has some of the most grand and expensive houses in Arlington; use Google Streetview to look at the ones on N. Jefferson (north of Wash Blvd.) and you'll see what I mean: Spacious (but tasteful) 1930s Colonials with towering oak trees. If money were no object, this street would be on my short list of places to live. (There is, alas, a string of ghastly McMansions on N. Ivanhoe now.) And the school pyramid (McKinley/Swanson/Yorktown) is excellent.

Leeway: Very affluent and quiet. Hard to beat this area. A good bit farther from the Metro, but you have Lee Highway right there with all the shops it offers. (At Lee-Harrison, there's a great Harris-Teeter and a Safeway.) This area is zoned for Yorktown HS, whose student body is more consistently wealthy than that of Washington-Lee.

Williamsburg: As I recall, it's mostly 1950s houses on large lots--so you'll see a lot of McMansions there. But great schools and easy convenience to Tysons. Not the old-money charm of Overlee Knolls or those streets in Westover I mentioned--but possibly more affordable. I believe the kids here go to Yorktown HS.

Highview Park: In the shameful days when Arlington was segregated, this was the African American enclave. It still is largely a lower-income (and mostly black) community--surrounded by very affluent neighborhoods. There have been some teardowns there, and I suspect that in 10 years it will be mostly McMansions. Good schools--[corrected] Glebe/Williamsburg/Yorktown [Thanks, Irvine!]. It's just north of Virginia Hospital Center.

There are a few other areas you might consider:

Tara-Leeway Heights: This is another area of lush old oaks and old Colonials and Capes. Just across George Mason from the hospital--so perhaps a bit close to Highview Park. (You might hear buzzing sport motorcycles late at night.)

Larchmont/Lacy Woods: Large, spacious old houses and big trees--much like Tara/northern Westover/Overlee Knolls. I believe these are almost part of Tara-Leeway Heights. It's confusing, because the County officially uses the neighborhood association boundaries, but there are smaller divisions based on when and by whom the homes were built. (E.g., Willet Heights is in Cherrydale.)

Bluemont: This is one of the largest areas, so it comprises several smaller neighborhoods. Wilson Boulevard is the major dividing line. North of Wilson, it's the same great schools as most of the neighborhoods north of I-66 and south of Lee Highway (McKinley/Swanson/Wash-Lee), though some homes are zoned for Ashlawn/Kenmore/Wash-Lee. (Kenmore, which also draws from South Arlington, is widely regarded as less desirable than Swanson.) It is not at all intuitive as to which homes are zoned to which schools, so be sure to look it up on the County address search site. Easy access to 66 via Wash Blvd., and Ballston Metro is a 10-minute bus ride down Wilson. (You can also walk to either Metrorail station on the bike path that parallels I-66.) Many streets still have big trees, and spacious prewar homes, as well as a few McMansions. The westernmost streets (closest to Bon-Air Park) are a healthy but doable walk to the shops at Westover.

South of Wilson, the schools are Ashlawn/Kenmore/Wash-Lee. There are some nice houses there, too, and prices will be lower than north of Wilson. Carlin Springs Road (to the south) is a major thoroughfare that people use to get to Route 50 or Columbia Pike, so keep that in mind.

Dominion Hills: Still mostly prewar houses here, but there are some 1950s ramblers here too, and most of the trees are not as tall or old as in the neighborhoods mentioned above. But same easy access to highways/Metro, and great schools as well. (West of Patrick Henry, the HS is Yorktown.)

Madison Manor: In addition to being very close to the EFC Metro station, this neighborhood probably has the easiest access to I-66 East (via the exit on the south side of the freeway), other than the neighborhoods near N. Glebe and Washington Boulevard. Great schools, high prices--I don't know as much in detail about this area, but I'm sure it's very nice. It's also super close to the dog park, which is just on the other side of Roosevelt. In addition to the traditional Arlington home styles, there are also some rather funky quasi-modern mid-1970s houses.

[irvine]

So I guess you didn't jump on that 3 bedroom Dominion Hills house soon enough. That really went fast.

To correct Carlingtonian, Highview Park aka Hall's hill is in the Glebe/Williamsburg/Yorktown pyramid.

Waycroft Woodlawn and Waverly Hills, just south of Hall's Hill have a mix of small as well as very large houses. Lots of tudor revival and colonials, 3 bedrooms and up. These neighborhoods are very popular because of the older styles and mature trees in addition to Metro convenience. You could walk to Ballston from there or take the bus to Ballston. Schools are either Glebe/Williamsburg/W-L or Glebe/Swanson/W-L.

There are some small houses near the East Falls Church stop that should be in your price range, and those would be less expensive than the neighborhoods like Waycroft Woodlawn that are close to Ballston. And in addition to Dominion Hills, check out MAdison Manor as Carlingtonian suggested,

[Carlingtonian]

Originally Posted by irvine

So I guess you didn't jump on that 3 bedroom Dominion Hills house soon enough. That really went fast.

Yeah, that was unreal, huh?! I'm very curious to see what it sold for. The kitchen needed updating, and it had no bathroom on the main floor--but still a good deal, I think.

Originally Posted by irvine

To correct Carlingtonian, Highview Park aka Hall's hill is in the Glebe/Williamsburg/Yorktown pyramid.

Thanky mucho! (After I wrote that, a nagging voice in my head had me questioning what I'd written earlier.)