Neighborhood recommendation (Burke, Reston, Annandale: sale, HOA fees, how much)

[spencgr]

Originally Posted by bavariantransplant

This is very disheartening, I cant understand how one can accept being in a car 3-4 hours a day on top of an entire day at work. I am going to have to think long and hard about this or my other choice of St Petersburg, FL.

One more thing to consider......you said your older ones are in high school, correct? Starting a new school can always be tough, but it can be especially tough joining a high school in your sophomore, junior or senior years. Groups of friends have already formed, and sometimes can be exclusionary. The NoVA region is a very transient area, so the kids in the schools here are extremely used to moving, changing schools, and new students coming in at any time of the year. I would think the kids around here would be more open to outsiders than say the kids in St. Petersburg; where the chances that 90% of the classes have been together since Kindergarten are extremely high.

[CAVA1990]

Keep in mind nearly all the close in suburban communities that would be large enough to have community pools were built decades ago. Most of the new homes in my area of Fairfax County are in smaller in-fill neighborhoods that don't have common amenities.

[Nancy in Nokomis]

Go to beautiful St. Pete and live in a huge home.

- the quality of life here in NOVA is terrible, crowded, horrible traffic, cold people, cut throat - and you either commute for hours or live in a small old house

[marie5v]

Originally Posted by bavariantransplant

One of us would only be going to G Street 2-3 days a week otherwise working at home. The other working 7pm to 7am and 7am to 7pm alternating shifts, so basically having to be at or leaving work on the 7's.

Recent constuction, hopefully one we choose to build.

I think you have two problems:

1. G street commute isn't gonna' happen anywhere near your price range (and almost not at all no matter what). You will have to accept something over an hour, possibly on metro. Not sure where or when VRE runs from Burke, but that is also a possibility. Probably still going to be a long commute, though.

2. You can't plan for both Leesburg and Falls Church Inova locations. They are just too far apart. Being anywhere near one means being too far from the other. And if it's Leesburg your G street commute just increased to closer to 2 hours (it's easiest from Leesburg on VRE, or so I hear from friends who live there, but still almost 2 hours).

Perhaps one compromise might be the Burke/Fairfax area. It works in your price range, the commute to Inova is a little longer in heavy traffic (but this is NoVa - 45 minutes isn't really that awful), schools are good, and there is a VRE there that you could take to DC. Not sure about the drive to DC, but it's probably an hour, certainly less without traffic. You might look in the area near GMU, the Middleridge neighborhood on Sideburn (has several pools), Bonnie Brae and some other areas just south and east of there going into Burke. If you look at a map that would be the area south of Braddock Road and West of Guinea Road. However, this would be too far from Leesburg.

Maybe you should try renting until you know better where everyone will be.

[bavariantransplant]

Originally Posted by spencgr

One more thing to consider......you said your older ones are in high school, correct? Starting a new school can always be tough, but it can be especially tough joining a high school in your sophomore, junior or senior years. Groups of friends have already formed, and sometimes can be exclusionary. The NoVA region is a very transient area, so the kids in the schools here are extremely used to moving, changing schools, and new students coming in at any time of the year. I would think the kids around here would be more open to outsiders than say the kids in St. Petersburg; where the chances that 90% of the classes have been together since Kindergarten are extremely high.

Thanks for the insight. My children would be returning and starting in 11th, 8th and kindergarten, I know, lol, quite a big age difference. They also have lived out of America for over 5 years with only my oldest really remembering life in America.

This is also the reason why I was trying to avoid renting because I am very sensitive to making my kids move to yet another school once we would buy but it seems buying is a lot more complicated in terms of location then I had thought.

I just keep getting mixed answers about this commute, I have had people tell me the commute from Loudoun County is around an hour and others say 2 hours. Now if I can take public transportation and be at work in about an hour then thats acceptable, 2 hours is not.

[kww]

Originally Posted by marie5v

I think you have two problems:

1. G street commute isn't gonna' happen anywhere near your price range (and almost not at all no matter what). You will have to accept something over an hour, possibly on metro. Not sure where or when VRE runs from Burke, but that is also a possibility. Probably still going to be a long commute, though.

2. You can't plan for both Leesburg and Falls Church Inova locations. They are just too far apart. Being anywhere near one means being too far from the other. And if it's Leesburg your G street commute just increased to closer to 2 hours (it's easiest from Leesburg on VRE, or so I hear from friends who live there, but still almost 2 hours).

Perhaps one compromise might be the Burke/Fairfax area. It works in your price range, the commute to Inova is a little longer in heavy traffic (but this is NoVa - 45 minutes isn't really that awful), schools are good, and there is a VRE there that you could take to DC. Not sure about the drive to DC, but it's probably an hour, certainly less without traffic. You might look in the area near GMU, the Middleridge neighborhood on Sideburn (has several pools), Bonnie Brae and some other areas just south and east of there going into Burke. If you look at a map that would be the area south of Braddock Road and West of Guinea Road. However, this would be too far from Leesburg.

Maybe you should try renting until you know better where everyone will be.

only thing about burke/fairfax is the TS wanted a newer home.. won't find anything in that price range that isn't 30+ years old

[LynchburgLover]

Well, here's a completely different idea. Poolesville, Maryland. The Leesburg person could go right over the ferry to Leesburg. The G Street person could drive to Point of Rocks and take the MARC train into DC. The houses are fairly large and in that price range if not brand new. The schools are good and it's a small town with a large community pool with swim teams etc.

[cdmurphy]

Originally Posted by bavariantransplant

I just keep getting mixed answers about this commute, I have had people tell me the commute from Loudoun County is around an hour and others say 2 hours. Now if I can take public transportation and be at work in about an hour then thats acceptable, 2 hours is not.

The bus from the Leesburg commuter lot (or any of the Ashburn area lots) is about an hour to 18th and G, according to the schedule. From the Dulles North lot, slightly under an hour. (There is no VRE train from Leesburg. You'd have to drive way up out of your way to Point of Rocks, MD to take MARC.)

Inova Loudoun has a Leesburg mailing address, but it's in Lansdowne, which is practically Ashburn, which is where you've seen the houses you've been looking at.

[airjay75]

I would just keep in mind that when some people talk about the length of their commute they are talking about door to door times while others are just talking about the length of their train or bus ride. For example, I live about 1.2 miles from the Franconia-Springfield Metro, which I drive to every morning and take a 30-minute train ride (according to the Metro website) to the Archives Metro and walk about 2 blocks to my office. Now, when someone asks me about my commute, if I wanted to make it sound better than it really was, I could say that I have about a 30 minute train ride into DC. If I want to be accurate, I give people the door to door time which is much closer to an hour (driving to the Metro parking lot, going round and round the parking structure to get to a level with parking, walking to the train platform, waiting for the next train, waiting for any delays while on Metro, getting off of Metro at Archives where there is one escalator that is always jammed with people, and then a short walk to the office).

So, an hour bus ride from somewhere is probably going to be 1.5-2 hours door to door when you add up the time you leave the door of your home before you get on the bus and it starts to move and the time it takes you to get from where the bus drops you off to your office.

That said, sitting on a bus or a train is not as draining of a commute in my opinion than driving in traffic - just my opinion though.

[CAVA1990]

Big houses are over-rated. If I were in your shoes I'd buy something smaller and older, but in a more convenient location. Kids are grown and gone in no time.