Would you buy a house in Ashburn now, why or why not? (Manassas: how much, house prices)

[DCmum]

I currently leave in Ashburn (rent) and have been here for about 2 years, I have a 3 year old daughter and it is a nice, safe, area, child friendly. I am considering buying in a few months and I was thinking about buying in Ashburn since I already know the area and like it. I love that it is a safe, new area with lots of shopping options around, don't care too much about night/bar life. However my major drawbacks are : 1 traffic, I currently work in Herndon and it can take 30-40 minutes sometimes for me to get to my job. So in the future, unless I always get a job in the Dulles Corridor, my commute would be brutal. Schools: Loudoun does not have a full day kindergarten, how do working mothers make this work? I need to work full-time, I am a single mother. The other drawback with schools is the rezoning they are currently going through so no idea where your kids are going to end up eventually. These are the concerns I currently have, other than that I do like the community, though people mostly say young single people wouldn’t be happy in Ashburn, I am perfectly fine living here ( I am 30 years old) and do not find it bland or boring at all. I considered areas in Fairfax but thought I’d get more house in Loudoun. My question for you is , is this a good time to buy in Ashburn? Are houses overvalued? Do they have good future resale value? Given the bad traffic, would you advise someone who hasn’t bought yet to buy in Ashburn? Why or why not? Thanks a lot for your input.

[PolandSprings]

We were not interested in Loudoun for a few of the reasons you cited - half day kindergarten, traffic, and all the future rezoning for schools. We happily chose a smaller, older home in Fairfax to reduce the likelyhood of these issues. I'm sure lots of people don't think twice about these issues, though. You really need to decide for yourself if you can handle a longer commute should it come to that. We've done long commutes and it is really hard, now factor in a kid and it is just not worth it for me. But if you are ok with it, you will use before and after care to make it work. Factor that cost though into your budget.

[DCmum]

I think I could tolerate a commute of up to an hour but not more than that. The Dulles Corridor is a good area for jobs so the situation of having to drive to DC might never come up but the half day kindergarten is really a bummer. Thanks for sharing

[AuthenticNOVA]

Originally Posted by DCmum

I currently leave in Ashburn (rent) and have been here for about 2 years, I have a 3 year old daughter and it is a nice, safe, area, child friendly. I am considering buying in a few months and I was thinking about buying in Ashburn since I already know the area and like it. I love that it is a safe, new area with lots of shopping options around, don't care too much about night/bar life. However my major drawbacks are : 1 traffic, I currently work in Herndon and it can take 30-40 minutes sometimes for me to get to my job. So in the future, unless I always get a job in the Dulles Corridor, my commute would be brutal. Schools: Loudoun does not have a full day kindergarten, how do working mothers make this work? I need to work full-time, I am a single mother. The other drawback with schools is the rezoning they are currently going through so no idea where your kids are going to end up eventually. These are the concerns I currently have, other than that I do like the community, though people mostly say young single people wouldn’t be happy in Ashburn, I am perfectly fine living here ( I am 30 years old) and do not find it bland or boring at all. I considered areas in Fairfax but thought I’d get more house in Loudoun. My question for you is , is this a good time to buy in Ashburn? Are houses overvalued? Do they have good future resale value? Given the bad traffic, would you advise someone who hasn’t bought yet to buy in Ashburn? Why or why not? Thanks a lot for your input.

Regarding your two concerns, I wouldn't worry about them too much. Traffic is thick throughout the DMV area and applies to everyone. My current position puts me on the road more often during the day compared to a few years back and there are numerous times I've noticed traffic is worse during the day (off-peak hours) then during my daily commute.

The school zoning situation in Loudoun while important seems to be a bit exaggerated at times. Schools in the county overall are very good, especially in Ashburn so how much difference will rezoning really make? Schools and neighborhoods will evolve over time as well, especially with the continued residential development as well as the metro coming West.

I think your decision needs to be made from a more macro level. Some things to consider, how much do you like Ashburn? How long do you plan to stay in the area? Are you financially ready to purchase? Will housing really stay flat or go down in price? Impacts of natural inflation over time?

Not being a realtor, having purchased a property at the bottom, and another one recently, I do believe now is a good time to buy for long term financially stable individuals.

[DCmum]

Originally Posted by AuthenticNOVA

Regarding your two concerns, I wouldn't worry about them too much. Traffic is thick throughout the DMV area and applies to everyone. My current position puts me on the road more often during the day compared to a few years back and there are numerous times I've noticed traffic is worse during the day (off-peak hours) then during my daily commute.

The school zoning situation in Loudoun while important seems to be a bit exaggerated at times. Schools in the county overall are very good, especially in Ashburn so how much difference will rezoning really make? Schools and neighborhoods will evolve over time as well, especially with the continued residential development as well as the metro coming West.

I think your decision needs to be made from a more macro level. Some things to consider, how much do you like Ashburn? How long do you plan to stay in the area? Are you financially ready to purchase? Will housing really stay flat or go down in price? Impacts of natural inflation over time?

Not being a realtor, having purchased a property at the bottom, and another one recently, I do believe now is a good time to buy for long term financially stable individuals.

Yes , I am ready to buy right now and Ashburn is convenient to my job (Herndon). I do like living here and rarely go outside of the Dulles area to be honest. I think I have been to DC 5 times in the past year or so. Now, about the home prices in Ashburn, I get mixed feelings, some people say they are inflated and will go down and others are saying now is a good time to buy. I am not a realtor and don’t know much about the future of home prices besides what I read on the internet and discussions with a few friends, so I really don’t know if now the perfect is ultimately time to buy? Some people are also saying that traffic will just get worse in the Ashburn area in the next 5-10 years as more people will move in and the commute will then be so horrendous that no one would want to live there which will bring house prices down. It is just a difficult decision to make no matter how you look at it. I think one plus for me is I already live in the area and I’m pretty familiar with everything around here, my daughter goes to a good preschool that we love , so buying here would not dramatically change our lives. But on the other hand, I have people telling me do not do it, you will regret it, Ashburn is the boonies and you will end up miserable in the long run




Hello

[bsh5w]

I just purchased a home in Leesburg in February (shopped Ashburn and Sterling too). The prices are going up, and at a faster rate in Ashburn as it's in more demand because of the schools. I still browse listings sometimes and already see the increases when compared to Jan/Feb. I would say buy sooner than later as the interest rates have likely bottomed out and will be going up as well.
We just got through the year of half-day kindergarten. There are plenty of after-school programs for Kindergarteners around Loudoun. We chose a taekwondo school that picked up my son everyday from school at 10:50am and watched him until 6:30pm. He loved it and still goes there (including winter, spring, and summer camps).

[reebo]

Please don't let one school year of 1/2 day kindergarten wag this dog. It's only for 9 months. As other posters mentioned, there are afterschool programs for kindergartners.

[DCmum]

Originally Posted by bsh5w

I just purchased a home in Leesburg in February (shopped Ashburn and Sterling too). The prices are going up, and at a faster rate in Ashburn as it's in more demand because of the schools. I still browse listings sometimes and already see the increases when compared to Jan/Feb. I would say buy sooner than later as the interest rates have likely bottomed out and will be going up as well.
We just got through the year of half-day kindergarten. There are plenty of after-school programs for Kindergarteners around Loudoun. We chose a taekwondo school that picked up my son everyday from school at 10:50am and watched him until 6:30pm. He loved it and still goes there (including winter, spring, and summer camps).

If you don't mind sharing more about that taekwondo program ( I think its the one in the shopping center with the CVS?), how much do they charge? what do the kids do till 6? You are right, prices are rising and that is why I want to buy sooner rather than later. Thank you!

[DCmum]

Originally Posted by reebo

Please don't let one school year of 1/2 day kindergarten wag this dog. It's only for 9 months. As other posters mentioned, there are afterschool programs for kindergartners.

Yeh, I guess I need to look more into these afterschool programs and also factor in the cost. Thank you!

[Middlin]

There is a lot of value in the devil you know versus the devil you don't. We moved to Bristow in 2003 due to financial hardship. Hindsight is 20/20, and if you base it all on the math, we should have stayed where we were in Fairfax County. Would we have gone into debt? Yes, but eventually we would have recovered. Do I regret it? I guess that depends on the day you ask me. We really got involved in our community and our son has thrived in the schools, sports and the friends that we've all made. When we could afford to in 2009, we ultimately decided to stay and bought a SFH which we could not have done in Fairfax County. I typically have a 40 minute commute (20 miles) and my husband used to work 5 miles from our house but now works in Herndon. He drives a hybrid but a lot of days it takes 1 hour and of course on a bad day it can longer. We really love this area and we couldn't imagine going back. Funny, the traffic in our area has just gotten better. Taking Sudley Manor all the way through to Manassas. Straigtening Balls Ford/Devlin, widening Linton Hall Rd, the two extensions on 66.......But of course, we do expect as they continue to develop this area it will get worse especially if they don't bring VRE to Gainesville and expand the bus service.

So I guess my advice is do you think you could move even just a few miles down 28 to another community where you would be just as happy eventually and potentially save a lot of the commute time to get OUT of Ashburn, or avoid the worse parts of 28? Not living in Ashburn, I don't the bang for your buck living there as opposed to some of the other communities south of the Toll Rd.