Help:Moving to NoVA and overwhelmed... School, town home and so on...

[choff5]

Originally Posted by nu2nva

JfromReston, thanks a lot for your input. This is really helpful.
I do have to share that my husband's office is going to be in Herndon instead of Reston and so we started doing research on schools and rental properties in Herndon. It seems that Zip code 20171 has some good schools including Oak Hill and McNair. There are some new or newly renovated town homes available within the zip code as well for rental and my husband's office will be 5 minutes drive from those properties. However, here are some of our concerns:

Herndon:
The town homes are right next to Dulles airport and airport noise is going to be a big factor? Can others staying in this Zip code please confirm?
Oak Hill seems like a much better school as compared to McNair but we are not sure if it would be the "assigned" school for us even though both schools are in the same Zip code?

Reston:
Reston sounds like a great area for raising kids. However, we are not finding any schools with high ratings such a 5 star on schooldigger or a 9/10 on greatschools.

JfromReston posted some good options for properties within our budget but we prefer newer properties and town homes and I'm not sure if that's a possibility in Reston?

I'm even more confused now with only a few weeks left in our moving date. Do I need to start looking at Vienna and Fairfax?

Much of the flight patterns in and out of Dulles are north and south so my guess is there is not that much noise in the Oak Hill area. I really don't think it's an issue east of the airport in general but others who live there can speak to that.

As for schools, use the FCPS boundary link to see what specific addresses are assigned, FCPS Boundary Locator. As many people will say, you really can't go wrong in any of the FCPS schools. The demographics will be different so that will be your personal preference, but the curriculum is the same. Use the schools profiles for information more so than Great Schools, you can find that here, Fairfax County Public Schools - Schools and Centers Directory Put in a school name. Once there, click on the profile link and check ALL the tabs on the profile and you will find a lot of information. Then look at the schools website, a d even their PTA website to get a feel for the place.

Good luck"

[Old Monkey]

I agree with the previous posters that Ashburn sounds best suited to your stated needs.

[FindingZen]

My sincere apologies to JfromReston. In trying to keep in the spirit of the Terms of Service, I chose to delete property links she posted from the MRIS website thinking that it was real estate advertising. As it turns out, I was reminded by a few people, including fellow moderators I consulted, that MRIS had already been determined to be a generic MLS site and was fine to reference in the forum. While I can restore deleted posts, I regret that I cannot restore the edits.

It just goes to show that even moderators make mistakes. Again, my apologies.

[stpickrell]

If you're going to insist on a newer TH with a 9/10 school on Greatschools, then Ashburn is your only choice. I'm guessing you can get in at $2200-$2500/month for there.

[lqda4]

Originally Posted by nu2nva

Our priorities include finding the best school(s) and a decent town home (to rent, budget range:$1750 to $2500 monthly).

I live in Oak Hill area (20171). There are several detached homes here with rent within the $2500 limit. PM me if you need me to find out more for you. It's a decent commute to Reston (via Reston parkway).

[Off4Fun]

I have owned a townhouse in Reston for 7 years. We love it here for some reasons (pools, paths), but are trying to get out before our oldest goes to public school, because not all schools in Reston are great. Be careful with the Great Schools rating, as it is based on test scores, which doesn't equate to good schools/teachers, just those who are good at helping children take tests. check out some forums as well. Some elementary schools in the very northern part of Reston are fine, where you will also find the newer homes (not likely townhouses, but SFH well over $750K). Worst part about Reston for us is the double HOA fees to our neighborhood and to Reston Association. Not worth the cost. We also would prefer more independent stores and restaurants. The chains get old quickly. We have noticed more crime and more traffic in recent years as well, at least in the southern parts if Reston.

[Mike from back east]

To the OP, we fled NoVA in 2005 for Colorado and are so glad we did....the gridlock in NOVA was just suffocating. Moral of the story: live as close to work as possible.

We lived in Herndon when first married...long time ago...don't ask

We lived in Chantilly for 28 years and know the area around Herndon fairly well.

One area to look into would be just south of Herndon, along Centreville Rd in the area of Kinross Circle. For whatever reasons, google maps refers to that area as Chantilly Highlands, but Chantilly-proper is really over on Rte 50.

The suggested area is a sweet spot of sorts, giving you easy access to Sully Rd (Rte 28), Lee Jackson Hwy (Rte 50), Dulles Toll Road (Rte 267), Fairfax County Parkway (Rte 286) and a quick shot into Herndon, but far enough from those roads to avoid highway noise. You are near the Franklin Farms shopping area (where we shopped at Giant Food for many years) and near enough to the Greenbriar shopping area on Rte 50 and all the Herndon stuff too. And it's only a short hop over to Wegman's off of Rte 28 at Waxpool (Disneyland for Foodies).

For rentals, try padmapper.com which gives us this listing, right in your budget.

[nu2nva]

Mike: Thanks for that information. That property looks great, however it is too small since it does not have a basement.
If you can find something in the area you mentioned, that is close to 2000 sq. ft or above after including the basement, then please do let me know.

I'm going to start a separate post to look into Ashburn area as well.

[krystsyde]

Live anywhere in herndon, Reston, Chantilly, or Centreville and you will be fine.. Even Fairfax, but north of 66 where like Fair Oaks or green briar area. I'm moving to Centreville where my wife works as we speak from Manassas. I work at Fair Oaks hospital so commuting in am will be 15 minutes but pm 30 minutes, and thats only 8 miles away. Just don't go into Loudoun county. It's great but during am traffic going east in then and west in pm sucks. I moved here from the west coast, and in this crazy NOVA area driving sucks. All schools in in Fairfax will be good. People on great schools may give bad ratings, but many of them over critical. Coming from Vegas, or SO Cal schools. The worst here are better than the average there. Your price range is perfect too.

[DillThePill]

Originally Posted by nu2nva

Herndon:
The town homes are right next to Dulles airport and airport noise is going to be a big factor? Can others staying in this Zip code please confirm?
Oak Hill seems like a much better school as compared to McNair but we are not sure if it would be the "assigned" school for us even though both schools are in the same Zip code?

The McNair farms area in Herndon will be the easiest to find a newish townhouse in your price range. There are always tons for rent. I used to live there. I must have heard a plane at some point but I really can't remember it. I didn't consider it an issue at all.

Take those school ratings with a grain of salt. That rating score is derived from test scores which correlate with socioeconomic status and racial makeup. What matters are the administrators and the teachers. It's hard to score them on a numerical scale. And they come and go so don't trust anecdotal evidence that isn't very recent.