Move from Leesburg to Winchester (Reston, Chantilly: apartment, mortgage, house)

[NOVAGIRL777]

Hey,

I just wanted to get some opinions from people in the Northern VA area about living in Winchester, VA and commuting to Northern VA. I've been living in an apartment for a couple of years, and would really like to own a home...but the only problem is that I can't afford anything decent around Northern VA except in Winchester.

Is it worth it to have a nice house with an hour commute? My job allows me to work from home one day a week, so I wasn't sure if 4 days a week would be that bad. A lot of my friends live in either Winchester or Charles town, WV and they commute down to the Sterling/Ashburn/Chantilly area. They all have mixed feelings about it.

Any thoughts or insight would be greatly appreciated :-)

[stpickrell]

where in northern va is your job? typically with 7 and the Greenway ($$$), Winchester is a better commute -- especially to Loudoun County and NW Fairfax.

[snowdenscold]

Originally Posted by NOVAGIRL777

Hey,

I just wanted to get some opinions from people in the Northern VA area about living in Winchester, VA and commuting to Northern VA. I've been living in an apartment for a couple of years, and would really like to own a home...but the only problem is that I can't afford anything decent around Northern VA except in Winchester.

Is it worth it to have a nice house with an hour commute? My job allows me to work from home one day a week, so I wasn't sure if 4 days a week would be that bad. A lot of my friends live in either Winchester or Charles town, WV and they commute down to the Sterling/Ashburn/Chantilly area. They all have mixed feelings about it.

Any thoughts or insight would be greatly appreciated :-)

Don't forget to factor in your commuting costs:

Let's compare a Winchester to Reston commute, vs. living within 2.5 miles of Reston. And assume you take the Greenway during rush hour.

52 mile difference (54.5 - 2.5), * 2 ways * 50 cents/mile (gas + wear/tear) + $5.90 toll each way = ~$64 each day.

$64 * 4 days a week * 4.3 weeks/mo = $1,109 extra a month in commuting.

So make sure you subtract that from your rent/mortgage savings. Though of course if your friends are really all out in Winchester and Charles Town and you end up going there a lot, that cancels out quite a bit.

[Middlin]

1 hour? Move in with one of the friends and try it for a couple of months. Seriously though, that is a lot of mileage although you don't indicate where you work and far your commute is now. Consider that if you work 1 day a week from home that is still roughly 208 days a year.

My 2 cents, owning is not the end all be all. I'm glad I waited and did the room mate thing for a long time to grow my savings. I liked being able to be flexible with my plans, wasn't tied to one location (especially that far out), but only you can determine "worth".

[LynchburgLover]

Don't forget to figure in Mount Weather on Route 7. It can really mess up a commute if there is heavy rain, snow, ice, fog or, the worst, an accident. There really aren't alternate routes around it without going MILES out of the way. It looks like a beautiful hill with incredible view when the weather is nice but .... It gets ugly very quickly.

Winchester is a great small city but I think the commute would get old very quickly.

Best of luck.

[FindingZen]

The preceding posts in this thread were moved from another thread to maintain their respective relevance.

[jillybean720]

It really depends on your own personal commuting tolerance. I would hate it. I hated living in Woodbridge and commuting to Herndon, then Woodbridge to Merrifield, then Sterling to Merrifield - hated them all. Now I live in Sterling and work in Sterling, and I am SO much happier. It would take an extremely drastic salary increase or something to make me go back to commuting 45+ minutes each way.

And it's not like I did "the grind" for years and years and got worn down - I'm only 31.

[spencgr]

Originally Posted by jillybean720

It really depends on your own personal commuting tolerance.

I absolutely agree with this. I moved because my commute was so horrible (45+ minutes) from Sterling to DC. Ironically, I moved to a house that was further (Middleburg) and doubled the commute to 1.5 hours. But, the actual commute is a thousand times better, because I'm not normally sitting in traffic. It's long, but I'm usually moving.

So, it's not just the length of commute, but the type of traffic you are in. Everyone has different tolerances, only you can tell if this would be too much for you.

[venture2000]

I live in Jefferson County, WV and work nights in Ashburn, VA. I relocated to the area in 2007 and was shocked at the high cost of housing and in effect was priced out of the Northern VA market.

I bought a house in Ranson, WV and have been doing the commuting thing for five years as of next month. I travel 78 miles a day and almost 400 miles a week just to save money on the mortgage and property taxes.

I also own three cars (two of them are under 60,000 miles and the other is about 131,000 miles) so the wear and tear is distributed across all three of them.

I am currently re-evaluating my decision to live out here. Within the last few weeks two of my three cars went down for the count, both in need of major, major repairs (despite me taking very very good care of them) which is killing my budget and the amount of money I have saved living further out. If my third car goes down I am screwed.

I have been tracking my expenses for the last five years and discovered that in 2012 I spent $5000 on fuel costs alone! I am still in the process of calculating the other expenses including car repairs.

I am presently considering moving from WV back into Northern VA just to have a shorter commute and to spare my vehicles (and the fact that there is a lot more going on in Loudoun county vs Jefferson county).

Winchester is further out than the Charles Town and Ranson area. If I were you, I wouldn't do it. Find yourself some room mates and share a house and save the wear and tear on your vehicle and stockpile that cash for the next recession.

[billscamaros]

It's definitely a long drive. I commute daily from Charles Town to Fairfax. I spend approx $350/month in gas, and approx $120/month in Greenway tolls (homebound commute). Commuting time is approx 2.5 hours a day. The drive in is a little quicker than the commute home.

I wouldn't worry too much about Mount Weather. There will probably be a few days (5?) per year that you want to avoid the drive due to snow or bad weather.

It seems to me that it comes down to how badly you want that perfect house. If you truly love where you live, then the commute will be worth it. If you could be happy in a much smaller place closer in, then go that route. My kids have done really well here in Charles Town, so it's been worth it to me. Once they have moved onto college and beyond, we'll have to make the decision on whether to remain here or move closer to work.

Best wishes.