Buying in Falls Church between 29 and 50 (tyler park / woodley north) (Lake Barcroft: sales, 2015)

[DagSocks]

Decent homes go on the market and under contract in a few days. I've been searching for a couple years now.


A few years ago I considered the area between 29 and 50 in Falls Church and then dismissed it because of the amount of vans and other vehicles parked in the streets. I didn't seem like a place I wanted to live.


Reading the census data back then confirmed my gut feeling that lots of residents spoke no English, had no high school education, and certain crime metrics were above the national average. I'm ok with living in a working class neighborhood, with immigrants, but the crime and resale potential concerned me back then.


I drove through the neighborhood this morning and it seemed different. Most cars were nicer than mine, people out jogging at 5am, etc.


Has this area (tyler park, Woodley north) improved over the past couple years?


As some of you know, houses in this area are 100-200K+ cheaper than the neighborhoods north of lee highway.


City data with 2010 census data: https://www.city-data.com/neighborhoo...Church-VA.html




Assuming the same priced housed, what is your opinion on Tyler Park/Woodley North compared to the Pimmit Hills neighborhood?






Thanks.




Thanks, it's frustrating looking for homes in my price range near work.

[DagSocks]

bump

[Old Guard]

I would prefer to stay "inside" Graham Rd. here but I admit I do not know too much about the area besides driving past it for decades. 29 past Graham is not the nicest, Graham is not the nicest but when I was looking there were some houses that were just beyond Graham, but off Graham, that were nice.

Personally I think the Mozaic and the new Innova center that this area has nowhere to go but up.

Things I would look for are parking and cut through traffic.

I would drive through there are rush hour to see how much cut through traffic the street you are looking at would get and I would look to see what parking is like late and early mornings on the weekends.

With Falls Church, Mosaic and Tyson's expanding I do not see why this area will not improve.

[Fallout Zone]

We considered buying in that area in 2009, but eventually decided to stretch our funds and go north of Lee Hwy. We have friends who did end up in Tyler Park. The generally like the neighborhood, but still talk about the potential for leaving before their daughter reaches elementary school age. I can't give you anything firsthand though. I'm sure you've looked at Greenway Downs - there seems to be more options there at the moment. I rented temporarily in that neighborhood and liked it.

Pimmit is a bit different in that the Metro expansion has really sped up the "teardown" gentrification of the area. It really looks like prices have moved up significantly. Everything that isn't a 3/1 type 1950s house is going for over $600k and the new builds are $1M+.

[ffx rez]

What is the crime difference between when you were first looking and now? If you're fine with immigrants in a working class neighborhood, per your original post, then that seems to be the only metric that would influence you

[DagSocks]

Originally Posted by Old Guard

I would prefer to stay "inside" Graham Rd. here but I admit I do not know too much about the area besides driving past it for decades. 29 past Graham is not the nicest, Graham is not the nicest but when I was looking there were some houses that were just beyond Graham, but off Graham, that were nice.

Personally I think the Mozaic and the new Innova center that this area has nowhere to go but up.

Things I would look for are parking and cut through traffic.

I would drive through there are rush hour to see how much cut through traffic the street you are looking at would get and I would look to see what parking is like late and early mornings on the weekends.

With Falls Church, Mosaic and Tyson's expanding I do not see why this area will not improve.

Thanks that's great advice

[JD984]

That general area (22042) is seeing some decent appreciation. Overall, I think Tyler Park is still the least attractive neighborhood between 29 and 50, compared to City Park Homes, Greenway Downs and Pine Spring. Realistically, the areas zoned for Timber Lane ES, Pine Spring ES and Beech Tree ES probably will attract more buyers than the area zoned for Graham Road ES.

Pimmit Hills has higher rated schools and more teardowns; it's really more comparable now to some other areas in 22043 near 66 than to 22042. There is some teardown/new construction in 22042, but not the same volume.

[midlifeman]

We moved a few years ago from fenwick park (right next to tyler park). It was a great area. We walked over to the park all the time and felt completely safe. There is even a church in the neighborhood. It's much better than pimmit hills in my opinion. Pimmit hills is a mix of small original houses and recent mcmansions and it's too close to noisy and traffic ridden tysons. We made a profit when we sold our house even though we bought it near the peak (2006). I believe tyler park even had a volunteer association. At least I always saw the signs about meetings and such.

Here is what I like about the area since I was there:
A new Giant Across the street, A new school on graham, easy access to lee/50 and beltway, a good mix of white and blue collar, Mosaic town center, defense health agency (bringing jobs), close to providence rec center, and close to INOVA fairfax. You really can't get any better than this.

The houses need a little updating, and that's what we did with our cape cod. Everyone buys these ranches or cape cods and fixes them up. Nothing but guaranteed appreciation here!

[JD984]

I just saw some statistics that indicated that 22042, 22043 and 22044 all saw nice appreciation from 2014 to 2015. Median sales prices were up 5.6% in 22042 (which includes Tyler Park), 6.5% in 22043 (which includes Pimmit Hills) and 9.2% in 22044 (which includes the Sleepy Hollow area and part of Lake Barcroft).

[ameridreamNoT]

I am in the 22042 area and must say there are some pros and cons. People bought better cars yet, but I wouldn't weigh on that as the community has gotten better. A lot of Hispanics who came to rent out on the single home families and parking has been a little tighter at night. Overall, crime is less, cops do their nightly check all the time. And it is true, these are city locations so a lot of businesses and restaurants are around the corners.

schools aren't that great and I don't think I will let my kids go there...which means we will move to better area somewhere in VA.