Here are all the facts, please help us to decide where to live! (Arlington: new house, established neighborhood)

[zozoletsroll]

Hi CD family!

We are newly weds considering moving to NOVA from Silver Spring, MD, to either the mclean or langley high school districts.
*We work in DC (McPherson Square), and are looking to keep commutes around 45 minutes (by metro to DC).
*We are looking to buy a single family house with at least four bedrooms, built after 1975 (or recently renovated), that is in a quiet area, and near woods.
*Another nice to have is that there is a good neighborhood community organization.
*Our budget is under 1.1 million.


Please recommend any neighborhoods you think might be fitting for us, thank you in advance！

Also, does anyone know what silver line metro stations have easy commuter parking?

[JD984]

There is a small neighborhood off Kirby Road in Falls Church called "L'Ambiance of McLean." The name of the neighborhood is silly, but there are four bedroom houses that often come on the market for between $1.0-1.25 million. It puts you close to the West Falls Church Metro and you are near the Haycock-Longfellow Park.

If you are OK with Marshall HS rather than Langley or McLean HS, you can get a new home in Pimmit Hills for around the same price ($950K-$1.2 million). That will also put you near the West Falls Church Metro and there are a few neighborhood parks in the area. Marshall has the IB program rather than AP.

The West Falls Church Metro is on the Orange Line and has parking. There is a private lot directly adjacent to the McLean station on the Silver Line, but that is on the edge of Tysons, which does not sound like what you are looking for. There is no parking at the Silver Line neighborhoods further west that are closer to some of the Langley HS neighborhoods in your price range.

[lovemytoes]

Opinion.. I find Pimmit Hills as it stands to be an ugly neighborhood. There are a lot of old run down houses, streets are very narrow (i always see cars with broken mirrors), typically lots of speeding (well faster than I go), and road maintenance lately seems really poor. Not sure who they hired to fix their roads but they are so SLOW and in my opinion doing a poor job restoring the roads. The bright side is I do see lots of new houses being built over the last 2 or so years. The rate of tear downs does not seem as high as in other locations but nevertheless it seems folks are putting $ into that area. Have some food stores near by and also access to 495 and metro (probably not walking distance for most people).

[BrassTacksGal]

How about Vienna? There's a metro there and many houses in your price range. The schools are also very good, Thoreau middle school and Madison high school. It's a really nice town.

[FCNova]

Originally Posted by lovemytoes

Opinion.. I find Pimmit Hills as it stands to be an ugly neighborhood. There are a lot of old run down houses, streets are very narrow (i always see cars with broken mirrors), typically lots of speeding (well faster than I go), and road maintenance lately seems really poor. Not sure who they hired to fix their roads but they are so SLOW and in my opinion doing a poor job restoring the roads. The bright side is I do see lots of new houses being built over the last 2 or so years. The rate of tear downs does not seem as high as in other locations but nevertheless it seems folks are putting $ into that area. Have some food stores near by and also access to 495 and metro (probably not walking distance for most people).

Pimmit Hills is an interesting neighborhood. The location is really great, very convenient to commuter routes and prices are very reasonable. But it definitely does come across as kind of a "working class" neighborhood. I'm not really sure why. The SFHs there do tend to be very small there, unless they've been torn down or significant renovated. I guess that was the style when the developers were building there.

[JD984]

Originally Posted by FCNova

Pimmit Hills is an interesting neighborhood. The location is really great, very convenient to commuter routes and prices are very reasonable. But it definitely does come across as kind of a "working class" neighborhood. I'm not really sure why. The SFHs there do tend to be very small there, unless they've been torn down or significant renovated. I guess that was the style when the developers were building there.

I think it comes across as "working class" because it originally was a working-class area. The first homes there built in the early 1950s were small even for the era, with fewer than 900 SF and asbestos-shingled facades. The next wave of homes built in the late 1950s were similar to ramblers all over Arlington and Falls Church, with about 1350 SF.

The rate of teardowns there is still very high. A few years ago new construction there used to max out at about $975K and now new construction usually goes for $1.0-1.3 million. The builders can charge this because of the location near Metro and the fact that new construction in other parts of Falls Church/22043 and McLean generally can't be found for less than $1.4 million.

[Fallout Zone]

Originally Posted by zozoletsroll

Hi CD family!

We are newly weds considering moving to NOVA from Silver Spring, MD, to either the mclean or langley high school districts.
*We work in DC (McPherson Square), and are looking to keep commutes around 45 minutes (by metro to DC).
*We are looking to buy a single family house with at least four bedrooms, built after 1975 (or recently renovated), that is in a quiet area, and near woods.
*Another nice to have is that there is a good neighborhood community organization.
*Our budget is under 1.1 million.


Please recommend any neighborhoods you think might be fitting for us, thank you in advance！

Also, does anyone know what silver line metro stations have easy commuter parking?

Sticking at face value that you are married to the McLean or Langley areas, obviously your best commuting bet is East Falls Church (though parking is tight) and West Falls Church (much more copious, but only Orange line).

"Near woods" is a bit subjective. Almost all of the areas you would be looking are established neighborhoods with old growth trees. You could individually look at houses that are near ravines or parks, but you'd have to go through them one-by-one.

I've never found a good map of community organizations. There are a bunch of "civic associations" or the like around, but how active they are is probably widely varying. Mine has an email list serve, holds a 4th of July parade/picnic, and a holiday party. That's about it, though.

Your best bet may be the Haycock elementary school zone, which I believe is parts of 22043 Falls Church and 22101 Mclean. Obviously, your choices open up more if you are considering other high schools, such as Yorktown, George Mason, Marshall or out towards Vienna.

[skeddy]

I remember when Pimmit Hills was being built. I think the houses were less than 20K.

[JD984]

Originally Posted by Fallout Zone

Sticking at face value that you are married to the McLean or Langley areas, obviously your best commuting bet is East Falls Church (though parking is tight) and West Falls Church (much more copious, but only Orange line).

"Near woods" is a bit subjective. Almost all of the areas you would be looking are established neighborhoods with old growth trees. You could individually look at houses that are near ravines or parks, but you'd have to go through them one-by-one.

I've never found a good map of community organizations. There are a bunch of "civic associations" or the like around, but how active they are is probably widely varying. Mine has an email list serve, holds a 4th of July parade/picnic, and a holiday party. That's about it, though.

Your best bet may be the Haycock elementary school zone, which I believe is parts of 22043 Falls Church and 22101 Mclean. Obviously, your choices open up more if you are considering other high schools, such as Yorktown, George Mason, Marshall or out towards Vienna.

It is easier to find parking at the private lot adjacent to the McLean station on the Silver Line (usually about 2/3 to 3/4 full) than it is to find a space at the East Falls Church station, which although a Metro lot does not have many spaces.

[Pub-911]

For the long run, keep in mind that the private lot at McLean is a temporary facility that will ultimately vanish as the Scotts Run South parcel is developed.

Meanwhile, there are 422 all-day parking spaces in the East Falls Church Metro lot. This compares to none at stations further east, 2,009 spaces at West Falls Church, 1,326 spaces at Dunn Loring, and 5,169 spaces at Vienna. On the Silver Line, there are 2,300 spaces at Wiehle/Reston East, but none at stations closer in.