What do you find appealing about Loudoun county? (Reston, McLean: 2015, foreclosure)

[EmiSky]

Originally Posted by sonnymarkjiz

Heh that still beats paying $40 bucks one way on 66 during rush hour.

So true!! And I was actually going to say that.. I take the metro but whenever I happen to look at the tolls for 66, it’s at least $40, so that’s no exaggeration. Adding insult to injury, even with such high tolls, traffic on 66 is normally bumper to bumper. Driving from Loudoun one could spent lots of money; with the Greenway, than 267; and 66.

[dc_woman]

Good schools in Ashburn. The Asians in the area push their kids to achieve by sending them to Kumon, Mathnasium, piano, violin, tennis, etc.

Newer housing stock that's more affordable. For the same amount of money as a new townhome with a modern open concept living/dining/kitchen plan, you'll get a 50 year old dilapidated condo with a $700 H.O.A. fee in Bethesda or Tysons.

Some peace and quiet. Sterling and Ashburn are much quieter than Tysons or Arlington. Not everyone wants high rises and nightlife around 24/7

Relatively more green space. Not saying that NoVA is very green or woodsy in general (too much clear cutting by developers has made it look like an urban jungle) but woodsy places like Great Falls are out of reach for many. Trees reduce air pollution, noise pollution, they're calming, they reduce soil erosion and flooding. They're just lovely to be around. The countryside is pretty! After a certain age, not everyone wants Ballston and Clarendon to be near bars that are frequented by twenty-something year olds.

[NOVA_guy]

For most people I'd surmise it's schools. And also the area is newer compared to other parts of NoVa.

I still think for young people it's not a very attractive place, though. I had an interview with a company in Ashburn and I looked at the Glassdoor reviews for it and one of the reviewers said, "great benefits, good company but in the boonies."

[GleasonEd]

My family and I moved out to Loudoun County (Sterling Park) in summer 2014. We were living in Falls Church and needed a larger home. We could not find a single family home that we could afford in the Falls Church area, or anywhere in Fairfax County. We reluctantly decided to check out the Sterling area at the recommendation of my brother who was living there at the time. We were pleasantly surprised at how affordable the homes were in Sterling Park. We saw several that were very nice and very well taken care of, but too small for us. We ultimately found a relatively large ranch-style home with 4 bedrooms (2 very large) and 2 decent size full bathrooms, a large driveway, and a garage in a nice cul-de-sac. I have found my commute to work in Fairfax from here not to be much longer (in terms of time) than my previous commute from Falls Church since I can drive 50 mph down the Fairfax County Parkway, which is less than 10 minutes from our house. While traffic out here might be worse than it used to be, it's still better than what we experienced in Falls Church. Between Leesburg, Ashburn (One Loudoun, etc.), and Reston Town Center, we manage to keep ourselves entertained with enough decent dining options. And, as an earlier poster wrote, it's not as though we can't drive into Arlington or Alexandria if there's something in either place that we want to do. It was not my first choice to move to Loudoun County but after five years I can't say that I regret doing it. I quite enjoy it here now.

[Sdbu679]

My husband and I are a childless, dual-income Millennial couple, and we moved to Loudoun last summer from Fairfax County (Centreville). I grew up in Fairfax County as a teenager, moved around the country after college, and then lived in Arlington when I first moved back to Virginia a few years ago.

We both used to say we'd never live out here, and I was actually planning on leaving the region for a lower COL area before I met my husband, but several things changed our minds. We used to live in a walkable community with decent schools that was convenient to almost everything (restaurants, groceries, stores, major roads all in front of our place), but believe it or not, we got tired of living in the middle of all the hustle and bustle. Despite living in a dense community of townhomes and condos, none of the neighbors talked to each other. Crime seemed to keep increasing (we and our neighbors experienced several cases of vandalism on our homes and cars, robberies seemed to happen on a more frequent basis in the retail areas near us, and police helicopters hovering over our neighborhood seemed to become a regular thing). I would wake up in the middle of the night because some drunk people from the next neighborhood over liked to hang out in our community common areas and be loud. Despite living in a convenient location, it took longer and longer just to get out of our neighborhood because of worsening traffic. We also realized we didn't "go out" for nightlife, or city events frequently.

My husband already had his job in the Dulles corridor, and then I ended up getting a new job out here as well (used to work in the city). Add in the fact we want to start a family soon, and it didn't make much sense anymore to pay Fairfax or Arlington prices for the type of house we wanted just to commute westward, when we could build a beautiful, spacious new home with a shorter commute. We are loving life out here, and we know all of our neighbors (I didn't realize how happy this would make me feel).

I will say if we didn't find the Willowsford community with its beautiful agrihood concept, we definitely would have passed on Ashburn and Sterling (don't really like the cookie cutter feel) and probably would have chosen some place like Leesburg or Purcellville. We also acknowledge that Loudoun will continue to grow and look very different in the coming years and decades, so we've accepted the fact we may have to retire elsewhere if we want to maintain privacy, lower prices, and a slower pace of life. For now, though, we don't mind driving a little more to get to groceries, dining, etc., and it's not hard to do city things every 1-2 months.

[leighland]

Originally Posted by GleasonEd

My family and I moved out to Loudoun County (Sterling Park) in summer 2014. We were living in Falls Church and .....

Im in SP a lot. The houses are very nice and that SP Shopping Mall is great. Im there all. the Time. I was surprised as I thought it was Barrio Sterling when I lived in Merrifield but thats not true at all. And super convenient to WOD Trail, Walmart, Wegmans, the Mall. Very nice.
It totally inconvénient to Public Transport/DC proper but not everyone needs to be in DC or use Metro.

[BOS2IAD]

Originally Posted by leighland

Im in SP a lot. The houses are very nice and that SP Shopping Mall is great. Im there all. the Time. I was surprised as I thought it was Barrio Sterling when I lived in Merrifield but thats not true at all. And super convenient to WOD Trail, Walmart, Wegmans, the Mall. Very nice.
It totally inconvénient to Public Transport/DC proper but not everyone needs to be in DC or use Metro.

Yes, some of the homes are well kept. However, you really need to drive deep into Sterling Park. There are lots of flophouses in the area. I once talked to a deputy who told me that she had been in many houses in Sterling Park where the conditions were deplorable---the worst one being a flophouse with 16 people living there.

Hopefully, with a Metro station coming online soon (Innovation Center) that's near the southern part of Sterling Park, the area might make a comeback. There have already been a few teardowns here and there where the older houses were replaced with bigger homes.

[Bigfoot424]

Originally Posted by BOS2IAD

Yes, some of the homes are well kept. However, you really need to drive deep into Sterling Park. There are lots of flophouses in the area. I once talked to a deputy who told me that she had been in many houses in Sterling Park where the conditions were deplorable---the worst one being a flophouse with 16 people living there.

Hopefully, with a Metro station coming online soon (Innovation Center) that's near the southern part of Sterling Park, the area might make a comeback. There have already been a few teardowns here and there where the older houses were replaced with bigger homes.

Meaning more affordable housing will disappear and replaced with McMansions that couldn't be any more ugly if they tried.

[spencgr]

Originally Posted by Bigfoot424

Meaning more affordable housing will disappear and replaced with McMansions that couldn't be any more ugly if they tried.

I totally agree that parts of Arlington and Falls Church have been ruined by these eyesore monstrosities.

[skeddy]

When Sterling Park was built Route 7 was a two lane road, there were no houses you could see from Route 7 they were all about a mile from view. Along Route 7, there was one traffic light in Tysons, the next light was in Leesburg. There was no Reston/Ashburn, no Beltway, no Dulles Airport. Want to go to Maryland from VA? ---drive through DC. I moved to Great Falls in 1958 as a kid, sold in 2008. I don't even know my way around there anymore. Way too busy for me