Purcellville versus Warrenton (Arlington, Leesburg, Falls Church: houses, high schools, place to live)

[Mark69]

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone out there could help on information comparing Purcellville and Warrenton. My wife and I live in Arlington now, but we're considering moving out for better schools and a more relaxed pace of life.

I work in Falls Church, but only need to come into the office once or twice a week. The rest of the time, I can tele-commute. Also, my job is flexible so I can simply leave a bit late on the days that I go into the office allowing me to wait out the traffic a bit.

We've been to both towns several times, and they both seem very nice. Warrenton seems to be a big larger, but Purcellville seems to have everything that you might need, i.e. grocery stores, restaurants, etc.

We have two children, so schools are very important. Warrenton schools seem alright. I like that they try to keep their high schools at around 1,2000 students. Purcellville feeds into Loudoun High School, which seems pretty large at around 1,800 kids.

We're looking to spend between $400,000 and $550,000 for a house. The prices of houses seems fairly close in both towns, so that doesn't seem to be an issue.

Anyway, any information or opinions on the two towns would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Mark

[VRE332]

IMO you don't need to move way out to Warrenton to spend that amount of cash. I have never been to Purcellville but Warrenton is a very nice and quiet place to live. Good luck

[5stones]

When the new HS is built Loudoun county High will see a drop in enrollemnt it's past capacity now. I was very impressed with Loudoun county schools (we lived in Leesburg) I don't know anything about Warrenton schools.

Both towns are nice and still feel very "away from it all" rural etc...
Purceville is ALOT closer to a varied amenties...such as shopping and rec facitities resturants etc... as Leesburg is only 10 minutes away and Ashburn is about 20minutes. It's also closer to Dullas Airport if that is a concern. DC is also about an hour from Purceville on hte weekends if you want to go in for a day etc... I believe Warrrenton is more like 1&1/2 hours on the weekends.

Depends on where you will be commuting to as well.

[Mark69]

Thanks for both replies.

Regarding the new high school, I just started reading about that. Sounds like a mess but also that it will eventually get worked out. After it's built, it looks like Loudoun Valley HS will have around 1,600, which is still fairly large but not anything close to the more than 2,000 at the school now.

However, I also noticed that the middle and intermediary schools for Purcellville had around 600 kids per class. That seems very high. Are those schools also overcrowded, and if so, are there plans to build some new middles schools to spread the kids around?

The schools seem to be very good. It's just that they also seem to have a lot of kids per class. I'd be a bit nervous about my children getting "lost" amongst the crowd.

Thanks again,
Mark