Prosperity Heights (behind Fairfax hospital) (Annandale, Vienna: houses, transfer, neighborhoods)

[alibaba1579]

I've found a couple of houses in Prosperity heights, which is technically in Annandale, but is off gallows road directly behind (west) of Fairfax hospital. This is an AWESOME location for my DH commute wise (going to the mobil building on gallows). Less than 1 mile to the driveway of work, you just can't beat it. But something about this neighborhood seems too good to be true. So what am I missing? Home prices are good - everything is under $600K, which isn't really the case if you go just 1 mile west, over to manuta and that area of fairfax. Schools are so/so - they go to Falls church high. The neighborhood is smaller, only 200 houses, and there's not much offered in the HOA. But still for the commute and location, I'm in love. Somebody burst my bubble before I get to fixated on this location - it will be another month before we can actually visit in person for our house hunting trip.

[michgc]

My guess is that the housing prices are what they are because they feed into Falls Church High School which does not have one of the better repuations in the area. Just west into Mantua feeds into Woodson High School, which has a great reputation and voila, there is your difference.

[JD984]

For what it's worth, this house is in the Camelot ES district. The current principal used to be the Assistant Principal over at Wolftrap Elementary in Vienna, and people there liked him quite a bit. Plus, if your kids go to school there, some of their classmates will actually live on King Arthur Road, Camelot Drive and Merlin Way.

Falls Church HS has more minority and lower-income students than Woodson HS (and, therefore, not as good a "reputation" per the conventional wisdom as often expressed on this forum). That is not going to change. In recent years, Falls Church HS has also had a fair number of student transfers to other local high schools. However, FCPS recently decided to redistrict some kids from some nice neighborhoods in Annandale to Falls Church HS starting in the fall of 2010. I suspect that will give the school a boost, as its enrollment had been declining in recent years and the additional students will reverse that trend.

Good luck.