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Hi! We may be moving to Northern VA to manage a local grocery. We wont be making a ton of money and are looking for a 2 BR townhouse or SFH under 250,000. (Man, housing is expensive here!)
Here's what I need:
Excellent/Good public schools (I can't afford private)
Safe neighborhood (within reason)
Here's what I don't need:
We won't be commuting into DC so traffic and proximity to DC is not an issue. (I don't know what town my husband's job will be in yet- I was just told Northern Virgina at this point. We have two cars)
I don't need a big city with a nightlife
Wish list: A relatively safe and somewhat liberal place with a little bit of an urban, hip feel. I am used to college towns and grew up in Boulder, CO before it was too expensive to live there and am now in a suburb of Tucson, which I find to be a mind-numbing beige maze. A little bit of hip factor, but still family friendly would be great. Yuppie-ish is OK, but I would prefer a local coffeehouse to a Starbucks.
I should add I am not afraid of cities, but I have heard some rather unpleasant things about DC schools, or else I would happily be the only one driving the other direction on the highways as we live in DC and communte to NoVa.
Thanks for any and all replies-- I am at a loss of where to start my search.
Well, people are paying a premium for the "urban, hip feel" around here, so it's gonna be tough to get there at $250,000.
Tough, but not impossible.
It really would help to know which town you'll be working in, because "northern virginia" these days stretches from the West Virginia panhandle all the way down to Fredricksburg.
So if you're working in Leesburg, you might like living in Shepherdstown, WV.
Or, if you're working in Centerville, you may like certain areas of Manassas.
But trust me, even if DC public schools had a sterling reputation, you wouldn't get anything worth living in in DC at $250,000.
Woodbridge, Herndon and Annandale could be options.
Most of the things you want cost money, and $250K will not take you far in northern Virginia. Unless you're willing to live in West Virginia or far-out Loudoun County, you might need to consider a condo rather than a townhouse. A SFH is out of the question.
I agree that you first need to pin down the workplace location, because it can take 90 minutes or more to get from one part of "northern Virginia" to another, especially at peak commuting times. Even though you won't be commuting to DC, traffic WILL be an issue, because many of your neighbors will be heading that way, or to Tyson's Corner or Reston or the Dulles Corridor.
Your biggest problem is going to be price. $250k doesn't buy much in this area, sorry to say. If you are willing to go farther out, you could look farther out in Loudon or in Calvert County, MD (Dunkirk, Owings, Huntingtown), but then your commute would go up.
It's really a catch-22. There are some good schools in NW DC for example, but you pay ridiculous amounts of money to live in those areas. You can find places in parts of DC that are $250k, but their not entirely safe. Really sucks.
But as others have said--WHERE in NoVa will you be working. Can make a huge difference.
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