Good neighborhoods for young families in NoVA (Arlington, Alexandria: to rent, townhouses)

[Ram73]

Hi all,

My family is planning to move to northern VA since both I and spouse got jobs in downtown DC. We plan on buying a single family home, with a max budget of 600k, hopefully with 4BRs and a decent yard. We have two kids under age 4. I found this forum searching online and hope to get some advice from those living in the area.

Can you recommend towns/neighborhoods in NoVA that are good for young families? Priority is of course cost of home, good schools and safe, family-friendly neighborhood. Also if you can provide some idea of how long it would take to commute from those areas to downtown DC or what public transportation options are available, I would greatly appreciate that.

Thanks for your time, everyone.

[FCNova]

With that budget, if you wanted to keep your commute somewhat reasonable you're probably looking at Reston, Herndon, maybe West Springfield or Burke. Those areas would not have great commutes to DC, but probably tolerable for most people. The schools in those areas are generally good although I think there was 1 elementary school in Reston and 1 in Herndon I red flagged during my research. I can't remember their names but just do your research. It really depends on your commute tolerance though. There are people who live further out and commute to DC but are able to stomach 90-120 minute commutes each way.

[PK12]

For a SFH your options are kind of limited.

If you are willing to look at townhouses, you will have a lot more areas to choose from (Fairfax, Falls Church etc)

[Middlin]

What part of DC? Closest metro stop to office?

[JD984]

The answers you are going to get will depend upon what people read into your statement that you are looking for "good schools." That is commonly understood on C-D and other forums as "code language" to mean schools that are majority white/Asian with Great Schools scores of at least 6 or 7.

If you are willing to consider other schools, that opens up other possibilities closer to DC in places like South Arlington, Annandale, Springfield, and the Alexandria and Falls Church parts of Fairfax County. The schools will be part of the same county-wide system as schools in places in Reston and West Springfield, and they may even have smaller class sizes, but more of their energies may be devoted to addressing the needs of lower-income children and/or kids for whom English is not their native language. But the notion that you have few close-in SFH options is only true if you make certain assumptions with respect to which schools are considered acceptable.

[stpickrell]

There's not that much anymore in the way of SFHs in South Arlington for $600k. Annandale or south Falls Church, yeah, that's still possible.

And yeah, good point from JEB77 about "good schools" being code for "majority White/Asian, with FARMS under 15%, and a GS ranking of 7 or higher."

Most of the "bad schools" in Northern VA end up being two schools in one -- they're maybe 40-60% White/Asian, FARMS of ~25-35%, and a GS ranking of 4-6. BUT -- and this is key -- you've got a high achieving population and a low achieving population, and the high achievers at say South Lakes or Herndon are just as high achieving as the kids at McLean, Madison, etc.

you've got a few ES that are 60%+ FARMS and like 10-20% White/Asian. But not many really.

I assume you'll be coming here for more than a few years, if not, you really ought to rent.

[Vectorhead]

You would be able to get a very nice house in West Springfield for your budget, and you would have a lot of commuting options. I would look in the 22152 area code. You'll find older, established neighborhoods with well-maintained houses, lots of families, and outstanding schools. I can't speak highly enough of this area. We're 10 minutes from the metro, there are lots of metro bus routes covering the area, we're 5 minutes from the Manassas VRE line and 10 minutes from the Fredericksburg VRE. It's really a wonderful place to live!

[JfromReston]

Here are the options I recommend in Reston, both feed into Hunters Woods Elementary (9 on Great Schools).

12200 HOUNDS LN, RESTON, VA 20191 | Listing Information | MRIShomes.com
2500 FAUQUIER LN, RESTON, VA 20191 | Listing Information | MRIShomes.com

See the link below for more information on Reston.
Welcome to Reston Association

Commute to DC will be about an hour.

[PK12]

Originally Posted by JfromReston

Here are the options I recommend in Reston, both feed into Hunters Woods Elementary (9 on Great Schools).

12200 HOUNDS LN, RESTON, VA 20191 | Listing Information | MRIShomes.com
2500 FAUQUIER LN, RESTON, VA 20191 | Listing Information | MRIShomes.com

See the link below for more information on Reston.
Welcome to Reston Association

Commute to DC will be about an hour.

Commute to DC is going to suck.

Even with the Silver Line , whenever it comes into action.

[hilsmom]

I think annandale, burke and west springfield are your best options in that price range. That's probably the closest into the city you are going to get with houses in that price range in VA.

Where in the city are your jobs? That can make a difference. If you are going to Union Station area, VRE station accessibility is great. If it is more like Farragut or Dupont, you might want metrobusses nearby.

Also, do you have to be in VA? You might want to also consider places like Rockville or Silver Spring in MD.