Might need to move to NoVa - advice? (Arlington, Reston: apartments, rental)

[rowie000]

I am closing in on a job in Reston Va from Rochester NY and need to know more about the area. My wife and I would move there, and I think we'd be happy with a town home in the range of $250-$350k. Our kids are already in college so we don't need more than 2 or 3 bedrooms. Is there a suburb that anyone would suggest is good value for money, safe, and maybe even walking distance to fun things to do, in order to minimize car use? I do need a garage as I ride a motorcycle in summer (touring for vacations). Also need to know if there's a decent credit union in the neighborhood. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. As far as I can tell, Reston vs the suburb I live in up here is about 8% more expensive cost of living than Rochester NY. I welcome any thoughts!

[Lehuster]

The suburb you want is... Reston!

There are garage townhomes on the market in Reston for under $350K right now.

Navy Federal Credit Union has an office in Reston.

[Novadhd5150]

Count on more than 8% all things considered.

[sportsterjohn]

Most the towns/HOAs suburbs etc have a mixture of apartments, town houses as well as SFHs. I think you would do fine anywhere in northern fairfax county or eastern louden county. I currently am renting a townhouse in Herndon with a 2 car garage for 1850 a month. Like you, I have a bike so the garage is a requirement.

[NOVAHomes]

Reston is a planned community with its own ammenities including tennis courts, pools, various out door sports facilities.
In Reston you can rent condo with garage space or you can go for town home rental. Depending on what part of Reston you want to rent the rental price can swing from $1300-$2000. Higher end would put you in the Reston Town Center area.

[tysonsengineer]

Originally Posted by NOVAHomes

Reston is a planned community with its own ammenities including tennis courts, pools, various out door sports facilities.
In Reston you can rent condo with garage space or you can go for town home rental. Depending on what part of Reston you want to rent the rental price can swing from $1300-$2000. Higher end would put you in the Reston Town Center area.

To be fair 1300 to 2000 gets you a 2, 3br apartment or in some cases Townhouse/Detached house outside of the towncenter. Compared to in Arlington the rent of 1300 to 2500 gets you between a studio and older 2br. In Tysons at the commons you can get a townhouse for 2100, 2 br for 1400. Other parts of Tysons are a bit more expensive, and there is a specific part of Tysons which is much higher, but for the most part 1500-2000 a month gets you a 2br on average in Tysons.

[saganista]

Unless you have some love of commuting, if you work in Reston, live there too. It isn't like everywhere else around. It is a large planned community, and the plan included lots of woods and parks and lakes and trails and stuff like that. But it's still close enough to DC that you can get there in a reasonable amount of time whenever you want to. You'll even have Metro access in a couple of years.

Check out the list of photo tours. There are several of different parts of Reston that will give you a good feel for what the place is like

[JfromReston]

There are not a lot of properties on the market in Reston right now and haven't been a lot for a while. Only 110 properties of all kinds and all prices. That said - I did a search for 2 or more bedrooms in your 250K to 350K price range and there were only 18 properties. Adding the garage criteria brought the 18 down to only 2. Extending the range to 400K brought the total number to 37 and garage properties to 8. Sorry to say but your price range doesn't buy you a lot of house in Reston.

[elias9193]

If you want more bang for your buck check out South Riding its further away but you can get a nice townhouse with Garage and plenty of them in your price range.

[stpickrell]

Along Route 7/267 there is: Reston itself (pickings might be slim), Herndon, Sterling, North Ashburn, and Leesburg.

Leesburg has a historic downtown unlike anything else in the areas being discussed. If you do move out that far, I wouldn't recommend places outside of it unless it just works for you and your wife. There are newer garage THs in Leesburg for under 350k, though. The area between Plaza Street, Fort Evans Road, Edwards Ferry Road, and the Bypass has a less stellar reputation than the other parts of Leesburg.
Ashburn is a newer area. You may find a garage townhouse/condo that meets your needs. Walkability was given some consideration but it is not as walkable as downtown Leesburg.
Sterling is a 60s/70s vintage area. You may find a shed that's enough to store a motorcycle in a backyard somewhere. In general, south of Route 7 is worse than north of Route 7. Walkability was not given any consideration when Sterling was built out, but a few areas like CountrySide were built as more planned communities like those in Ashburn.
Herndon was built out in the 50s and 60s. I'll let someone more versed in Herndon voice their opinion, but I have heard the further SW you go in town, the worse the reputation is.
Reston may have slim pickings and was mostly built out in the 70s. The area around Glade Road has a worse reputation than the rest of Reston. Just about anywhere north of the Toll Road is fine.

Cost (high to low): Reston, Ashburn, Herndon, Leesburg, Sterling
Walkability: Leesburg, Reston, Ashburn, Herndon, Sterling
Safety (best to worst): Ashburn by a mile, then Reston, Herndon, Leesburg, Sterling (although there's more variation within one of those communities than between them.)

Even the areas I caution you about are at best training areas for the worse areas like Culmore, the Route 1 corridor, Woodbridge, and certainly not up to the standards of Anacostia, Suitland, etc. You would be more likely to have a GPS/loose laptop picked off from your car, maybe many of your neighbors wouldn't speak English, that sort of thing.