Potomac Falls/Sterling (Tysons Corner: for sale, foreclosures, HOA) - Northern Virginia - Virginia (VA) - City-Data Forum

TCJohnson · 04-09-2008, 09:40 AM

Hi there.

I am thinking of buying a townhouse in the Countryside/Potomac Falls/Sterling area.

I alternate between two offices. One is a few miles from Dulles Airport. The other is on Rt 7, on the western edge of Tyson's Corner.

What are people's opinions of the area?

sgermanguy · 04-09-2008, 11:46 AM

for 199K; I like it a lot. It's way nicer than PW County. DON'T PAY MORE.

normie · 04-09-2008, 12:02 PM

You are in luck, quite a bit has been written on this area. Use the search function in the upper right part of the page.

In a nutshell, all of these areas are part of "Sterling." The subsections can get a little confusing.

Potomac Falls is the area around PF High School and is the nicest of the areas. Most of the homes here belong to an enormous HOA called Cascades. Cascades is (IMO) an very well run and unobtrusive HOA. I have property there and our monthly fee is $56... well worth it when you realize the services you get. All of the Cascades neighborhoods are nice, but the nicest of the nice are Lowes Island and Riverbend. You will find a lot written about Lowes Island in this forum. IMO it's the place to live.

Countryside is charming, but has a few infrastructure problems as you will see when you search through the archives. The county just announced that northernmost part of Countryside is also the site of a future superfund cleanup. Good news for the long term, but maybe not such a pleasant thing for the immediate future. OTOH, there is something very attractive about this area. The houses are older and smaller--which many people prefer--and they are adorable. The prices are a little lower too, so these neighborhoods seem like a good deal to me.

Sterling Park has some petty crime and substantially more foreclosures than the rest of the county. The crime isn't that bad, and you can get some bargains there right now. But IMO it's a place to avoid.

Novamom06 · 04-09-2008, 12:29 PM

One correction Normie- Countryside is actually considered "Potomac Falls" as it is in the 20165 zip and the kids go to Potomac Falls high.

normie · 04-09-2008, 12:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Novamom06

One correction Normie- Countryside is actually considered "Potomac Falls" as it is in the 20165 zip and the kids go to Potomac Falls high.

I didn't know that, but it makes sense. So Potomac Falls is a term for the entire half circle around Algonkian Parkway? That does make sense.

sgermanguy · 04-10-2008, 01:39 AM

They tried calling it Potomac Falls for a while. It didn't catch on. My bro has been there for 16 years in Countryside. They still call it "Countryside."

hts · 04-10-2008, 08:45 PM

The LI section is a little more exclusive. I'm not sure what the townhouses go for around here, but most SF's are in the $600-$1m range, depending upon the neighborhood. We have 2 boys in LI Elementary and have been very pleased. I left work at 330p yesterday (Tysons Corner near Best Buy) and caught EVERY single green light. I was so lucky/unlucky, I didn't get a chance to slow down and put down my convertible top until I pulled into my garage. It took me 21 minutes door-to-door. That might have been a record for me.

normie · 04-11-2008, 06:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hts

The LI section is a little more exclusive. I'm not sure what the townhouses go for around here, but most SF's are in the $600-$1m range, depending upon the neighborhood. We have 2 boys in LI Elementary and have been very pleased. I left work at 330p yesterday (Tysons Corner near Best Buy) and caught EVERY single green light. I was so lucky/unlucky, I didn't get a chance to slow down and put down my convertible top until I pulled into my garage. It took me 21 minutes door-to-door. That might have been a record for me.

Just a note, in case a person from out of state is confused: He doesn't mean Lowes Island is exclusive in a racial or snobby sort of way. (At least, I hope not

) I've never encountered any sort of snobbery in Cascades. I think what he meant was that Lowes Island is worth the extra $$. And I totally agree! Good schools, and you can walk to the 2 big parks as well as the river. If I was buying now, I'd take a look because you might find a good deal, especially on one of the townhomes there.

It's also holding up well during this economic storm. They printed the foreclosure map in the paper--LI and Riverbend do not have a single foreclosure. When you drive around, you don't see a sea of For Sale signs, either. To me, that indicates a stable, thriving neighborhood that's going to continue holding its value. Location, location, location as they say...

ShannonMilligan · 04-11-2008, 08:06 AM

You should be fine on the commute...we live in Ashburn and my husband works in Tysons and is home in about 30-40 minutes. Not bad and where you are looking is even closer to Tysons.
Good luck. We loved the areas you are considering...we just wanted a single family and could really only afford Ashburn or further at the time. (today, two months later, singles are really coming down in the lower $500K range and some lower than that!)

5stones · 04-11-2008, 08:41 AM

Quote:

we live in Ashburn and my husband works in Tysons and is home in about 30-40 minutes

I am sorry but some qualifiers need to here.

I lived close to there and in the middle of day NOT rush hour a drive it took 30 minutes to get to Tysons on RT 7. (If you get caught by lights it's closaer to 40-45minutes)

By taking the Toll way $$$ then you can get to Tysons easy in 20-30 minutes not during rush hour. but it can take at least 15-20 minutes sometimes to get just from Lewinsville rd/rt 7 to 123 (Dolly maddison)/Lewisnville rd.

NOW if you take 267 from Ashburn all the into 123 then 45 minutes would probably be a good avg commute tim to the Loudoun county pkwy exit in Ashburn. (barring no accident on either rt7 or 267)
Plus about $10/perday in tolls

But then if you live over in Belmont it's going take at least 15m inutes just to get to 267.
Ashburn is pretty spread out and traffic on the main road can get pretty congested at commute times.

so no I can not see a 30 minute commute from Ashburn to Tysons (home to office commute) travel time on just 267 maybe...but you've got to get there and get off. Now if he has off commute hours then that needs to be clairifed for the Original poster.