vienna or fairfax station for a new family? (McLean, Springfield: appointed, short sales)

[jenniferd110]

My husband's job will be relocating to DC soon. We currently live in AZ, so we know nothing of the area. Through this forum we've narrowed our search to the vienna/oakton area, for the close proximity to the metro. Or, to the fairfax station area, which has the vre. We're looking to spend about $1 mill. on a house and want to know where we can get more house for our money, a nice neighborhood, etc. If any of these has neighborhoods with community centers (private, not public). Is crime worse in any of these areas? And, even though we don't want to be anywhere near tysons corner (traffic) we still want grocery stores, home depot, bed bath and beyond, etc. nearby. If anyone could give the pros and cons of each of these areas, I would sooo appreciate it. Also, if anyone has realtor recommendations, I would appreciate those, too. A referral is the best way to find a realtor, I think.

[tgbwc]

Crosspointe is a nice community with its own pools and good area schools. It is close to the County Parkway and would be an easy drive to access VRE or the Springfield Metro station.

Crosspointe - Pool

[MacUser85]

Welcome fellow Arizonians (native to Northern VA my whole life, but my mother's whole family is from Tucson and I love your sunsets!).

VIENNA, VIENNA, VIENNA!!!!! And now here's why...

1) Lovely town center atmosphere (a rarity here)

2) GREAT schools. I wish I could have gone to James Madison HS (ended up having to go to private school to avoid Lake Braddock which is grades 7-12 in one school)

3) If you like music, jamminjava.com. Wonderful coffee shop and live music venue. They have all kinds of things for moms and kids during the day and great $10-20 concerts at night. Imagine not having to trek to DC for a night out with your husband. And with Friday night traffic, a place you two can just go two after dinner out (also available in Vienna) and be close to your kids if they need you is great!

4) You are never more than 10 minutes from the Vienna Metro on the Orange line.

5) Chipotle, Giant Food, Whole Foods, Cold Stone, etc., is all right in Vienna.

6) W&OD Bike Trail cuts right through town

7) Tons of community events, a big community center

What is so vital here is that Vienna is a gem in the middle of Fairfax County which is great, but very suburban and monotonous. If you want to live somewhere that has more to its name than just big homes and winding streets (which Vienna has in spades), choose Vienna. And you are positioned SO MUCH better than FFX Station. DC, MD anywhere you will need to go will be MUCH more accesible from Vienna.

P.S. I have nothing against FFX Station--I know folks who love it there. But I just love unique places and I hate being far from the city. If I'm going to pay big prices to live in the Washington area, I want to know I am in an area that I couldn't just replicate if I lived in Kansas City or Charlotte. Best of luck in your move and welcome to the area!

[mlv311]

With a daily commute to DC and your budget, I would probably choose Vienna/Oakton over Fairfax Station. Both areas have good reputations, great schools, and low crime, but Fairfax Station is very residential. You have to go outside Fairfax Station for most shopping--easily accessible, but you don't have the options close to you as you do in Vienna/Oakton. On the metro, the commute to DC will be relatively easy. The VRE is a good option, but between driving to the park-n-ride and riding the train to the city, you are looking at 1+ hour commute and the VRE schedule is not good for people who work a schedule outside traditional business hours. I also think that Vienna/Oakton's proximity to the metro and the DC area will make your house more desireable when the time comes to rent or sell.

[Denton56]

I would highly recommend Vienna. It's close in but is a small town with a small town feel.
A great Vienna realtor who knows every street in Vienna and Oakton, and helped us buy two homes in Vienna:
http://janetscaffido.lnfre.com/
No one is nicer, more thorough, or works harder than Janet. You won't be disappointed, I guarantee it. She's wonderful.

[saganista]

After stints in Falls Church and McLean, we moved to Vienna/Oakton 30 years ago. People were shocked. Outside the Beltway??? Times have changed. :-)

I'll certainly put in a good word for Fairfax Station. It's a beautiful area with some wonderful homes, no crime, and fine schools. Unfortunately and as people have noted, that's about all there is. Over in Vienna meanwhile, you have an actual town with its own local government and all sorts of events and activities and shopping and services and parks and the whole nine yards. It's an actual place and justifiably quite proud of the fact. Yup, there's Jammin Java...and also Wolf Trap. And the W&OD Trail. And Meadowlark Gardens. And Cox's Farm. And one could go on and on and on.

Oh, and there is actually no comparison between the Metro and VRE. I'm a big booster of VRE and think that local governments should be providing more resources to it than they are, but they run fewer than ten trains a day in each direction and nothing on the weekends. Even in off hours, Metro runs each way every 12 minutes, all day every day. Okay, only until midnight Sun-Thu. I work in DC a few blocks north of the White House, and via Metro, I can most often do a desk-to-desk commute in under an hour. Not much under an hour, but still, that's sitting at my desk at home to sitting at my desk at work in less than 60 minutes. Whenever I want, not whenever VRE wants.

None of which is to run down Fairfax Station. If you found the perfect home there, I'd say buy it. But if all else were equal, Vienna/Oakton would have an edge in terms of amenities. A pretty big edge. At least that would be my take on it...

[g3org3]

You'll get more house for your money in Fairfax Station, but as everyone's pointed out, you'll have more ammenities (and a shorter commute to DC) in Vienna.

(BTW, Lake Braddock was just rated as one of the top 100 public schools in the country by Newsweek America's Top Public High Schools | Newsweek Best High Schools | Newsweek.com )

[kutra11]

Originally Posted by jenniferd110

My husband's job will be relocating to DC soon. We currently live in AZ, so we know nothing of the area. Through this forum we've narrowed our search to the vienna/oakton area, for the close proximity to the metro. Or, to the fairfax station area, which has the vre. We're looking to spend about $1 mill. on a house and want to know where we can get more house for our money, a nice neighborhood, etc. If any of these has neighborhoods with community centers (private, not public). Is crime worse in any of these areas? And, even though we don't want to be anywhere near tysons corner (traffic) we still want grocery stores, home depot, bed bath and beyond, etc. nearby. If anyone could give the pros and cons of each of these areas, I would sooo appreciate it. Also, if anyone has realtor recommendations, I would appreciate those, too. A referral is the best way to find a realtor, I think.

For $1M, I would recommend Oakton; not Vienna. Oakton is a much higher-priced neighborhood than Vienna and has a nice affluent style. Vienna, on the other hand, is a mix of SFHs from $400K to $2M. Foreclosures in Vienna (affecting houses in the $400K-$600K range) are dragging home prices in Vienna even lower. As for schools, Oakton HS is ranked much higher than Vienna's Madison HS. See America's Top Public High Schools for top-ranked Virginia schools.

FWIW, I just moved from Vienna to Oakton after owning a SFH in Vienna for very many years.

- K

[Denton56]

What foreclosures in Vienna? I look at Vienna sales and listings every week, and I just don't see many foreclosures, two in the last 6 months.

My Oakton friends are moving to Vienna to be sure that they will stay in Madison high school districts. Oakton is too lively to redistricted.

[kutra11]

Originally Posted by Denton56

What foreclosures in Vienna? I look at Vienna sales and listings every week, and I just don't see many foreclosures, two in the last 6 months.

My Oakton friends are moving to Vienna to be sure that they will stay in Madison high school districts. Oakton is too lively to redistricted.

Trulia.com has 48 SFH foreclosures for Vienna and 5 SFH foreclosures for Oakton. I club foreclosures and short sales in the same category since both of them tend to depress house prices. Also, since I was on the RE market just a couple of months back, my realtor had shown me this stark difference. You see, I love Vienna (lived in the Town of Vienna) but wasn't sure whether to upgrade within the Town of Vienna or to Oakton. Finally, after looking at the "plus-es" and "minus-es" of what's important to me, I chose Oakton. Oh, I will surely miss the Town's close-sommunity feel!

Also, in the last Fairfax County School Boundary Redistricting, parts of Vienna as well as Oakton got redistricted: Fairfax County Public Schools Boundary Information. It would be a folly to categorize Oakton as being any more "redistrict-prone" than Vienna.

Good luck to your friends who are moving. Personally, area redistrictions are beyond one's control. I would therefore move "up" into a school district that's consistently been at the top last several years than move "down" into a School district that's been declining in the last few years....this is purely based on HS rankings and nothing else from Newsweek HS Rankings and US News HS Rankings.

I respect your difference of opinion, but let the OP decide on the merits and demerits. I have provided hyperlinks to back up everything I have said.