Prince William County vs. Loudon County

[lavendersunrise]

I looked at some websites (apartments.com, rent.com) and I've found a lot of 2bed/2bath apartments in Sterling for 1000-1100ish. Why do they not offer one bedrooms (lol)? I think if I budget well I can manage one of those, I hope. =X

Thanks for your help.

[ashbrn4]

There are a lot of families in apts in Sterling. There are a few one bedrooms, but the vast majority are 2 bedrooms due to demographics. Something else to keep in mind, in older, cheaper apartments, you are less likely to have a washer/dryer in the unit. Have you had a job offer yet from either? Do you know what you'll be making? I have a general idea what they pay teachers since I know a few and I think it's doable if you budget carefully. But, there are always teacher openings here since they're opening new schools every year.

[lavendersunrise]

I have not been offered a job, but roughly starting salary for my qualifications are 43000 for Loudon and 41000 for PW.

My biggest problem is not knowing how much to budget for food/utilities/rent/etc since I have never lived on my own before. I also tend to over plan, which is why I'm worrying about all this before hand.

[jmarkd]

I live in Purcellville, in western Loudoun. It's a nice area, and although housing is expensive, rent is not too bad. I couldn't guess on a 1-bedroom but Craigslist would have plenty of offerings. If you live in PW, the salary would go farther.
I would be careful about Sterling. It's cheaper for a reason- Sterling has some not-so-nice parts and is more dangerous relative to other parts of Loudoun. I'm talking petty crime, property crime, although there is the occasional Latino gang shooting. just take a good look around the neighborhood.
If you're young and/or single all these places might be a little boring. I guess you gotta go where the job is.
Make sure you get a place within 5 miles of your school. Commuting sucks around here. Living in Manassas and commuting to Woodbridge, for example, would be an ordeal, and both are in Prince William.

[gold_inline]

Having lived in Northern VA for the last 25 years or so- being both married or not- and on both ends of the spectrum financially...If I HAD to choose between the two counties and could not afford luxury type accomodations I would go with Loudoun - closer in though (Leesburg is still kind of country) and agree that Sterling is iffy. I would probably go with Herndon (but as far from Elden as you can get) still I'm thinking that if there are one bedrooms around they will run 1300 or so.....the Reston Town Center is nearby and there is easy access to the toll road - Tysons- Arlington, etc.....
You might try appts in Centreville, as well. It's technically Fairfax County but in close proximity of PW. But check this, if you lived in and drove out- a reverse commute would ease the nightmare that traffic has become around here......

[gold_inline]

ps.....being single and living in Purcellville or Lovettsville is death for a social life- believe me- even for someone of means it is a mission to go anywhere or have others come out!!!

[5stones]

Sterling is very iffy... The only area I would live in is Cascades and country side. Not sterling park.

Herdon is iffy as well. There are some not so good areas, and they too along with sterling are having an influx of gang activity. MS13 and Latin Kings. They are some very nice areas...near Drainsville Elem. etc...

I too would not reccommend Purceville, luckettes or lovettesville for singles.

Leesburg as I said is nice has more to do...but unsure of the single life.

Reston Town center area would be good if you can find a place for reasonable and you would be going reverse of traffic flow into Loudoun Co.

Check out leesburg today paper and the loudoun times they have rentals.

Also I would pick Loudoun county to teach in. 2 loudoun county middle schools just recived the "schools to watch for award. only 84 schools in the country get this and these were the only VA schools to achieve the goal.
Loudoun co is seriuosly striving for excellence.

[ashbrn4]

Herndon is Fairfax County also, not Loudoun.

[mroy]

I lived in PWC for 7 years (owned a townhome), Reston for two years (rent) and Loudoun for 4 years (own). I have found that personally I am much happier in Loudoun. Reasons are many, but here are a few: traffic - I did not like living off of 95 or 66. Found myself a prisoner at times trying to get out of the area on the weekends due to interstate traffic. Also - shopping/dining options are much more upscale. There are lots of jobs in the Dulles corridor, so no commuting. Love being 10 min from Dulles airport. And finally, I just found that I clicked better with the people up here. In eastern PW there were lots of military types and my husband and I are high tech.

On the plus side for PW though - once you do get home, it seems a bit more peaceful, more trees, less congestion, a little more of a country feel and quieter. I did like that. PW has great county ammenities, but Loudoun does as well (as does Fairfax).

As for Reston - we really loved it there, but found we could get much more for our money but driving 5 miles up the road to cascades.

Good luck!

[dullnboring]

Originally Posted by lavendersunrise

I have not been offered a job, but roughly starting salary for my qualifications are 43000 for Loudon and 41000 for PW.

I would say those two salaries are roughly equal in that PW is a bit cheaper than Loudoun so 41K there goes just about as far as 43K in Loudoun.

My biggest problem is not knowing how much to budget for food/utilities/rent/etc since I have never lived on my own before. I also tend to over plan, which is why I'm worrying about all this before hand.

Better over-plan than under-plan.

For me, when I moved out, the biggest uncertainty in terms of cost was food. Rent was easy to figure out online, and car insurance, gas, health insurance, credit card bill, cell phone bill and student loan bill I had been paying for awhile so I knew how those stacked up. Food was the one area that I didn't quite know how much to put away. I'd recommend "living on your own" food-wise at home for one week, just keeping track of how much you eat and how much it costs you and then from that, you can get a better gauge on how much you should budget every month.