Neighborhood Selection in Fairfax County

[Anonymous]

I fully expect to get flamed and part of me wants to keep our area's charms a secret but you should at the least take a look at the area of Fairfax County that is along the GW parkway south of Old Town. It's a fast commute into the city and much closer to Baltimore than Vienna. Do your research.

[Anonymous]

Wow, commuting from anywhere in Fairfax to Baltimore daily will be rough. I live in Arlington and on a good day (read: weekend with minimal traffic) it's 45min minimum to the south side of Baltimore's beltway.

I know next to nothing about Montgomery County Schools, but from reading DCUM, might suggest that you look in Kensington, Bethesda, Silver Spring. I don't know what schools are like in Howard County, and that would mean a further commute for you, but apparently it's growing and a good place to live.

I love living in NoVA, but as PPs have noted, that will place a lot of stress on your family life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow, commuting from anywhere in Fairfax to Baltimore daily will be rough. I live in Arlington and on a good day (read: weekend with minimal traffic) it's 45min minimum to the south side of Baltimore's beltway.

I know next to nothing about Montgomery County Schools, but from reading DCUM, might suggest that you look in Kensington, Bethesda, Silver Spring. I don't know what schools are like in Howard County, and that would mean a further commute for you, but apparently it's growing and a good place to live.

I love living in NoVA, but as PPs have noted, that will place a lot of stress on your family life.

ITA. I suggest looking in Howard County as well. If your spouse is commuting to/from Baltimore each weekday, that would be tough on the entire family.

[Anonymous]

'm the PP who works in College Park. 12:42 is right that a better commute into Baltimore would probably be along the PG County/west side of the Beltway. I actually drive home that way from College Park sometimes. (I live in Annandale.) The section of the Beltway from Tysons through Silver Spring to 95 can be really terrible in the afternoons.

I work with a lot of people who live in Howard County and like the schools there. That would be a good commute for your DH, but a terrible commute for the OP into DC.

[Anonymous]

We live in Vienna and LOVE it, but the commute to DC sucks. We live 10 minutes from the Metro, and my door-to-door commute is at least an hour. I only do it 3x/week & am at home the other days, so it's tolerable. And my husband works in Reston, 3 miles from home, so Vienna makes sense for us. But commuting to Baltimore from here sounds like a nightmare. You are both going to be spending 2hrs-day or more commuting - this really begins to affect your quality of life at some point, so I would think hard about that.

[Anonymous]

Have you done any research on the commutes here? The commute to DC is going to be bad enough from Fairfax County but no way should you think about living here if your DH is going to commute to the Baltimore area. If you insist, I'd suggest you rent first in the area you think you want to live. Don't buy until you try!

[Anonymous]

Thanks all for the great advice! I work from home, and although our kids are currently in private school in DC, our hope is that they can eventually transfer into good public schools in the future. My husband commutes to different parts of the region regularly, so it's just currently the Baltimore area. Our hope is to open another office in the NOVA area in the near future. So even though his commute might be rough in the short term, it won't always be like that over time.

[Anonymous]

As others have said, commute to Baltimore is roughy, but once you get to the beltway and past tysons, it is a reverse commute. I am very happy with the north side of Vienna (Louise Archer ES) and I work in Herndon, so I have a short reverse commute.

[Anonymous]

We live in 22182 about 1 mile from Dunn Loring metro and love it (Stenwood ES, Kilmer MS, Marshall HS), but a MD commute...no way.

[Anonymous]

I live in 22182 near Tysons in the Westbriar ES area and it takes me about an hour to get to downtown Baltimore in the morning - I'm only a few minutes from the Beltway and there is not very much Beltway traffic on most days. However, I don't think the ride home would be as quick.

[Anonymous]

I 2nd Stenwood Elementary. Great school, even if it IS south of Maple. I do find that other post ridiculous!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I fully expect to get flamed and part of me wants to keep our area's charms a secret but you should at the least take a look at the area of Fairfax County that is along the GW parkway south of Old Town. It's a fast commute into the city and much closer to Baltimore than Vienna. Do your research.

Hehe...me too. We just bought in 22308. We looked in Arlington, McLean, GFs, etc. - some of the "poshier" areas and while we could afford it, we just loved Alexandria too much. Great elementary schools. Some people complain about the middle school and HS, but I think they are also pretty darn good.

[Anonymous]

If you're OK with Sandburg and West Potomac, then that pretty much opens up all the schools in Fairfax. With that said ... why Fort Hunt/Waynewood?

1) it's good for commutes into DC but lousy for commutes to Tysons/Fair Lakes/Dulles/Route 28 (the other job centers in Northern VA).
2) Seems like it's walkable in the immediate area but are you able to walk to shopping (even if it's 3/4 to 1 mile to the nearest)?
3) If part of why you like that area is that it's white, why the heck would you want to have to move or go private when your kids hit MS/HS?

If it came to that, I'd rather live in the Stuart or Falls Church zones, they are better for generic commutes and seem to be more walkable than Fort Hunt/Waynewood. Again I could be wrong.

Again, if OP's hubby is going to Bawlmer, why on Earth is she poking around Fairfax -- unless this is a temporary thing. If this job is long-lasting, why not Howard County or the nicer parts of Bawlmer County?

[Anonymous]

What? DH is going to commute from Fairfax to Baltimore *daily*? Are you trying to kill him?

[Anonymous]

She said the commute to Baltimore is only for a short time.

Anonymous wrote:What? DH is going to commute from Fairfax to Baltimore *daily*? Are you trying to kill him?