Where to live with little ones?

[Anonymous]

Hi,
We're looking to relocate to NoVA, and are interested in Loudoun county - Great Falls, Leesburg, and then also Reston, Herndon.
We have 2 elementary school age kids - 5 and 7 yr olds. We're looking for recommendations on towns to live in.

Where we live now is a small neighborhood of townhouses and there are quite a few kids around. We want more land but also want a kid-friendly neighborhood.

Any advice or information would be welcome, thanks

[Anonymous]

Budget?

[Anonymous]

Put your budget and land desires into Redfin and see what pops up. You didn’t give enough information here for anyone to help you.

[Anonymous]

Most everywhere in Northern Virginia there are many families with kids, and it depends on your commute (1 or 2 ppl? How many days per week?), budget, and priorities.

If you want a bigger lot, Loudon would be where to find that mostly, maybe western Fairfax and Great Falls. All the areas you listed have good merits, the tradeoffs are commute time to closer-in locations, and also I have found the Toll Road rates really high at the times I have to drive there at least.

Depending on where you are coming from, many people have been surprised at how long it takes to drive from one place to another in DC area traffic.

I certainly recommend visiting and doing the commute, and first running weekday commute times on Google Maps to get an idea.

If you are coming from a lower-cost-of-living area, something else to plan for is that home repairs/improvements, childcare, etc will be more expensive in a higher-cost-of-living area.