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Want to relocate to NoVa - where?
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Anonymous
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Hello and please don't get irritated if I am asking questions that have alreday been answered. Please help me figure out where in NoVa I should focus my real estate search. I have two small kids and of course, schools are important. Below, I have listed the important things for my family:
- family friendly - walkable (restaurants, grocery, park, metro) - short commute to DC - schools - budget between $900K and $1.3-$1.4 mil. Thanks so much. |
Anonymous
| Mclean (22101) |
Anonymous
| oops...didn't see the walkable part. But Mclean fits all the other criteria. |
Anonymous
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Burke! My husband could walk across the street to the VRE. His commute was so much nicer than it was on Metro or driving. We were very happy with the schools. Our house had a nice, big yard. Our neighborhood was full of kids. We had a beautiful neighborhood pool and walking trails.
We've lived in NoVA, in the District, and in Montgomery County, MD. By far our favorite was Burke. We're moving back up to the DC area again fairly soon, and we'll go right back to Burke. |
Anonymous
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oops...didn't see walkable or short commute.
Take Burke off the list. |
Anonymous
| Falls Church City. I walk to the metro every day and we can also walk to several restaurants, grocery store, etc. Schools close by. Our house is in the range you mentioned. One of the few places we found in either MD or VA suburbs that was so walkable. |
Anonymous
If you live in McLean near Old Dominion/Chain Bridge, it's about as walkable as any place in suburban Fairfax County (can walk to library, community center, two parks, bank, restaurants, grocery stores). Salona Village is closer to the restaurants, and Old Dominion Gardens and Hansborough are closer to the library and community center. There also are new houses constantly being built in Town of Vienna in that price range. If you're close to Maple Avenue, that's pretty walkable. All the McLean/Vienna schools are good. The main differences would be (1) Vienna has more shops and family-friendly amenities than McLean and is more congested; (2) a $1.3 M house in the Town of Vienna is towards the very top of that market, but is closer to the middle of the McLean market, and (3) McLean is an easier commute to DC. |
Anonymous
| With that budget, I would look at North Arlington, close to Wilson Blvd. or one of the other strips (Westover, etc.). Also Falls Church City. |
Anonymous
| N. Arlington - for $1.3 - $1.4 million you could get something brand new. I would look along the Lee Highway corridor - specifically Lee Heights, Cherrydale and Maywood. You could also look in Lyon Village which is close to Clarendon, or on the other side, Lyon Park. Also Ashton Heights. |
Anonymous
| Hands down N. Arlington. |
Anonymous
| Hands down McLean (way better public schools) |
Anonymous
Well, no principal in McLean resigning from the local middle school with a "scorched earth" letter as in Arlington, that's for sure. But seriously, the notion that either N. Arlington or McLean is the "hands down" choice is that price range is very silly. There are lots of other options in the area. |
Anonymous
Northern Virginia + good schools + short commute to dc + walkable + family-friendly is pretty limiting, I think. Although I guess that depends on how you define "short commute." OP, what's "short" to you? |
Anonymous
| I would think North Arlington or Falls Church 22046. McLean is a longer commute to DC and doesn't have metro nearby, unless you count West Falls church. |
Anonymous
Much of McLean 22101 is about same commute by car or shorter than Falls Church (22046). If proximity to Metro is key then OP might also consider WFC and parts of Vienna near Metro. It all depends on priorities, N. Arlington is short commute but many homes there are meh even in the 900K range. |