Looking for great schools, family focused neighborhoods in MD and VA - thoughts?

[Anonymous]

If you're willing to recommend mantua, how about Truro, Canterbury woods, chapel hill, etc? They're in op's price range and also zoned for Woodson.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Really confused about the Waynewood recommendations. That feeds into West Potomac High School, which is no where near the same league as the schools the OP posted!! It's pretty bad. It's also the same school that Belleview would go to. Also confused about Kingstowne and Ft. Belvoir recommendations. Seriously, who would want to live in these areas unless they had to because they worked at Ft Belvoir!? I don't have any suggestions (sorry OP!) but I really hope the OP gets something more along the lines of what she's looking for. There have to be some more affordable areas in some of the better school districts!

Hayfield elementary in Kingstowne now has similar test scores to Waynewood and Hayfield Secondary is a better school than West Potomac and has AP, so ..... oop @ you, I guess. Plus it gets OP close to her mom in FFX Alexandria. But neither area is a close commute to navy yard really.

[Anonymous]

We love Falls Church City. It is all you described, except the commute may be too far?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

We're planning to move to either to Montgomery or Fairfax county. We'd really like to find a family focused neighborhood (we have a 4yr and a 2.5 yr old) that has a strong sense of community (ideally has a pool or community center, has family parades, anything that really brings families together!) and great schools. We need to stay in the 600k-low 700k range and have a decent commute to the Navy Yard. My mom lives in Alexandria (Fairfax Co part) and I don't want to get too far from her since she is getting older. We've been considering Churchill, Wootton, Walter Johnson, whitman, Woodson, Madison, Mason, etc. Open to ideas!

I went to an elite college and had a roommate who went to county high school in Kentucky. I think that puts things in perspective when focusing on specific high schools rather than finding a good home in a nice neighborhood...

What does this mean? That high school doesn't matter? Sorry ivys do give preference for rural schools but doubt subpar schools in major metros get the same points. And I came from a rural county in FL, and the transition was hard; coming from Podunk high you will just not be as prepared for the rigors of elite college. I think OP is looking in right places.

As for locations, Arlington near rt 50 feeding into W&L might mind a colonial at that price and commute should be reasonable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Really confused about the Waynewood recommendations. That feeds into West Potomac High School, which is no where near the same league as the schools the OP posted!! It's pretty bad. It's also the same school that Belleview would go to. Also confused about Kingstowne and Ft. Belvoir recommendations. Seriously, who would want to live in these areas unless they had to because they worked at Ft Belvoir!? I don't have any suggestions (sorry OP!) but I really hope the OP gets something more along the lines of what she's looking for. There have to be some more affordable areas in some of the better school districts!

Consider any advice from this board is going to be of the "short commute above safety and schools" vein, and barring that it will be "recommend what's nice and familiar."

With a job in SE DC, I am puzzled why anyone would suggest places along the I-270 corridor, seeing as that violates the "20 minute commute or your life is shit" mantra so often repeated on this board.
IMO, Washington Navy Yard wouldn't be a good commute for the good school clusters along the I-270 corridor unless OP's husband is willing to get in a longer Metro-based commute.

WePo isn't a bad school but if OP is going to be a school snob, it won't work. West Springfield and Woodson are however a 20-30 minute longer commute.

With that said, OP ought to be able to find something in the Woodson zone in her price range, and certainly something in West Springfield.

I will disagree with the "who would want to live in these areas" statement, they are perfectly nice suburban areas.

[Anonymous]

Falls Church City and central Arlington? If OP wants a SFH, ain't happening.

[Anonymous]

Stonegate in northern Silver Spring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Falls Church City and central Arlington? If OP wants a SFH, ain't happening.

I thought there was no such thing as "central Arlington."

[Anonymous]

If you are considering living as far as Madison should consider Marshall and McLean which are closer in.

[Anonymous]

You could do what we did and buy on the Hill. Bike to the Navy Yard like our next door neighbor!

[Anonymous]

West Springfield is wonderful. Seen some nice listings lately - check it out.

[Anonymous]

I'm not sure why the poster is even considering Maryland. It is too far from the job. (I live in MD.)
Just look in Alexandria, Springfield and that area. Or Arlington (may be too pricey).

I can't for the life of me figure out why Bethesda and Potomac are in consideration for where you want to live.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you're willing to recommend mantua, how about Truro, Canterbury woods, chapel hill, etc? They're in op's price range and also zoned for Woodson.

+1.

Addtionally, there is a bike path to the Metro also from a couple of the neighborhoods in The City of Fairfax.

[Anonymous]

We love Falls Church City. It is all you described, except the commute may be too far?

and the price too high! seriously, we haven't seen much of anything under 700k in the city itself that doesn't need a ton of work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You could do what we did and buy on the Hill. Bike to the Navy Yard like our next door neighbor!

You aren't going to find anything IB for a decent school on the Hill for under $700, unless you're getting a 2 BR condo. Believe me, we've looked.