Giving up on North Arligton... Is South Arlington going to improve?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd be very wary OP. Yes the SFH neighborhoods are nice, but the County is actively working to maintain the status quo on the Pike. The Trolley might have brought some gentrification, but that's cancelled. All of the candidates for the open Board seats are on record for mainting and if possible expanding affordable housing. There is only one place that it is going - south Arlington. Maybe the demographics will change, but not if the county can help it.

+1000

The demographics are already changing. Some affordable housing isn't going to completely counteract all the SFHs available. Plus we are getting a starbucks, that is like the ultimate sign of gentrification

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd be very wary OP. Yes the SFH neighborhoods are nice, but the County is actively working to maintain the status quo on the Pike. The Trolley might have brought some gentrification, but that's cancelled. All of the candidates for the open Board seats are on record for mainting and if possible expanding affordable housing. There is only one place that it is going - south Arlington. Maybe the demographics will change, but not if the county can help it.

+1000

The demographics are already changing. Some affordable housing isn't going to completely counteract all the SFHs available. Plus we are getting a starbucks, that is like the ultimate sign of gentrification

Nope, the ultimate sign is Whole Foods. Just ask H Street NE.

[Anonymous]

Patrick Henry is an 8 on great schools for those that live and die by Great Schools.

We make over 200k, chose S Arlington and LOVE it. We used to live in N Arlington. Most people denigrating it have never lived here.

[Anonymous]

http://www.redfin.com/VA/Arlington/1615-S-Pollard-St-22204/home/11263929

Here's a house in Douglas Park. Seems cute.

[Anonymous]

you get good value in terms of quality of life living in S Arl, but lesser value for schools, which is the biggest factor of appreciation of your property.

living in N, you get all three, living in S, you get, hmm, 1.5 of that.

some in S with better means go the private/parochial route, so they get two out of three, but their house don't appreciate much, unfortunately.

[Anonymous]

Consider Falls Church part of Fairfax County, generally near or north of I66. Better schools for your $$ than S. Arlington. Elementary schools Shrevewood, Lemon Road, Westgate, Timber Lane. McLean/Marshall pyramids. Still pretty close in to DC.

[Anonymous]

The street car is going to... , wait nevermind

[Anonymous]

This is nice
http://www.redfin.com/VA/Arlington/1237-S-Forest-Dr-22204/home/11265545

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Consider Falls Church part of Fairfax County, generally near or north of I66. Better schools for your $$ than S. Arlington. Elementary schools Shrevewood, Lemon Road, Westgate, Timber Lane. McLean/Marshall pyramids. Still pretty close in to DC.

The Timber Lane area, in particular, has some cute older homes that look like many North Arlington houses. This one was recently listed and got a contract in four days.

http://frankly.com/FX8598222

[Anonymous]

Falls Church is a good suggestion BUT you are probably priced out for City of Falls Church SFH, which tend to be similar to North Arlington in pricing. You might check the Fairfax listings in Falls Church feeding into McLean HS - still pretty close-in, good schools. (I feel like if you're going to buy into Stuart or Falls Church HS in Fairfax, you might as well stick with Wakefield, though you'd probably get a bigger lot.)
http://frankly.com/FX8606477 - McLean HS
http://frankly.com/FX8584028
http://frankly.com/FA8596424 - GM HS
http://frankly.com/FA8598321

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We've moved our home search south of 50. We have 1 DC under 2. Trying to stay under 650k for a sfh. Are we going to have to look outside of Arlington? Do I really need to be concerned about Wakefield? That is a long time from now. Is the south going to turn around? Looked at a place near Columbia Pike and it's just ugly over there.

The obvious place to look if priced out of North Arlington is Falls Church, not South Arlington, if you care about schools.

I thought the falls church schools weren't great?

By just about any metric, George Mason, Marshall, McLean, and Falls Church fare better than Wakefield. Stuart and Wakefield are similar, though Wakefield has a new building.

Stuart is rated worse than Wakefield. I foresee
Wakefield trending upward- I don't see that at Stuart.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Consider Falls Church part of Fairfax County, generally near or north of I66. Better schools for your $$ than S. Arlington. Elementary schools Shrevewood, Lemon Road, Westgate, Timber Lane. McLean/Marshall pyramids. Still pretty close in to DC.

Haycock as well.

[Anonymous]

We live in Alcova Heights, and we love it. Great community, tons of kids (of all ages), lots of good commuting options. It's an older neighborhood, so the lots are large. Much more reasonably priced that North Arlington, although prices are creeping up here, too. Quite a few teardowns turned into new homes in the $1.1 mil. - $1.2 mil. range. Smaller, older homes are probably in the mid $600,000 range.

We considered moving to North Arlington for the schools (where we could have afforded a nice new home on a small lot), but elected to stay put because we love the neighborhood (and could afford a nice new home on a large lot). We have a child entering kindergarten this year, so no first hand experience yet with the schools, but we are comfortable with our options. Our friends with older kids have nothing but good things to say about Jefferson MS and Wakefield HS. There is a bit more grumbling about elementary schools, but it's about issues that are common to all Arlington elementary schools (schools at or over capacity, climbing class sizes, and time spent on SOL test prep). Families with elementary age children seem to love their principals and teachers. Kids go to Barcroft (neighborhood school), Campbell, Claremont, Drew, and ATS.

Alcova Heights probably is not the best value in South Arlington, because the house prices are relatively high (for South Arlington), but you get a great community as well as the benefit of Arlington Public Schools generally. Check it out!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We've moved our home search south of 50. We have 1 DC under 2. Trying to stay under 650k for a sfh. Are we going to have to look outside of Arlington? Do I really need to be concerned about Wakefield? That is a long time from now. Is the south going to turn around? Looked at a place near Columbia Pike and it's just ugly over there.

The obvious place to look if priced out of North Arlington is Falls Church, not South Arlington, if you care about schools.

I thought the falls church schools weren't great?

By just about any metric, George Mason, Marshall, McLean, and Falls Church fare better than Wakefield. Stuart and Wakefield are similar, though Wakefield has a new building.

Stuart is rated worse than Wakefield. I foresee
Wakefield trending upward- I don't see that at Stuart.

Rated worse? Depends on who is doing the rating and what's being rated. Wakefield has higher SOL scores, but Stuart's 2014 SAT scores were higher than Wakefield's (1464 vs. 1417). But, in either case, the other FC-areas schools are currently rated higher than both Wakefield and Stuart.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We've moved our home search south of 50. We have 1 DC under 2. Trying to stay under 650k for a sfh. Are we going to have to look outside of Arlington? Do I really need to be concerned about Wakefield? That is a long time from now. Is the south going to turn around? Looked at a place near Columbia Pike and it's just ugly over there.

The obvious place to look if priced out of North Arlington is Falls Church, not South Arlington, if you care about schools.

I thought the falls church schools weren't great?

By just about any metric, George Mason, Marshall, McLean, and Falls Church fare better than Wakefield. Stuart and Wakefield are similar, though Wakefield has a new building.

Stuart is rated worse than Wakefield. I foresee
Wakefield trending upward- I don't see that at Stuart.

Most people around here use great schools- not a perfect scale, but it's what most are looking at. Stuart is the reason for the charter discussion over there. Not good. I haven't heard anything bad about Wakefield. Actually I've only heard good things, and the kids I've met are good kids.

Rated worse? Depends on who is doing the rating and what's being rated. Wakefield has higher SOL scores, but Stuart's 2014 SAT scores were higher than Wakefield's (1464 vs. 1417). But, in either case, the other FC-areas schools are currently rated higher than both Wakefield and Stuart.