Where to move in Virginia, walkable to metro, with good public schools, budget 1.3M

[Anonymous]

I can't recommend living in Arlington until they address the high school capacity issues. You are setting yourself up for too much uncertainty as to where your kids will attend school and whether it will be a normal HS experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Vienna

Thanks, but Vienna is like 10 miles away from dc. Is there anything closer with good schools. looking for a 3 or 4 bedroom house. I mean like is there anything like this in Clarendon?

I mean good public schools. 7 or 8 or higher on a good schools scale? is it worth it more to look for houses in NW DC near a metro (with a daily work commute to Capitol Hill) than to try to find this in Virginia?

Same pp as above who lives in arlington. Yes, Washington and Lee and the schools in the neighborhoods I see you mentioning are all very good from the standpoint I think you're looking at. Washington and Lee has better diversity than Yorktown if that's important to you just so you know while comparing. Seeing your commute IS to cap hill - see my comment on my husband's commute to cap hill from Westover. I think you're smart to look for walking distance to metro and the closer in metro stations since cap hill is pretty far in there so that you can reduce that second leg that adds to my husband's commute. If you lived in Colonial Village like you mention and had a short walk to the courthouse metro, that should be a very easy commute. About 25 min metro time?

Sorry, it's me again. How old are your kids? I realize i should in fairness note that some of the elementary schools in that area and well, pretty much all Arlington elementary schools will be experiencing boundary changes in the next few years so you should not buy a house banking on one certain elementary school. In my opinion you're not going to go wrong with any elementary school in n. arlington from the criteria you're looking at (goodschools.org), if you want to get more nuanced people may have different preferences but in general Arlington runs good schools. but you need to be flexible in knowing that the county is growing and boundaries WILL be changing. our house will certainly have a boundary change in the next few years as we're in Westover and my husband and I's approach is to just be happy with the school we end up with and not fuss about it, we bought in an area we knew it wouldn't be an issue (SO MUCH PRIVILEGE in this and this statement but I've already gone on way too long. For the record I would support bussing to better integrate Arlington schools if people would go for it). The push now as the boundaries change will be to be able to have as many kids as possible be able to walk to their elementary school. There is a lot of debate about this now and I would just warn that what you read on DCUM about this doesn't always reflect the general feelings about it if you're talking to folks in the neighborhood. The people that tend to get on dcum seem to schew very scrooge-like and just generally unhappy folk if you ask me, so lots of complaining.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Vienna

Thanks, but Vienna is like 10 miles away from dc. Is there anything closer with good schools. looking for a 3 or 4 bedroom house. I mean like is there anything like this in Clarendon?

I mean good public schools. 7 or 8 or higher on a good schools scale? is it worth it more to look for houses in NW DC near a metro (with a daily work commute to Capitol Hill) than to try to find this in Virginia?

Same pp as above who lives in arlington. Yes, Washington and Lee and the schools in the neighborhoods I see you mentioning are all very good from the standpoint I think you're looking at. Washington and Lee has better diversity than Yorktown if that's important to you just so you know while comparing. Seeing your commute IS to cap hill - see my comment on my husband's commute to cap hill from Westover. I think you're smart to look for walking distance to metro and the closer in metro stations since cap hill is pretty far in there so that you can reduce that second leg that adds to my husband's commute. If you lived in Colonial Village like you mention and had a short walk to the courthouse metro, that should be a very easy commute. About 25 min metro time?

I think OP was referring to Colonial Village in DC, not the condos in Arlington.

Ahh gotcha - i figured OP wasn't considering the condos but was just trying to figure out that clarendon/courthouse area. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

You can get something nice in Arlington - it just won't be huge or new or on a big plot of land. But that price point can get you something pretty decent, feeding into good (albeit crowded) schools, with a great commute.

We live in 22207 near Yorktown HS. I drop my kid at the bus at 7:50 and I'm in my office near Gallery place by 8:40 via metro. At your price range, you might be able to get something walkable to metro.

[Anonymous]

Virginia didn’t do as good of a job as Maryland in planning and building around Metro stops. They were mostly planned like a regular train station.

[Anonymous]

Move to N. Arlington. End of thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Move to N. Arlington. End of thread.

Meh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Move to N. Arlington. End of thread.

Meh.

This is why I feel like these sorts of questions are rough on boards like this. There is immense personal preference involved here and you don't know who is behind each "meh" or "yay!" opinion. Some people will be very happy living in Arlington, some will not. Some people are extremely happy living farther out and having a longer commute, some are not. A million factors play into that. OP will have to check things out for himself/herself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Move to N. Arlington. End of thread.

Meh.

This is why I feel like these sorts of questions are rough on boards like this. There is immense personal preference involved here and you don't know who is behind each "meh" or "yay!" opinion. Some people will be very happy living in Arlington, some will not. Some people are extremely happy living farther out and having a longer commute, some are not. A million factors play into that. OP will have to check things out for himself/herself.

Given OP's criteria--in Virginia, walkable to a metro, has good public schools, and wouldn't be a crazy commute--Arlington seems the most logical choice. Now, if she doesn't like Arlington, that's fair, but then she's likely going to have to make allowances on walkable to metro and not a crazy commute.....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Virginia didn’t do as good of a job as Maryland in planning and building around Metro stops. They were mostly planned like a regular train station.

Wut? https://www.smartergrowth.net/virginia/arlington/

Winner of the first EPA Smart Growth Award and the Coalition for Smarter Growth’s Capital Region Visionary Award, Arlington County is a national leader in transit-oriented development, affordable housing, transit, and street design.

Arlington’s journey began when it decided to construct Metro’s Orange Line under the Rosslyn-Ballston (R-B) corridor, rather than aboveground in the middle of I-66, and created their “bullseye” plan for the Metro stations.

Today, Arlington boasts 50 million square feet of transit-oriented development in the R-B corridor alone and has done so without increasing traffic. The land in their two Metro corridors (their other one is Pentagon City/Crystal City) occupies just 11 percent of the county, but provides 50 percent of the tax base. 39 percent of trips in the R-B corridor are made by transit, walking, and bicycling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Virginia didn’t do as good of a job as Maryland in planning and building around Metro stops. They were mostly planned like a regular train station.

Wut? https://www.smartergrowth.net/virginia/arlington/

Winner of the first EPA Smart Growth Award and the Coalition for Smarter Growth’s Capital Region Visionary Award, Arlington County is a national leader in transit-oriented development, affordable housing, transit, and street design.

Arlington’s journey began when it decided to construct Metro’s Orange Line under the Rosslyn-Ballston (R-B) corridor, rather than aboveground in the middle of I-66, and created their “bullseye” plan for the Metro stations.

Today, Arlington boasts 50 million square feet of transit-oriented development in the R-B corridor alone and has done so without increasing traffic. The land in their two Metro corridors (their other one is Pentagon City/Crystal City) occupies just 11 percent of the county, but provides 50 percent of the tax base. 39 percent of trips in the R-B corridor are made by transit, walking, and bicycling.

What’s the point in this? You don’t point out one or a few well designed station and say Virginia planned the metro stations well. That literally doesn’t mean that. Unless you think Arlington is Northern Virginia and all the rest of the stations are Central VA. Maryland has done a better job developing around the Metro. That’s a fact. Virginia is trying to improve.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Move to N. Arlington. End of thread.

Meh.

This is why I feel like these sorts of questions are rough on boards like this. There is immense personal preference involved here and you don't know who is behind each "meh" or "yay!" opinion. Some people will be very happy living in Arlington, some will not. Some people are extremely happy living farther out and having a longer commute, some are not. A million factors play into that. OP will have to check things out for himself/herself.

Given OP's criteria--in Virginia, walkable to a metro, has good public schools, and wouldn't be a crazy commute--Arlington seems the most logical choice. Now, if she doesn't like Arlington, that's fair, but then she's likely going to have to make allowances on walkable to metro and not a crazy commute.....

Agreed, that is a much more simple way to state some of the things I've said.

[Anonymous]

22043 - hands down the best combination at that price point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:22043 - hands down the best combination at that price point.

Ghastly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:22043 - hands down the best combination at that price point.

+1000. Similar to North Arlington, but less crowded and better schools.