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Anonymous
| I am moving to northern VA from California. I've noticed that houses are cheaper in Annandale than in surrounding areas (Alexandria or Falls Church). If you are familiar with the area, what are the good and bad points of this city? Is it a good place to live with young children? (DS is 5 and DD is 3). What is the political climate in general? Thanks a bunch! |
Anonymous
| Schools are not great and more of a gang problem. That's why houses are cheaper. |
Anonymous
| It depends on what area of Annandale, some zip codes feed inton Woodson, which is a great HS. A little farther from Annandale is Burke which is nice and also feeds into good High Schools, Lake Braddock and Robinson, depending on where in Burke you live. |
Anonymous
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Houses that feed into Annandale High school are cheaper than houses in Annandale that feed into Woodson HS, FYI. Woodson is considered to be one of the best in the county; Annandale is middle-of-the-range. That's part of why you'll see a wide range of prices in Annandale. Some houses in northwestern Annandale are close to Vienna or Dunn Loring Metro; the further east and south you get, you get further away from Metro. (Disclosure: we live in Merrifield, which is kind of between Falls Church and Annandale, and my daughter goes to daycare in Annandale.)
Falls Church can either be "The City of Falls Church" or the Falls Church part of Fairfax County. Houses in the City of Falls Church tend to be pricier than the houses in Falls Church, Fairfax. (But I saw some very nice houses feeding into McLean high school, which is very good. these homes were not too far from metro, but not really walkable. A couple of the other schools serving Falls Church, Fairfax homes are not as highly ranked.) The City of Falls Church school system is considered to be a good one, in part because it's a small school system, but I think also in part because the demographics are pretty wealthy. Alexandria can either be the City of Alexandria or Alexandria part of Fairfax County. The homes in the city boundary tend to be more expensive and closer in, and the ones in the county tend to be farther out and a bit cheaper. None of the schools are especially high-ranked down there, but a good school is not necessarily about rankings. (which are about test scores and demographics.) City of Falls Church is probably the most liberal, politically, of all the areas you mentioned. |
Anonymous
Couldn't have said it better myself. We recently moved to Fairfax County. Really wanted to live in Annandale, to the schools that feed into the Woodson cluster, but it's a relatively small area of the Annandale zip code (I think it's 22003 -- and I think there are a few neighborhoods in Fairfax, between Little River Turnpike and Braddock Road that will also feed into Woodson) on the market because the area and schools are so desirable. We seriously had to weed through zip codes and neighborhoods to find the ones that fed into the schools we wanted to be in. Neighborhoods we looked fed into Woodson, Robinson, and McLean High Schools (pp is right, there are a few decently priced houses, is in under $600k, that go to McLean, a notoriously wealthy area with large homes in Northern Virginia). Good luck and let us know if you have any questions! I really did a lot of research leading up to our recent home purchase/move. |
Anonymous
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PPs are spot on. Some of the schools in Annandale are a little questionable with lots of gang activity. Others are just fine. You just need to keep an eye on what school pyramid you are buying into - if you have kids and that is an issue. If you don't have kids, you could really probably buy anywhere in Annadale and be fine.
I'm in West Springfield, just blocks from both Burke and Annandale. The area is pretty nice, we'll probably stay here even when we eventually move up to a bigger house. |
Anonymous
| The other thing that makes parts of Alexandria and Falls Church more desirable (to me at least) is that certain areas are more pedestrian friendly. Old Town and Del Ray are walkable neighborhoods in Alexandria. Same with downtown Falls Church. That's where we are, and we can walk out to lunch or dinner, to the library, several parks, shopping, etc, and also are right on a bike trail. I'm not aware of anywhere similar in Annandale. |
Anonymous
| Yeah but in Alexandria City you have the school factor |
Anonymous
Agreed. I used to live in Del Ray and absolutely loved everything about it, but the Alexandria City schools are notoriously bad. The elementary schools may be just ok, but the middle schools and TC Williams are not so great. |
Anonymous
| Good Korean food, lots of Korean restaurants and shops. |
Anonymous
| annandale is mostly korean with some vietnamese as well. so if you don't like that, don't move there. |
Anonymous
And Korean gangs. |
Anonymous
Yes but if you aren't Korean, they don't bother you much. |
Anonymous
They don't bother you at all! We live in Annandale, and we love it. We have switched jobs to places from Maryland to Loudoun, and it's never that bad of a commute. The schools aren't as good as Woodson, but they're not bad at all. In fact, I might say that if your child is not one to fall into a bad crowd, they probably have a higher likelihood of getting into an elite college, etc., because there is more opportunity to shine, rather than being one of a 100 overachievers. There is a lot of diversity, which can be a good thing! There is a large middle/upper-middle class community, depending on which neighborhood you choose. Our development is very family-friendly, and we have made some close friends that we would not have otherwise. I've also had more good Korean food than I ever would have! I think you have to think about your child and whether they seem like an 'honors' type kid or not. I agree that if my kids weren't motivated, I probably would not feel as comfortable as I do with Annandale schools. Also, I believe there is an Annandale border study under way, so the school boundaries might change. |
Anonymous
I really HATE when people say this about Annandale. I live on Stark Road. My kids go to Wakefiels Forest. My oldest attends Woodson which is consistently ranked a top school in the nation, a top ten school in the area. You want to avoid schools east of the beltway, not to to the west heading towards Fairfax. Anything in Annandale around Northern Virginia Community College is perfectly fine. Anything feeding into Woodson is fine. There are some less savory neighborhoods that feed into Annandale high school, I believe the boundary is anything east of Wakefield Chapel Road. Check with the school, do not trust the realtor to be honest with you about schools. And do not trust this site to give you a humble, honest overview of the school system. The opinions here are not objective and everyone is taken with class, status, the "poor" areas, and the terrible schools (which in this area really are not all that terrible). This is the Cluster info for Woodson - this is where you want to be in Annandale, feeding to Woodson, not Annandale HS - http://commweb.fcps.edu/directory/bycluster.cfm?cluster=3#p2021 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilbert_Tucker_Woodson_High_School |