Recommendations for neighborhoods in Fairfax County? [VA]

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kings Park West in Fairfax

They said walkable. I grew up in that area, you can’t walk to anything.

Falls Church City- walk to groceries, library, ice cream, restaurants. Very good schools

Arlington- Westover area, walk to school, restaurants, farmers market

City of Fairfax- They have a cute downtown, this might be an option

Old Town Alexandria- lots of shops and restaurants, very walkable, but you will need to go to private school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Moving to the DMV from the San Francisco Bay Area and we've spent most of our attention on looking at Bethesda / Chevy Chase, mostly because my spouse is from the Northeast and thinks MD feels more like NY/NJ. I'm trying to convince him to look at Northern Virginia in part because the state and local income taxes are so much more reasonable, but we don't know where to really begin. Cultural differences aside (if there really are any), he doesn't like that NOVA has so many big roads and strip malls and doesn't seem to have more walkable neighborhoods. He thinks B/CC neighborhoods are full of beautiful older homes and VA seems to have a lot more recent McMansions. Is that really true? Are there exceptions?

We've heard traffic can be very bad in Virginia, particularly on main roads and over the bridges, and although we're both WFH, we would like to go into DC regularly to visit museums with the kids. Here in the Bay Area, we're lucky enough to be able to walk to school, the public library, the grocery store, neighborhood parks, and we'd love not to have to get into the car and sit in traffic to do everything.

Would love some help with recommendations on neighborhoods to look at? Some have mentioned McLean and Vienna, but we don't know which parts. Our budget is $2M, give or take. Excellent public schools are very important to us.

The cultural differences will be less pronounced for your spouse in MD. To New Yorkers, VA is considered southern. This will be debated, but those who are truly not from the south will understand. Ultimately, the answer depends on commute, and nothing more. MD is slightly cheaper than VA. For VA, the PP who mentioned the McLean HS side of McLean is spot on, regarding walkability - unless you insist on a new house, then you will have to move further out for the money. Vienna is very walkable and family friendly, and tends to skew slightly younger than McLean. You will get more land, the further out you move.

Have lived in both McLean and Vienna and agree with this assessment. But I'll add that there are parts of Vienna that are not walkable.

PP here excellent point. I should have pointed out that the parts near Vienna's downtown is what I would consider, but I can not speak to the schools (for resale value).

Town of Vienna schools are excellent. Vienna Elementary is small and vibrant with a real community feel. Madison HS is a very good and well ranked school.

[Anonymous]

Central McLean north or south of dolley Madison is ideal but also the most expensive.

Not the west side of McLean near great falls, lots of traffic on leesburg pike and never ending construction. Maybe even a casino.

Not Vienna, maple ave traffic and Tyson’s corner traffic to get to the highways. Schools are a notch below McLean.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kings Park West in Fairfax

They said walkable. I grew up in that area, you can’t walk to anything.

Falls Church City- walk to groceries, library, ice cream, restaurants. Very good schools

Arlington- Westover area, walk to school, restaurants, farmers market

City of Fairfax- They have a cute downtown, this might be an option

Old Town Alexandria- lots of shops and restaurants, very walkable, but you will need to go to private school

You can definitely walk to schools and parks in Kings Park West. Stores not really.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So you both WFH??
And it doesn't sound like a commute to anywhere in the region is a factor, right?

Why move here? Why not to a lower COLA area?

+1. Northeast to DMV can be a big change, culturally, OP (hint: ask others who have actually done so).

I did this from north Jersey. It was basically no change at all. Same type of people, same politics, etc. Other than getting rid of the township system and its enormous inefficiencies as a bonus, nothing is much different at all. North Jersey to central Alabama is different. NOVA is certainly not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Central McLean north or south of dolley Madison is ideal but also the most expensive.

Not the west side of McLean near great falls, lots of traffic on leesburg pike and never ending construction. Maybe even a casino.

Not Vienna, maple ave traffic and Tyson’s corner traffic to get to the highways. Schools are a notch below McLean.

McLean is not walkable. At all.

[Anonymous]

Do not buy in Maryland. it is going downhill rapidly. Crime is increasing and and they your single family house will soon be surrounded by oversized sixplex buildings with no parking due to due to zoning reforms. The schools will decline with the influx of low-income residents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kings Park West in Fairfax

They said walkable. I grew up in that area, you can’t walk to anything.

Falls Church City- walk to groceries, library, ice cream, restaurants. Very good schools

Arlington- Westover area, walk to school, restaurants, farmers market

City of Fairfax- They have a cute downtown, this might be an option

Old Town Alexandria- lots of shops and restaurants, very walkable, but you will need to go to private school

This is the answer. Alexandria has "cute" walkable neighborhoods with better architecture (Old Town, Del Ray & even Belle Haven is relatively walkable), but schools are a problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kings Park West in Fairfax

They said walkable. I grew up in that area, you can’t walk to anything.

Falls Church City- walk to groceries, library, ice cream, restaurants. Very good schools

Arlington- Westover area, walk to school, restaurants, farmers market

City of Fairfax- They have a cute downtown, this might be an option

Old Town Alexandria- lots of shops and restaurants, very walkable, but you will need to go to private school

This is the answer. Alexandria has "cute" walkable neighborhoods with better architecture (Old Town, Del Ray & even Belle Haven is relatively walkable), but schools are a problem.

This plus adding Town of Vienna. Also there’s Dunn Loring /mosaic if you’re ok with ok but not top Fairfax County schools.

[Anonymous]

Why are you moving to the area in the first place? That might drive responses.

There are older and newer homes in both states and as previously mentioned the closer you get to D.C. the smaller lots tend to be and the more crowded and noisy areas become, but the areas are often more "walkable", whatever that means to you. You can walk to all kinds of places within the more distant suburbs; it depends exactly where you are, and what you want to walk to. The trade-off is that you'll probably be on or near busier roads and commercial areas, which are of course noisier, more crowded, etc. If you want tranquility, you can have that if you're willing to drive to amenities like shopping and dining. If you walk, it's be busy/noisy.

$2M won't go far in McLean or Great Falls, but gives you lots of options in areas like Kings Park West, Burke, Clifton, parts of Vienna, and further out in Ashburn, which has Metrorail and easier access to more rural points West like Leesburg, Purcellville, Winchester, and other places you might enjoy exploring on foot when you have a yen to dine or shop somewhere new.

In general Maryland taxes are higher, and higher education options fewer although some, like Johns Hopkins U., are of good quality. Speaking again in generalities, VA is usually consdered to have a superior selection of state colleges and universities of varying degrees of selectivity, which may become more relevant to you when the time comes for your kids to seek admission and pay tuition.

[Anonymous]

At 2M you will have many choices. Stick with Bethesda. Look at neighborhoods that feed .. to Walt Whitman, BCC, Winston Churchill
-signed a NoVa public school parent, here based on commute. Your husband is not wrong on his observations. Only thing I'd add is there are more in-state college choices in Virginia. Having said that, our kids preferred going out of state.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So you both WFH??
And it doesn't sound like a commute to anywhere in the region is a factor, right?

Why move here? Why not to a lower COLA area?

Op - can you tell us why you're moving here?

[Anonymous]

Belle Haven. You can get a lot for $2M, and it’s a quick trip into Old Town. There are also a few things (The Haven, Custard Shack) that could be considered walkable.

[Anonymous]

Most of Northern VA basically is New Jersey. It’s depressing.

[Anonymous]

Fort Hunt / Waynewood area.