All this talk of Loudoun County - is it really cheaper??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I keep seeing posts of families wanting to move out to Loudoun County because of a lower cost of living. But isn't it the county with the highest median income in the country? I don't understand how it could be cheaper...

We'd love to move out there, and sure it seems a little less expensive for housing, but what about everything else?

Thanks!

I don't see many posts about people wanting to move out to Loudoun. People just do it quietly when they want to live in a big house or can't afford closer in and don't care if it could be any exurb south of the Mason-Dixon Line.

[Anonymous]

If you make above average income and want to leave on a normal sized and newer home with a planned neighborhood it's the only game in town

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you make above average income and want to leave on a normal sized and newer home with a planned neighborhood it's the only game in town

Live not leave

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've never lived IN DC so I have no idea if it's cheaper but it's not cheap. We pay $2300 a month in rent for a nice townhouse near good schools. Property taxes are high- we don't own here so we don't pay taxes on a home, but for our two vehicles we pay about $850/year in property taxes for our car decals. Gas is right now about $3.35/gallon out here (or was last time I filled up a couple days ago).

If you still have to work in DC, I honestly imagine most of your expenses would stay about the same out here and anything you saved would probably be eaten by your commute. It's probably not in reality much cheaper, it's just that you might get a little more for your money... e.g., a 4 bedroom townhouse for $2300/month vs. a 1 bedroom apartment for the same.

You think that's not cheap? Seriously? That's peanuts.

No it's not cheap. It's cheaper than DC but it's not cheap. We own a house in another state and the mortgage is $700 including insurance and property taxes. THAT is cheap.

Are you kidding me? That's not cheap! You can get a mansion in Somalia for about $40 a month.* And that comes with your own militia!

*Has the same amount of relevance to this discission as your house in another state. (Is the state of confusion? The state of cluelessness?)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We live in Loudoun. It is less expensive but there are areas that are less expensive than Loudoun. If you want "cheap" "regular" sized new homes, go to Snowden Bridge in Stephenson. Saw this not too long ago: http://www.newhomesource.com/communitydetail/builder-7519/community-56705

That's about 90 miles from DC. West Virginia is closer. OP said she was thinking of moving "out" to Loudoun (which suggests that she is now in DC, or at least in a closer-in suburb) - you might as well suggest a lovely home in Des Moines.

[Anonymous]

I live near downtown Leesburg.

Anything further in than Tysons will be a problem. Arlington might get better if you can take bus + Metro, and MARC from Point of Rocks to the 270 corridor is a possibility if you're in Leesburg. I'll be honest, I'd rather drive to Columbia from Leesburg every day than drive to DC every day.

Remember, a higher percentage of Loudouners are working in Loudoun today than in 2000. I'm not sure if that's getting skewed by wives/older kids working as teachers, doctor secretaries, retail, etc., though.

Cost of living:

Loudoun taxes: $1.205/$100
P/I on the $540k mortgage @ 4.125% $2,617.11
Taxes on a $600k Loudoun place run you $7,230 p/a ($602.50/mo)
Assume insurance of $100
Total $3,319.61

That $600k place in Loudoun runs you anywhere from $700k to $1MM in Fairfax.

Fairfax taxes: $1.085/$100
P/I on the $630k mortgage @ 4.125% $3,053.29
Taxes on a $700k Fairfax place run you $7,595 p/a ($632.92/mo)
Assume insurance of $100
Total $3,786.21

The Greenway/Toll Road combo runs you $11 a day or $220 a month in terms of workweek. Even with the Toll Road you're still running lower in Loudoun. It depends on what value you place on commuting.

Some services are cheaper out here, other things there's not much of a difference.

PP who mentioned the lack of wealth disparity is correct. There are overcrowded schools here, but it's not like they're pristine and undercrowded in (say) Arlington?

Style of living:

Leesburg, Middleburg, and Purcellville all have functional downtown areas (and in Leesburg and Purcellville) decently walkable strip mall areas. There's (in all three towns) 50s-80s vintage development around the downtown that is cheaper than the new stuff going up in much of the county.

You've got two types of subdivisions: one is the typical 70s/80s/90s subdivision, with a strip mall in the middle, maybe some office buildings, and then four lane roads separating that from where people actually live.

The other includes New Urbanist inspired ideas -- Brambleton, the Village at Leesburg, and One Loudoun are the most prominent of those.

You've also got scads of pre-1950 rural houses in the western part of the county.

Long story short, there are housing options in Loudoun County. If you're in a generic strip mall subdivision, you didn't look hard enough, or you really wanted that new house.

As an aside, Loudoun is less white than Upper Ward 3, Bethesda, North Arlington, etc.

Finally -- 8:02, I think with the militia, it'd cost you $700 a month. But be sure to keep them well supplied in khat, or they might get cranky.

[Anonymous]

What I hate about eastern Loudoun is that you're out in the exurbs but you still get no land in most of these subdivisions. Just cookie-cutter houses on small lots in strip mall hell.

[Anonymous]

My family drove through the Bristow area yesterday (yes, not Loudoun, but I have a point)

Right as we were coming up on 28, there was one of those neighborhoods with the houses right on top of each other...after miles and miles and miles of farmland. Why in the WORLD would you move that far out and live right on top of your neighbor?

Ugh, no thank you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What I hate about eastern Loudoun is that you're out in the exurbs but you still get no land in most of these subdivisions. Just cookie-cutter houses on small lots in strip mall hell.

opposed to tiny shacks on top of each other near the metro

[Anonymous]

I used to live in Herndon and owned rentals in Ashburn. Right now I live in McLean. I love being able to get to places I frequent in Maryland, Arlington, and DC without that extra 20-25 minute drive. What used to be a 45 minute family eating out night in Rockville is now a short 15-20 minute away. My kids go to the best schools - schools that perform well due to superior overall quality, rather than artificial concentration of talent through AAP placement. I am less than two miles from the center of Tysons, the premier shopping center in the DC metro region with a vibrant decades-long plan of continued modernization. The spot of McLean I am in have large R-1 lots, going through rapid tear down and redevelopment where shitshacks are replaced with 2-3 million dollar homes. We are surrounded by towering old growth trees, and many of our neighbors spend more on landscaping than the average US population spend on entire houses. Yes we about that life.

For a young family starting out, Ashburn it's a great place to be. If you work near Dulles, or Reston, the commute is awesome. The planned community takes a lot of unknowns away, greatly reducing the risks and costs of home ownership. The close proximity to other younger families means that your kids will always have ample friends to play with for that great neighborhood feel. When I lived in Herndon, it could have just as well been Ashburn. It was exactly the right neighborhood for us at that stage of our lives. Since then I've lived in other parts of northern Virginia. All these have been transitional, places that were suitable for us at that time.

[Anonymous]

if you wonder why there are high income jobs in loudon

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/loudoun-county-tops-5-million-square-feet-of-data-centers/2013/10/25/dc213cd4-3c39-11e3-b6a9-da62c264f40e_story.html

[Anonymous]

I live in Vienna but would much rather live in Ashburn if I worked in Tysons or further west. To me, it seems the best of everything. Big nice houses. Lots of parks and public areas. And most importantly, you can walk everywhere. Walk to school, walk to shops, walk to restaurants. Looks like a really nice place to live. Most of northern arlington, mcLean and vienna are totally car dependent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I live in Vienna but would much rather live in Ashburn if I worked in Tysons or further west. To me, it seems the best of everything. Big nice houses. Lots of parks and public areas. And most importantly, you can walk everywhere. Walk to school, walk to shops, walk to restaurants. Looks like a really nice place to live. Most of northern arlington, mcLean and vienna are totally car dependent.

I think you got lost in Clarendon on your way to Ashburn. With few exceptions, it's not walkable AT ALL.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live in Vienna but would much rather live in Ashburn if I worked in Tysons or further west. To me, it seems the best of everything. Big nice houses. Lots of parks and public areas. And most importantly, you can walk everywhere. Walk to school, walk to shops, walk to restaurants. Looks like a really nice place to live. Most of northern arlington, mcLean and vienna are totally car dependent.

I think you got lost in Clarendon on your way to Ashburn. With few exceptions, it's not walkable AT ALL.

Clarendon is a shit hole

[Anonymous]

A typical Walk Score in Ashburn is between 15-20. It's car-dependent, generic, "safe" suburbia. If that's what you want, great, but don't pass it off as something it isn't.