Affordability of SFHs in NoVa School Districts
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singledadmclean
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| Thank you OP. Excellent data. This should be useful for anyone in the market for a SFH in NOVA. |
Anonymous
I'm looking at your tier 3 with a bit of skepticism. I think comparing the SFHs in Oakton to the SFHs in Arlington or Fall Church City is an apples to oranges comparison. We bought a couple years ago and we were looking at those school districts specifically in the $700K-800K range. In the W&L district, we could afford an older 3BR/2BA brick colonial that was about 1100-1300 sq.ft. In Oakton, we could have gotten a 4BR/2-3BA, 2000+ sq ft house that was more updated and had a much larger lot. Coincidentally, we spent $730 in the Marshall district and bought a 3BR/2BR 1950s split level - technically it had about 1700 sq.ft. but it was a split so the recorded above ground sq. footage was only 1200. All this detail to say I'm not sure what good it does to compare SFH prices without including details like square footage, BRs and BA. You have to compare similar houses to each other to gauge affordability. We felt completely priced out of W&L but we could have gotten more than we needed in Oakton. |
Anonymous
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Most of the Lake Braddock homes cost tye same as the West Springfield zoned homes.
However, there are some neighborhoods along the parkway zoned for LBSS that feed into Cherry Run and Sangster that are quite impressive and expensive. They bump up the average of home sales for LB. Without those neighborhoods, the prices for LB ans WS zoned homes would be on par with one another. |
Anonymous
I think the comparisons that you make actually justify the grouping. You looked at various SFHs with a certain budget, saw the trade-offs, and ended up in one Tier 3 school district. Others with your budget move closer in or further out. |
Anonymous
| I think 9:11 has a good point. George Mason HS is generally ranked about the same as Yorktown and McLean HS, and the housing stock is pretty similar and close in price. I looked in Falls Church (McLean HS and Mason) and Arlington and found similar offerings in my price range. Decided on Arlington because I could get a bit closer-in for the same price. New homes seem to cost about the same, older homes seem to have been built around the same time, though you might get a bit more land in McLean or in FC. |
Anonymous
George Mason has the most expensive median SFH sale price of the Tier 3 schools, but the difference between the GM median and the McLean median ($95K) is greater than the difference between GM and Oakton ($55K), the least expensive of the Tier 3 schools, so it seemed to make sense to have a breakpoint. This is based on sales data over the past 12 months. What is on the market in a particular district at the specific point in time when someone is looking will surely vary. But, directionally, if somewhat starts out with, say, a $700K budget, this tells you that they will find more to look at in Tiers 4-6 than the other tiers. |
Anonymous
PP - Thanks for the clarification. Also, thanks for the info. Good thread (on a forum of so few). |
Anonymous
Well, our address is technically Fairfax, but Chantilly HS is basically in our neighborhood. We have a 4 BR house with a nice yard, all levels of school within walking distance, can walk to the library, the grocery store, a few places to eat, etc. within a 15 minute drive are fair lakes, fair oaks, fairfax corner, Herndon, Reston, fairfax City, Dulles airport, multiple movie theaters. I work from home, my husband works as a contractor at a non-DC facility. We get downtown when we want and live a decent suburban life with good schools and a safe neighborhood with walkable amenities. We have what we need closeby and there are lots of days I don't have to get in my car. The kids at the HS that I have met are great kids. We can hear the marching band practicing many nights and can hear games and races at the stadium. The HS sends kids to my daughter's ES to volunteer - the kids love it. |
Anonymous
PP here. My point was that these districts are not equally "affordable." W&L and George Mason are WAY more expensive than Oakton for a comparable house. |
Anonymous
I think most people understand that similarly sized houses tend to be less expensive further out. But they usually start with a budget, and then decide what trade-offs they are willing to make. |
Anonymous
I always thought so |
Anonymous
You can't find some of the types of houses/lots in the Oakton district in the W-L and George Mason districts. |
Anonymous
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We are in W-L and you can't get into our neighborhood at under $1.5 million.
There are some very pricey neighborhoods in the zone--but the zone is wide and like the school has a much greater diversity in SES and housing type. This is one of the many reasons we like the school/area, btw. |
Anonymous
These are medians, based on sales of SFHs over a 12-month period. There will definitely be a distribution in terms of prices around that median (and more of one in areas like Arlington that have a mix of older homes and new builds than in more homogeneous areas like Burke or West Springfield), but there are no neighborhoods that feed into W-L where there have not been some sales over the past year for less than $1.5 million. |
Anonymous
That is a bit high. You could get something in Upper McLean at that price. |