Friend moving to DC metro area - where to live?

[Anonymous]

A friend of mine is moving to the DC metro area. Her husband will be working in DC and they have four children (two preschoolers and two in elementary school). She is from the south and their children are used to big houses and lots of greenery. She doesn't like big cities and prefers the suburbs. She asked me for advice on are affordable but have good schools? I know that the fairfax public school system is really good as well as montgomery. However I'm guessing those neighborhoods are pretty expensive? What about all the others? Any ideas where I should direct her? I don't have kids and live in arlington so I'm not the best person to give advice.

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Reston/Asburn and bank on someday taking the silver line.

[Anonymous]

No idea how to answer unless you give a budget. How much are they planning to spend on a house?

[Anonymous]

West Springfield or Burke.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:West Springfield or Burke.

Annandale outside the Beltway.

[Anonymous]

try the citydata forum, you might get a lot of info there

[Anonymous]

Try Olney area. Cheaper houses, decent schools than Fairfax/Bethesda/etc. areas.

Depends on husband accepting the one hour+ commute though.

[Anonymous]

Need a budget - how much can they afford for a mortgage or rent per month?

If "affordable" means a house for under $450K, with 4 kids, you have to do Montgomery County MD, maybe the northern end of Silver Spring near Ashton/Brookeville area, or Columbia, or someplace around Wheaton. the northeastern part of the county basically or Howard county. NoVA is just too expensive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:West Springfield or Burke.

Annandale outside the Beltway.

Might not be "affordable," although it is the best value in NoVA. but who knows without more info

[Anonymous]

Reston might be a good bet. You can buy a good house for your money there, although not as much as you can in Ashburn. Personally, you couldn't pay me to make that commute but plenty disagree and feel the access to land and larger newer homes is worth it.

[Anonymous]

Olney is a good option if they'd consider MD, although southerners seem to gravitate to NoVa.

[Anonymous]

Ashburn in Loudon county might fit the bill for them, assuming DH is okay with a long commute. The people I know who commute from there to DC generally leave their houses before 7am to beat the worst of the rush hour traffic, and most try to work flex hours or telecommute one day a week if they can.

[Anonymous]

Another option would be for her husband to take the train and live farther out -- the VRE runs from Fredricksburg, I believe. NO WAY would a sane person want to make that commute by car, though, and train fare can get expensive.

[Anonymous]

We browsed in Reston but any decent SFH with enough room for a family of 6 started in the 700s, which was too much for us.

All this speculation is useless without their budget.

[Anonymous]

I know a couple families of 6 who live in my neighborhood in 4 BR homes where the biggest unrenovated model is 2200 sf. It is possible. They probably won't like it if they are used to gigantic homes, but it is possible.

I know this isn't going to be popular, but they might want to look in PG County.