Buying first house .. Fort Hunt area?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:http://www.redfin.com/VA/Falls-Church/7529-Lisle-Ave-22043/home/9471255

http://www.redfin.com/VA/Falls-Church/7422-Howard-Ct-22043/home/9471953

Gross.

under contracts, excellent schools and location...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You all who are saying how horrible the commute into downtown from FH must have never done it. I drive every day into downtown from 22306 and it never takes me more than 45 minutes getting there or back. I leave my house at 7:40am, am usually at work by 820am, and leave work at 5-515pm and always am home by 6.

Rt. 1 through OT in the AM and GW Parkway in the PM is the best route. GW Parkway in the AM gets backed up around the 395 interchange and I take the Arlington Memorial bridge so I avoid all that by taking Rt. 1 instead.

Frankly, I am very happy with my commute. It could be worse - you could live in Springfield and deal with the 95/395 mess or west of 495 and deal with the 66 mess. I avoid all of those.

+1. Another fort hunt resident here, wondering what these PPs are talking about. y all means, move to McLean or Springfield if you like it better, but there is no way that is a better commute.

[Anonymous]

Fort Hunt is a great, friendly little area. Tons of parks around, bike paths, little hidden treasures like the Variety store or the house with a thousand christmas lights on Collingwood. Great neighborhood pools.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for all the feedback! I really appreciate it. I was telling my DH about the comments here last night. Hopefully we can find something we like soon!

[Anonymous]

I have a friend that lives in Waynewood and I will openly admit I am jealous of her lifestyle. They walk to the pool and the elementary school, and it seems like they socialize with their neighbors. She takes the bus downtown and I haven't heard her complain about her commute.

We live in Pimmit Hills (no comments please, I am not a PH booster) and we would look at Waynewood in a minute if it worked with our job locations (I work in MoCo currently).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a friend that lives in Waynewood and I will openly admit I am jealous of her lifestyle. They walk to the pool and the elementary school, and it seems like they socialize with their neighbors. She takes the bus downtown and I haven't heard her complain about her commute.

We live in Pimmit Hills (no comments please, I am not a PH booster) and we would look at Waynewood in a minute if it worked with our job locations (I work in MoCo currently).

The elementary school is good but after that the middle and high school go down hill fast.

http://www.greatschools.org/virginia/alexandria/584-Waynewood-Elementary-School/
http://www.greatschools.org/virginia/alexandria/487-Sandburg-Middle-School/
http://www.greatschools.org/virginia/alexandria/502-West-Potomac-High-School/
http://www.redfin.com/VA/Alexandria/1006-Dewolfe-Dr-22308/home/9820198#schools

[Anonymous]

Yes PP but OP doesnt even have kids yet. Do people really stay in a home (esp a first home) 10 plus years now so that middle and high schools are a concern?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes PP but OP doesnt even have kids yet. Do people really stay in a home (esp a first home) 10 plus years now so that middle and high schools are a concern?

My friend thought like you and ended up stuck when she had kids because the house didn't appreciate as fast as ones in better school districts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a friend that lives in Waynewood and I will openly admit I am jealous of her lifestyle. They walk to the pool and the elementary school, and it seems like they socialize with their neighbors. She takes the bus downtown and I haven't heard her complain about her commute.

We live in Pimmit Hills (no comments please, I am not a PH booster) and we would look at Waynewood in a minute if it worked with our job locations (I work in MoCo currently).

This is exactly what we want! We both grew up with very rural lifestyles but with very involved communities and would love something like that!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes PP but OP doesnt even have kids yet. Do people really stay in a home (esp a first home) 10 plus years now so that middle and high schools are a concern?

My friend thought like you and ended up stuck when she had kids because the house didn't appreciate as fast as ones in better school districts.

We have thought about both options. Honestly we have no idea what the schools will be like in 10ish years when our theoretical kids will be going to middle/high school. Hopefully they will be better than they are now. If not then private school is always an option.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here - Thank you PP for your honest comments. While ideally we would love to live in McLean or North Arlington we just haven't been able to find anything in our price range. Even townhouses need a lot of work in the $600k-$700k range.

VRE/Metro are hard to do for my DH since his hours are all wonky. Sometimes he can leave early (7-7:30pm) but then when he gets busy he doesn't leave until 10pm or later and the wait for the train sucks.

We are just looking right now and will keep our eye on places in McLean/North Arlington in case anything in our price range pops up but what we have seen so far in Fort Hunt is great. The houses are nice, the neighborhoods seem really friendly and you are really close to Old Town which we love. We really don't like the urban sprawl part of 66 or down through Springfield although I didn't hear there was a town center going in down there. Since we grew up in a more rural area with lots of yards and space we would love to have something with at least a yard for when we have kids. Plus our dog.

This townhouse is in Falls Church (1 block from McLean), that are in the $500K-$700 range. They were built after 1980s, so it would not necessarily be a fixer upper. This part of Falls Church feeds into McLean HS, with Elementary School boundary split between Kent Garden and Haycock which are all good schools.

http://www.redfin.com/VA/Falls-Church/6833-Mclean-Province-Cir-22043/home/9477530

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a friend that lives in Waynewood and I will openly admit I am jealous of her lifestyle. They walk to the pool and the elementary school, and it seems like they socialize with their neighbors. She takes the bus downtown and I haven't heard her complain about her commute.

We live in Pimmit Hills (no comments please, I am not a PH booster) and we would look at Waynewood in a minute if it worked with our job locations (I work in MoCo currently).

This is exactly what we want! We both grew up with very rural lifestyles but with very involved communities and would love something like that!

This is the same PP. In Waynewood they do kiddo parades for holidays (4th of July, Halloween, etc). They also have neighborhood parties at the pool for summer holidays - definitely July 4, probably labor day and memorial day too. I'm sure there are other neighborhoods that do the same - I'd love to hear about them myself

[Anonymous]

I did not read previous posts (this is a long thread!) but highly recommend you look at Burke and West Springfield. Great community - it feels like I get away from it all every night when I get home. Neighborhood cookouts, community pools, it is awesome. We love where we live (West Springfield, but loads of friends in the parts of Burke that are close to us.) We can walk to just about everything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:http://www.redfin.com/VA/Falls-Church/7529-Lisle-Ave-22043/home/9471255

http://www.redfin.com/VA/Falls-Church/7422-Howard-Ct-22043/home/9471953

That second house is new?? What is going on there, its a mix of different years style, and looks old. Is it an FHA renovation, where they 'tear-down' but keep some of the foundation and thus get super cheap financing? http://www.forbes.com/fdc/welcome_mjx.shtml

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here - Thank you PP for your honest comments. While ideally we would love to live in McLean or North Arlington we just haven't been able to find anything in our price range. Even townhouses need a lot of work in the $600k-$700k range.

VRE/Metro are hard to do for my DH since his hours are all wonky. Sometimes he can leave early (7-7:30pm) but then when he gets busy he doesn't leave until 10pm or later and the wait for the train sucks.

We are just looking right now and will keep our eye on places in McLean/North Arlington in case anything in our price range pops up but what we have seen so far in Fort Hunt is great. The houses are nice, the neighborhoods seem really friendly and you are really close to Old Town which we love. We really don't like the urban sprawl part of 66 or down through Springfield although I didn't hear there was a town center going in down there. Since we grew up in a more rural area with lots of yards and space we would love to have something with at least a yard for when we have kids. Plus our dog.

This townhouse is in Falls Church (1 block from McLean), that are in the $500K-$700 range. They were built after 1980s, so it would not necessarily be a fixer upper. This part of Falls Church feeds into McLean HS, with Elementary School boundary split between Kent Garden and Haycock which are all good schools.

http://www.redfin.com/VA/Falls-Church/6833-Mclean-Province-Cir-22043/home/9477530

There's another townhouse nearby for $553K. I believe this one feeds into Haycock-Longfellow-McLean. It is for sale by owner, which can be tricky. Just get a good settlement attorney.
http://www.redfin.com/VA/Falls-Church/2115-Preston-Square-Ct-22043/home/9477236