[VA] Walkable Nova communities with "good schools" and single family homes?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I live in Arlandria/the very north part of Del Ray on the Arlington-Alexandria border. I'm a mom of a toddler and love to bike. I live right off the Four Mile Run Trail. Super walkable and bikeable here with a lot of small businesses with local character. My house was a fixer-upper townhouse for <500k (we renovated) with a front and back yard. Finished/turnkey homes in the neighborhood can go for 500-700k, though they are small.

I will say, I'm not as picky about schools as many DC folks, and Alexandria's schools are known to be less than top-notch (among the very elite schools in the area). So I take "bad" with a grain of salt. I grew up in truly bad schools.

As for diversity, I think it's starting to gentrify a bit, but still a lot of diversity here. I'm medium-skinned Italian-American but pass for Latina and often get spoken to in Spanish here Lots of Salvadorian and Black longtime residents. The further south you go from the Four Mile Run stream into actual Del Ray, it gets whiter.

Only downside is there's no metro within 1mi, though that will change when the Potomac Yard metro is finished (supposedly soon).

I like a lot of the same characteristics that you do, OP, and I don't have a car. I think this is the perfect location for urban living but peaceful, family-friendly living.

What school are you zoned for in Arlandria (hoping Mount Vernon) just hijacking the thread because love how you describe where you live (except the metro part) and we really cannot afford DC anymore, but hubs has strong strong requirements for walkability and transit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My family and I are considering relocating to Northern Virginia. I've only visited a few times, and I don't know the area well. I'd love to get opinions on areas that people think we might like living in. Here's what we are looking for:

* "Good" public schools. We originally were looking at Washington DC but it seems that many of the public high schools in DC have worse educational outcomes compared to Northern VA.
* Diverse community.
* Walkable/bikeable community. Ideally, the community would have sidewalks and we could do basic errands(get coffee, lunch, etc) on foot or by bike.
* Single family homes with a small yard for under 1.8M.
* Since we won't be commuting, we don't care about proximity to Metro or common work locations like DC, Tysons, etc.
* A sense of community! Many areas I drove through were long sidewalk-less roads with developments off to the side with names like "windwood estates" etc. Are there areas of Northern Virginia that have more of a community feel with a distinct downtown etc?

Bluemont/Bon Air in Arlington. Near a lot of biking trails. Relatively diverse for Arlington. Decent schools. Walkable to Ballston.

I think Falls Church City would also work.

[Anonymous]

OP in all seriousness, the only 2 places in NOVA that will give you that old fashioned main street feel are Falls Church City or Alexandria 22314 or maybe Del Ray (also in Alexandria). Which you pick depends on your school requirements. While Vienna has a bustling main street and chirch street, its more suburbia vibe. However, Vienna wins for conveniences.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP in all seriousness, the only 2 places in NOVA that will give you that old fashioned main street feel are Falls Church City or Alexandria 22314 or maybe Del Ray (also in Alexandria). Which you pick depends on your school requirements. While Vienna has a bustling main street and chirch street, its more suburbia vibe. However, Vienna wins for conveniences.

I, however, don't know a lot about ex-burbia, i.e., Ashburn, Leesburg, etc., There is a lot within an hour of Reston. Leesburg probably has a large downtown.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Town of Vienna. Vienna El. or Cunningham Park El—Thoreau—Madison pyramid is most walkable.

Can walk to school, ball fields, W&OD trail, library, lots of restaurants, grocery stores, drug stores, town green, community center, coffee..

Close to metro, plenty of bus stops, close to both 66 and 495, close to Tysons, pretty central location to other points of the county.

Vienna outside of town is nice too. Not as walkable, but good size yards, and close drive to things.

Agree with Town of Vienna. Search for houses with zip code 22180 -- there is a large area that is called Vienna but is not part of the town. Tons of nice houses/neighborhoods, but really not walkable. Yes, Vienna has a lot of strip malls but it is a wonderful community with lots of events and strong community pride. Not terribly diverse but if you are looking to spend $1.8 million, you will not end up in a very diverse area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP in all seriousness, the only 2 places in NOVA that will give you that old fashioned main street feel are Falls Church City or Alexandria 22314 or maybe Del Ray (also in Alexandria). Which you pick depends on your school requirements. While Vienna has a bustling main street and chirch street, its more suburbia vibe. However, Vienna wins for conveniences.

Falls Church City does not have an "old fashioned main street feel." Nor does Vienna have a "main street."

Both Falls Church City and Vienna have commercial areas along busy commuter arteries - Route 7 (called "Broad Street" in FCC and Leesburg Pike elsewhere) and Route 123 (called "Maple Avenue in Vienna and Chain Bridge/Dolley Madison/Ox Road elsewhere).

Just because they have local governments doesn't mean these areas have old-fashioned downtowns. Not even close.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP in all seriousness, the only 2 places in NOVA that will give you that old fashioned main street feel are Falls Church City or Alexandria 22314 or maybe Del Ray (also in Alexandria). Which you pick depends on your school requirements. While Vienna has a bustling main street and chirch street, its more suburbia vibe. However, Vienna wins for conveniences.

Falls Church City does not have an "old fashioned main street feel." Nor does Vienna have a "main street."

Both Falls Church City and Vienna have commercial areas along busy commuter arteries - Route 7 (called "Broad Street" in FCC and Leesburg Pike elsewhere) and Route 123 (called "Maple Avenue in Vienna and Chain Bridge/Dolley Madison/Ox Road elsewhere).

Just because they have local governments doesn't mean these areas have old-fashioned downtowns. Not even close.

In Vienna, we are talking Church Street, not Maple Avenue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bethesda. Way more walkable than Northern Virginia, top schools, and an hour from Reston.

This, if you're open to MD. I would highly consider the area that feeds into Wood Acres Elementary. Near trails, the C&O canal, close to DC/VA.

[Anonymous]

If you're open to Maryland, Kensington?

[Anonymous]

If you’re commuting to dc, you should be looking at Bethesda!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP in all seriousness, the only 2 places in NOVA that will give you that old fashioned main street feel are Falls Church City or Alexandria 22314 or maybe Del Ray (also in Alexandria). Which you pick depends on your school requirements. While Vienna has a bustling main street and chirch street, its more suburbia vibe. However, Vienna wins for conveniences.

Falls Church City does not have an "old fashioned main street feel." Nor does Vienna have a "main street."

Both Falls Church City and Vienna have commercial areas along busy commuter arteries - Route 7 (called "Broad Street" in FCC and Leesburg Pike elsewhere) and Route 123 (called "Maple Avenue in Vienna and Chain Bridge/Dolley Madison/Ox Road elsewhere).

Just because they have local governments doesn't mean these areas have old-fashioned downtowns. Not even close.

In Vienna, we are talking Church Street, not Maple Avenue.

That's a very small retail area.

Vienna posters always over-hype how much of a small-town feel it has to compensate for living in an area with horrendous traffic outside the Beltway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP in all seriousness, the only 2 places in NOVA that will give you that old fashioned main street feel are Falls Church City or Alexandria 22314 or maybe Del Ray (also in Alexandria). Which you pick depends on your school requirements. While Vienna has a bustling main street and chirch street, its more suburbia vibe. However, Vienna wins for conveniences.

The central area of Falls Church looks the same as a thousand other major city suburban downtowns. It is not an old fashioned main street feel. Really nowhere in northern Virginia has that unless you go outside the immediate suburbs to places like Culpeper or maybe Leesburg. Alexandria has a fantastic streetscape of course but it is more of a city.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP in all seriousness, the only 2 places in NOVA that will give you that old fashioned main street feel are Falls Church City or Alexandria 22314 or maybe Del Ray (also in Alexandria). Which you pick depends on your school requirements. While Vienna has a bustling main street and chirch street, its more suburbia vibe. However, Vienna wins for conveniences.

I am just outside fcc limits but walking distance to harris teeter. Where exactly do you get the old fashioned main street vibe? Lil city creamery? I was honestly thinking about this yesterday thinking fcc gets a lot of attention for having a small town feel but it’s really not that charming. Sitting outside eating ice cream while cars rush by on Broad isn’t that fun. Brown’s hardware is great but you wouldn’t exactly shop up and down the street like old town alexandria. I think it’s pretty overrated. restaurants are meh. Farmers market is no better than okay.

[Anonymous]

Not a lot of diversity in NOVA. It's a pretty rich place in general.

[Anonymous]

Reston is a good choice.