Alexandria vs Arlington, McLean or Bethesda

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We lived in DelRay for a while, and really liked it, but moved south down the parkway to get a bigger yard/more competent school system. Not sure about the school system but love the greenery and quick shot to old town/dc. Check out 22307.

You moved down the parkway for...schools? Ok.

OK!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will add that we’re looking for a lot in Alexandria and will likely spend 1-1.2 just on the house to tear down, then another 1.2 on the new house. But turnover in Alexandria is low, so even potential lots are unlikely to move anytime soon. People who love Alexandria really LOVE Alexandria, and the same simply cannot be said of McLean, Arlington, or Bethesda.

You could not be more wrong.

Um, ok?

Duration of homeownership is longer in Alexandria than McLean or Arlington. I’m not easily finding the link to that stat but I did find that there are 8K households in McLean with HHI over 200k - and 12k households in Alexandria with HHI over 200K.

McLean is less economically diverse - and so has higher averages - and it is small. But it does not have more well off families than Alexandria. This is just a fact.

You can look up all regions on datausa.io, which uses census data.

[Anonymous]

If you need the difference between Alexandria City and McLean explained than you really just don't get it. Mclean is a strip mall for Christ's sake.

[Anonymous]

I know this is a phrase we roll our eyes a lot at at DCUM but I have lived both places and my impression is McLean= new money and that is reflected in the eyesore McMansions and Alexandria City is understated old money crowd. Obviously not talking about the Fairfax county part.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you need the difference between Alexandria City and McLean explained than you really just don't get it. Mclean is a strip mall for Christ's sake.

Yup. A strip mall that is 73% white, and 90% white or Asian! Compared to Alexandrias 50% white, 56% white or Asian.

McLean also voted for Trump at a significantly higher rate in 2016.

Census data is fascinating....

[Anonymous]

According to Redfin, there have been 444 sales of single-family houses over the past two years over $1.5 million in McLean and 97 in Alexandria. And Alexandria has almost three times the population as McLean. At the same time, median household incomes in McLean are over twice as high as in Alexandria.

There surely must be a better way for you to make the case you're trying to make for living in Alexandria without getting into factual disputes where you're on such shaky ground.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know this is a phrase we roll our eyes a lot at at DCUM but I have lived both places and my impression is McLean= new money and that is reflected in the eyesore McMansions and Alexandria City is understated old money crowd. Obviously not talking about the Fairfax county part.

Alexandria has class and character.

Mclean doesn't even know what that is. You couldn't pay me to live there.

[Anonymous]

T.C. Williams is only a 2 on Great Schools, which wouldn't bother me but for the fact that the privates in Alexandria like SSSA and Ireton are nothing special.

[Anonymous]

LOL. The new money poster is proving our points perfectly! And throwing in some gratuitous racism to boot. Told you they know nothing about character.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know this is a phrase we roll our eyes a lot at at DCUM but I have lived both places and my impression is McLean= new money and that is reflected in the eyesore McMansions and Alexandria City is understated old money crowd. Obviously not talking about the Fairfax county part.

Alexandria has class and character.

Mclean doesn't even know what that is. You couldn't pay me to live there.

McLean seems comfortably affluent. Alexandria seems stuck in the past, and insofar as the past in question is the pre-Civil War South that's not something I find especially appealing.

[Anonymous]

Wow, some political data from the census:

Percent of Trump voters in 2016 by region -

Alexandria 17.5%
Arlington 16.6%
McLean 28.6%
Bethesda 19.4%

So much for the idea that Alexandria leans more conservative!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:According to Redfin, there have been 444 sales of single-family houses over the past two years over $1.5 million in McLean and 97 in Alexandria. And Alexandria has almost three times the population as McLean. At the same time, median household incomes in McLean are over twice as high as in Alexandria.

There surely must be a better way for you to make the case you're trying to make for living in Alexandria without getting into factual disputes where you're on such shaky ground.

And yet you neither understand what "median" means (Alexandria's is lower because it has more diversity, but it has OBJECTIVELY more higher income households), nor that Redfin only captures recent sales, which is due to duration of home ownership.

Honestly I don't have beef with McLean as much as was saying something positive about Alexandria when a PP came on here to knock it down. McLean is where you go if you never want to interact with a middle-class person, ever. And ideally also rarely interact with black or hispanic people.

But lots of rich people actually (gasp!) enjoy living in a place with more diversity.

[Anonymous]

Mclean poster: "I'm not racist! I let Mexicans cut my grass and clean my house!"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:According to Redfin, there have been 444 sales of single-family houses over the past two years over $1.5 million in McLean and 97 in Alexandria. And Alexandria has almost three times the population as McLean. At the same time, median household incomes in McLean are over twice as high as in Alexandria.

There surely must be a better way for you to make the case you're trying to make for living in Alexandria without getting into factual disputes where you're on such shaky ground.

And yet you neither understand what "median" means (Alexandria's is lower because it has more diversity, but it has OBJECTIVELY more higher income households), nor that Redfin only captures recent sales, which is due to duration of home ownership.

Honestly I don't have beef with McLean as much as was saying something positive about Alexandria when a PP came on here to knock it down. McLean is where you go if you never want to interact with a middle-class person, ever. And ideally also rarely interact with black or hispanic people.

But lots of rich people actually (gasp!) enjoy living in a place with more diversity.

Yes.

And I'll add - did you know the median income of New York City is just under 58K? Yet no one in their right mind would argue there are more rich people in McLean than in New York City, right? New York City is home to many of the richest families in the world.

Same concept. The median tells you, above all, how economically diverse a place is, and not much more.

[Anonymous]

Alexandria is a far cry from NYC, and you’ve yet to define what you mean by higher-income nor back it up with facts. And the fact that you focus on one segment of Alexandria’s population to the exclusion of others suggests you may not be as thrilled with the others as you’d like the rest of us to think.

I don’t dislike Alexandria, even though it’s a bit twee and stuck in the past, but I also don’t think the overall quality of life there is as good as in Arlington, Bethesda, or McLean.