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

[Anonymous]

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?

[Anonymous]

Arlington. Alexandria.

[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?

Town of Vienna, Falls Church City or Fairfax City. You will pay more in taxes to live in TOV and FCC. Fairfax and FCC are more diverse.

[Anonymous]

Westover in Arlington

[Anonymous]

It depends on whether or not you put diversity in your list to virtue signal or if you actually mean it and how you define it.

[Anonymous]

If you won't be commuting, why are you moving to Northern VA? I mean, I like it here, but I came here for a job and stayed because of the job market. There are other places to look if you can work from anywhere.

I echo the recommendation of Falls Church, Fairfax City, and Vienna, and I'd add Reston even though DCUM doesn't like the diverse schools there. But again you could likely look far afield in Leesburg, Fredericksburg, parts of Ashburn, all kinds of places -- to say nothing of, for example, Boston.

[Anonymous]

Vienna not town of. Oakton is more diverse but not walkable.

[Anonymous]

While you don't care about proximity to metro for commuting, a lot of the kinds of neighborhoods you are looking for are clustered along the Orange Line through Arlington -- stations Courthouse, Clarendon, Virginia Square, Ballston. Some neighborhood names are Lyon Village, Lyon Park, Ashton Heights, Arlington Forest, Waycroft/Woodlawn, Bluemont. Tends to be zoned to Washington-Liberty HS. A lot of these neighborhoods are old street-car suburbs. I live in Ashton Heights and I think it had everything on your list.

There have been several recent discussions about this area so you can use the search function to find them by neighborhood name.

[Anonymous]

Lyon Village, Lyon Park, Yorktown (Arlington)

Town of Vienna

Fairfax City

Falls Church City but its quite ugly in my opinion, and too industrial

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you won't be commuting, why are you moving to Northern VA? I mean, I like it here, but I came here for a job and stayed because of the job market. There are other places to look if you can work from anywhere.

I echo the recommendation of Falls Church, Fairfax City, and Vienna, and I'd add Reston even though DCUM doesn't like the diverse schools there. But again you could likely look far afield in Leesburg, Fredericksburg, parts of Ashburn, all kinds of places -- to say nothing of, for example, Boston.

OP, is there a certain appeal of NoVa?

[Anonymous]

If you don't care about commuting then no need to be in Arlington, which is not diverse in the least (at least in the areas you'd want to live).

[Anonymous]

If you're indifferent to Metro access, check out South Arlington (opinions will vary on schools), but, certain for diversity, and you can get walkability Shirlington and parks and playgrounds. As well as ticking all of the boxes on your housing wish list.

[Anonymous]

Burke Centre.

The have five pools. Hidden walking paths. Buses and VRE. Nice shopping centers. Library. Bike paths. Asian grocery stores. Decent schools. Neighborhood festival.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you're indifferent to Metro access, check out South Arlington (opinions will vary on schools), but, certain for diversity, and you can get walkability Shirlington and parks and playgrounds. As well as ticking all of the boxes on your housing wish list.

Agree with this.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks for all the advice! South Arlington neighborhoods seem nice, although it does feel silly to potentially pay all that extra $-per-square-foot to be near DC if we aren't commuting. Vienna seems to have less of a downtown than I had hoped - I see a lot of parking lot strip malls etc on google maps. Fairfax City seems to have a sense of community. Thanks for the advice all!

If you won't be commuting, why are you moving to Northern VA? I mean, I like it here, but I came here for a job and stayed because of the job market. There are other places to look if you can work from anywhere.

We want to be closer to my wife's family who are in Reston VA. We would be willing to live anywhere within an hour drive of Reston.

It depends on whether or not you put diversity in your list to virtue signal or if you actually mean it and how you define it.

I guess I'd be looking for ethnic diversity? We currently live in a relatively diverse community and I think it is good for the kids to be exposed to other cultures, languages, etc.