These are the best areas is you have a budget over $1M and want good schools and decent commute:

North Arlington - Yorktown and Washington-Liberty HS (APS)

McLean - McLean and Langley HS (FCPS)

Falls Church - Meridian HS (FCC) and Marshall HS (FCPS)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The commute from Vienna Station to DC is 30 minutes, 45 if you need to go deeper in DC. It's easy and you always get a seat. Driving is a different story, but if you live close to the train station there is no need to ever drive. Its been great - we are DC transplants ourselves.

You have to add on the time it takes to get to the station, park, walk to the platform, wait for the train, and walk from the station in DC to your office. It adds up. Commuted from Vienna to DC for years and it was almost never 30 minutes and often over an hour. You do not want to do this if you have other options.

Right - if you don't live near the metro it will be longer. But there a lot of TH's, including large high-end ones, that have an extremely short walk to the platform, the SFHs have longer. Then obviously the distance from your office matters to on the other end like you said. But we do this commute from a TH across the street from the Station, and our walk is 8 minutes door to platform, and our offices are near Orange line stations in the city so for us its a breeze.

I don't know if it's still true but when I bought a house many years ago the realtor told me she "wasn't allowed" to talk about school districts so you have to do your own research about that.

Chesterbrook/Longfellow/McLean
Churchill Road/Cooper/Langley

Best commuting options. Excellent schools. You can afford both unless you want a new house.

We did the move from DC to Arlington nine years ago for schools We and many of our neighbors withdrew our kids from Arlington public schools during the pandemic. We put our kids in a parochial school and will never return to APS. Our children were good students but have done better at this school. APS might restore itself but the pandemic revealed its many issues.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For what it’s worth, lots of parents with young children have moved to Great Falls in the past year or so. (We are one of those families!). Elementary schools are very good — we are at GFES, but know plenty of happy parents at Forestville and Colvin Run. We think that it’s a wonderful place to raise a family.

Thanks! So glad to hear that. Do most people you know just find their homes online, with a realtor or through letter writing?

Realtor.

Anonymous wrote:For what it’s worth, lots of parents with young children have moved to Great Falls in the past year or so. (We are one of those families!). Elementary schools are very good — we are at GFES, but know plenty of happy parents at Forestville and Colvin Run. We think that it’s a wonderful place to raise a family.

Thanks! So glad to hear that. Do most people you know just find their homes online, with a realtor or through letter writing?

Anonymous wrote:The commute from Vienna Station to DC is 30 minutes, 45 if you need to go deeper in DC. It's easy and you always get a seat. Driving is a different story, but if you live close to the train station there is no need to ever drive. Its been great - we are DC transplants ourselves.

For those who do this, how is this like when you have children? I like using public transport when convenient but unsure how that works when you have a kid.

Anonymous wrote:The commute from Vienna Station to DC is 30 minutes, 45 if you need to go deeper in DC. It's easy and you always get a seat. Driving is a different story, but if you live close to the train station there is no need to ever drive. Its been great - we are DC transplants ourselves.

You have to add on the time it takes to get to the station, park, walk to the platform, wait for the train, and walk from the station in DC to your office. It adds up. Commuted from Vienna to DC for years and it was almost never 30 minutes and often over an hour. You do not want to do this if you have other options.

For what it’s worth, lots of parents with young children have moved to Great Falls in the past year or so. (We are one of those families!). Elementary schools are very good — we are at GFES, but know plenty of happy parents at Forestville and Colvin Run. We think that it’s a wonderful place to raise a family.

Robinson HS is good too. Try zip code 22032

The commute from Vienna Station to DC is 30 minutes, 45 if you need to go deeper in DC. It's easy and you always get a seat. Driving is a different story, but if you live close to the train station there is no need to ever drive. Its been great - we are DC transplants ourselves.

For commuting to DC, I would stick to McLean.

You probably want to focus on North Arlington, McLean, or Falls Church (either Falls Church City or the neighborhoods in the Falls Church part of Fairfax County that feed to Marshall HS or McLean HS).

Great Falls and Vienna are also good if you work from home, are commuting to Tysons or Reston, or only rarely want or need to go to DC. They aren’t a great commute to DC.

Moving from DC to Virginia as my son becomes school age. Best tips for finding some homes in good school districts? Any recommended realtors who know the area well or does it not matter? Does writing letters actually work? Are there listservs or ways to learn about homes before they go online?

For context, we were thinking McLean or Great falls but we’re new to the DMV area so open to other recommendations. Budget is $1.3M and under. Main considerations are good school district and not too far from work (in DC)