Just want to add to the Westover love on this thread. I think it's the best of all worlds.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure why Falls Church City isn't on your list. Adjacent to Arlington, metro-accessible, family-friendly, small-town atmosphere with great parks, great schools, a farmers market, and lots of community traditions (Easter egg hunt, summer concerts at Cherry Hill Park, Memorial Day Festival and Parade). You can get some townhomes and smaller houses in your price range (just look at the 'pending sales' on Redfin for HS=George Mason ).

You've done it now ... T minus one hour and counting until Farrakhan shows up to point out that FCC doesn't allow minorities.

Every community has its traditions. FCC's just happen to include telling minority residents they don't deserve to live there.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are seeking a vibrant family community in NW DC, Arlington or Bethesda. A place that is truly welcoming of new comers. A close-in village community where I can raise my elem school aged boys, and public schools are solid all the way through HS. Where they can ride their bikes or walk to school, pool or playground. Key here: I don't want to spend 2 hours/day commuting in traffic. Small detached home, town home, or condo is fine as long as we can walk to some amenities and it's truly a vibrant community.. Max budget $800k. Am I asking for too much?

22043 on the McLean/Arlington/Falls Church border (north of route 7, east of Haycock Road). You won't get a detached single-family home for that money, but townhomes and condos can be found if you look.

Also checkout the shreve and pimmit hills side if you want to get a SFH.

Anonymous wrote:We are seeking a vibrant family community in NW DC, Arlington or Bethesda. A place that is truly welcoming of new comers. A close-in village community where I can raise my elem school aged boys, and public schools are solid all the way through HS. Where they can ride their bikes or walk to school, pool or playground. Key here: I don't want to spend 2 hours/day commuting in traffic. Small detached home, town home, or condo is fine as long as we can walk to some amenities and it's truly a vibrant community.. Max budget $800k. Am I asking for too much?

22043 on the McLean/Arlington/Falls Church border (north of route 7, east of Haycock Road). You won't get a detached single-family home for that money, but townhomes and condos can be found if you look.

Bannockburn would fit your wish list quite well. It is very community oriented, and they have holiday parades, a spring musical that sells out each year, a newcomer's dinner at the club house for all people who have moved to the neighborhood the previous year, and two pools within walking distance of the elementary school. The neighborhood is walking distance to Glen Echo park, which has a variety of festivals each year and two a couple of shopping plazas with some decent restaurants. There are homes in the $800,000 range, though many get gobbled up by developers, so you have to keep a close eye on the market.

See if you can find something in Country Club/Yorktown, Tara/Leeway, Westover/Larchmont/Parkhurst/Highland Park... there are tons of great Arlington neighborhoods, though the challenge is finding something big enough and renovated for $800K. (they go FAST.) Also Dominion Hills and Arlington Forest have lots of families with young kids, though the third-bedroom in the cookie-cutter colonials is REALLY Tiny. (we looked at about 6 of them.)

We are in Country Club/Yorktown/Shirley Woods and we love it. Many families with young kids, a great neighborhood park (Chestnut Hills), lots of families out walking and kids riding bikes, and a great school pyramid. I like Westover even more, but you pay a premium for it, and $800K is low for that 'hood. My 4BR/2BA renovated cape cod would sell for under $750, most likely.

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure why Falls Church City isn't on your list. Adjacent to Arlington, metro-accessible, family-friendly, small-town atmosphere with great parks, great schools, a farmers market, and lots of community traditions (Easter egg hunt, summer concerts at Cherry Hill Park, Memorial Day Festival and Parade). You can get some townhomes and smaller houses in your price range (just look at the 'pending sales' on Redfin for HS=George Mason ).

You've done it now ... T minus one hour and counting until Farrakhan shows up to point out that FCC doesn't allow minorities.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The neighborhood surrounding Westover in Arlington. (Not just the Westover neighborhood itself, but anywhere within walking distance of the shopping strip on Washington Blvd.)

+1. Madison Manor and Dominion Hills fit your description. Madison Manor is McKinley=Swanson-Yorktown. Dominion Hills is divided along Lebanon St between that pyramid and Ashlawn-Swanson-Washington Lee.

Incredible neighborhoods. Homes come on the market in your price range but typically move quickly. We love it here.

I would stick with a yorktown pyramid and I am not found of the areas surrounding dominion hills (specifically wilson blvd).

Oh, Jesus. Not you. Do you get an alert every time there's a thread about n Arlington school pyramids?

LOL!

I'm not sure why Falls Church City isn't on your list. Adjacent to Arlington, metro-accessible, family-friendly, small-town atmosphere with great parks, great schools, a farmers market, and lots of community traditions (Easter egg hunt, summer concerts at Cherry Hill Park, Memorial Day Festival and Parade). You can get some townhomes and smaller houses in your price range (just look at the 'pending sales' on Redfin for HS=George Mason ).

Anonymous wrote:North Chevy Chase. Neighborhood pool, supermarket and Starbucks within walking distance, Capital Crescent Trail and Audubon Society for great nature walks and summer camps. Kids bike and walk to NCC elementary which runs grades 3 to 6. Commute downtown is easy by suburban standards (lots of different route permutations; street traffic rather than highway traffic; for someone like me with flex hours, off-peak times mean 25 mins door-to-door.) Under $800k will be a stretch but doable as long as you're okay with doing work. Same applies to the nearby parts of Kensington, although probably a bit less walking for most parts of the neighborhood.

I second all of this as an 11-year NCC resident.

Lyon Park in Arlington -- I know there is a poster who is always writing about Lyon Village. That neighborhood seems great too but I live in Lyon Village and it's vibrant (by your definition) and has tons of young kids.

I'm another Westover person. We have block parties for all the major holidays, walk to farmer's market every Sunday, know all of our neighbors, great schools, kids playing in the street, etc.

We're very happy. $800k isn't going to get you anything over the top great, but it's doable.

OP here. Thanks for your responses. Very helpful. By vibrant, I mean a community with active traditions around holidays (4th of July, Halloween Etc), the kind where folks willingly sign up for meal trains when someone is really sick, where people genuinely get to know families through community block parties or potlucks, a village older kids and the parents keep an eye out for little kids. They may not all be outside together all the time but there is a real sense of positive community.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The neighborhood surrounding Westover in Arlington. (Not just the Westover neighborhood itself, but anywhere within walking distance of the shopping strip on Washington Blvd.)

+1. Madison Manor and Dominion Hills fit your description. Madison Manor is McKinley=Swanson-Yorktown. Dominion Hills is divided along Lebanon St between that pyramid and Ashlawn-Swanson-Washington Lee.

Incredible neighborhoods. Homes come on the market in your price range but typically move quickly. We love it here.

I would stick with a yorktown pyramid and I am not found of the areas surrounding dominion hills (specifically wilson blvd).

Oh, Jesus. Not you. Do you get an alert every time there's a thread about n Arlington school pyramids?

I found this information to be very useful, not need to get defensive.. The typical vibrant neighborhood that OP is more likely to feed into Yorktown than WL.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are seeking a vibrant family community in NW DC, Arlington or Bethesda. A place that is truly welcoming of new comers. A close-in village community where I can raise my elem school aged boys, and public schools are solid all the way through HS. Where they can ride their bikes or walk to school, pool or playground. Key here: I don't want to spend 2 hours/day commuting in traffic. Small detached home, town home, or condo is fine as long as we can walk to some amenities and it's truly a vibrant community.. Max budget $800k. Am I asking for too much?

What do you mean by vibrant? I live in N. Arlington and a lot of the neighborhoods are teeming with kids and are family friendly, but I am not sure they are vibrant. Some are more walkable than others and all the schools are good. But often times they are very quiet during the day, and I don't see a lot of kids out and about by themselves or with friends.

I'm 11:18 and agree with your point. Dominion Hills is a very vibrant neighborhood with a great mix of SAHPs, WOHPs, WAHPs, child-free households and older retirees. We have annual Egg Hunts, Fourth of July parades and Halloween festivals. There's an active listserve and FB page.

I won't touch the other posters who are critiquing both W-L and non-DH neighborhoods like Bon Air and Bluemont since I'm not familiar with those neighborhoods.