We bought in 2004 when there was pretty much no inventory in our price range. We chose size and layout (3BR/4BA TH) in Fairfax County over tiny homes in Arlington. The townhouse has been great because it's well located, the neighbors are smart and successful yet chill, but across the larger Nova region, people categorically hate our school pyramid so the appreciation has been slow. Buy a house you like well enough in a neighborhood and school district that you love. Your life will be easier for sure.

We were buying last year and for us there were a few priorities (granted we ended up compromising on some).

1. Location: had to be close to DC and to work.
2. Walkable: had to be somewhere wirh things to do close by enough.
3. Good public transportation options.
4. Schools: Dont have kids yet but wanted a place with at least a good elementary school but preferably all three. Don't want to be I a position where we have to move when kids close to ES age.
5. SFH or a TH wirh an OK backyard.
6. Had to be under $1m/7k PITI.

Given that interest rates were at 7% and prices we had to compromise on the SFH point and get a TH. Also compromised on the schools. Our elementary and middle are decent but not amazing from what I can tell (Taylor and Hamm) and our HS (Washington Liberty) is bad from what I can tell (but again no kids yet so haven't done super thorough research into HS).

Districted to very good schools, walkable elementary school located within neighborhood, quiet area

For us, it was location for commuting to our jobs as well as schools. And of course, the cost of the house. While we make a good income and the real estate agents were like you can get these very, very expensive houses. We really wanted to keep within a certain budget. We got lucky because we found exactly what we needed but it was a little over our budget.
And for your concern about schools. This success for students in schools really depend on the parent versus the school. If you're in Montgomery county for instance, all schools have the same curriculum. It's parents that determine the success. You could find good teachers everywhere and bad teachers everywhere.

Schools were primary.
We wanted an HOA to maintain neighborhood standards and minimize conflict with neighbors.
We wanted a house that would be easy to live in and maintain (or last house required death defying acrobatics to change one of the filters, never again).
I thought I wanted a big yard, it turns out after my kid became a teenager the yard is not that important.

Anonymous wrote:How do people define location? We prioritized being walkable to a metro line (I didn't care which one); schools average or above; layout of house was good (can fix most everything else); sidwalks.

Honestly I just wanted to be walkable to something. So for example I vetoed a house that was in a small community (approx 10 homes) with no amenities in the community and no connection to other neighborhoods except via a six lane road.

Schools, minimum size, and budget were non-negotiable. We had to move out of the DMV to get what we wanted.

We chose the specific house we did because
Location within new town
Size was between 2,000 and 3,000 sq ft (We turned down one house b/c I didn’t want to clean or furnish a 4,000 sq ft. house.)
Layout was perfect. I can’t explain how much I hate living rooms with only one doorway.
No two-story ceilings
Structurally sound
Outside a flood zone
Pool community

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our max budget was $600k. We identified areas we could afford and then looked at the schools there. I realized I really wanted a Spanish language immersion program for our kid (I am Latina) so was very focused on schools that offered that for all students. Both DH and I wanted diverse areas but not concentrated poverty nor a very homogenous school.

We found what we wanted. We are very happy with our townhome. Glad we didn't get the SFHs we bid on and lost.

How did you get a Spanish language immersion?? My school has it but it’s a lottery and we didn’t get in. I’m really having a rough time getting over it. I feel like it was my kids’ chance to learn Spanish. It’s offered next in 8th grade I think. I have tried to teach him on my own but have been unsuccessful and was hoping to have another to speak Spanish with. It’s so disappointing.

In MCPS there are a few schools with school-wide "two-way immersion" (TWI) programs. It's for all the kids that attend the school.

Schools and proximity to DC / jobs. Our house maxed out our budget and it’s old and not very fancy, but it has almost doubled in value over the past decade and was a good investment in that sense. Some days I fantasize about living in a gorgeous new home, but on others I feel like we made a great choice given that we love our schools and we didn’t pay a premium for a house that had been flipped. Definitely a trade off baked into the equation.

How do people define location? We prioritized being walkable to a metro line (I didn't care which one); schools average or above; layout of house was good (can fix most everything else); sidwalks.

We started with the school district that was within a reasonable commute for DH and me. This defined the set of neighborhoods that we looked at. We then put together a list of must-haves and good-to-haves. For example, road noise (even if you have triple-pane windows) was a dealbreaker for us. We never compromised on the must-haves and we came pretty close to out dream house.

Anonymous wrote:For us first was budget: 450k max. That narrowed down our location choices a lot. Then A+ public schools were the second eliminating factor. Next, a safe, quiet neighborhood where we could afford a nice house. To me, nice = general good state with no inspection issues, not cramped, 4 bedrooms, a yard, no neglected houses in immediate surroundings.

I'm very curious as to where you ended up because unless you bought 20 years ago I can't think of a single neighborhood that would check all of those boxes.

Location/reasonable commute, within our budget, decent schools (including MS and HS even though our kids were in elementary at the time) and move-in-readiness were the big ones for us. We were moving cross-country and didn't have the bandwidth or time to handle a bunch of up-front renovation work/fixes before we could comfortably live there. Aesthetic changes could and did come later, and the house didn't have to be new, but we didn't want something that needed big system replacements or had major projects staring us in the face that kept us from using the house fully (like totally unfinished basements, or a back door that opened in mid-air where a deck was meant to be built but had no deck, etc.).

High-speed internet access was another priority. I have WFH for more than a decade, and we were looking in the exurbs and ruled out any place where satellite was the only option. We were fine with well/septic vs. city water, but reliable internet connectivity was a must-have.

Even location was somewhat negotiable, though. I preferred something suburby, DH wanted something more rural with a multi-acre lot even though he's the one with the commute. Two very different lifestyles, we had to pick one or the other. We ended up in the more-rural category and it was a great choice, especially during covid.

Anonymous wrote:Location. We wanted some walkability and easy access to parks, trails. Schools also a high consideration.

This ^
That’s why we’re now quite upset at this Attainable Housing Initiative and how it will affect established neighborhoods, including ours.
We intentionally selected our house and neighborhood and have seen some changes with the recent redistricting that affected our elementary school. Now, the potential of higher density in our community is the boogeyman we fear.

Anonymous wrote:Our max budget was $600k. We identified areas we could afford and then looked at the schools there. I realized I really wanted a Spanish language immersion program for our kid (I am Latina) so was very focused on schools that offered that for all students. Both DH and I wanted diverse areas but not concentrated poverty nor a very homogenous school.

We found what we wanted. We are very happy with our townhome. Glad we didn't get the SFHs we bid on and lost.

How did you get a Spanish language immersion?? My school has it but it’s a lottery and we didn’t get in. I’m really having a rough time getting over it. I feel like it was my kids’ chance to learn Spanish. It’s offered next in 8th grade I think. I have tried to teach him on my own but have been unsuccessful and was hoping to have another to speak Spanish with. It’s so disappointing.