You're very, very lucky if you find a ~$800K house in FCC. It's a coup for sure, but also be prepared for the $1.5M crowd to snub you a little for being from the wrong side of the tracks. (But go ahead and enjoy it because when the bubble bursts, you'll be in much better shape financially!)

For a few more months, developers can still build on substandard lots, so the insane development continues (and the stock of smaller, older houses dwindles all the more).

It's not that easy to get a $800K house in FCC, actually.

Anonymous wrote:FCC: High taxes, overcrowded schools, no room to build bigger schools due to small city size, city council that keeps allowing development but won't fund the schools to keep up, teachers fleeing for higher-paying jobs in Arlington, laughable GT "services," you'll pay $800K for what DCUM calls a shitshack and be considered a "poor", only two kids accepted at TJ per year and really just a handful get into UVA due to school demographics.

- A resident

I can testify to this. Gone are the days of our Mayberry.

FCC: High taxes, overcrowded schools, no room to build bigger schools due to small city size, city council that keeps allowing development but won't fund the schools to keep up, teachers fleeing for higher-paying jobs in Arlington, laughable GT "services," you'll pay $800K for what DCUM calls a shitshack and be considered a "poor", only two kids accepted at TJ per year and really just a handful get into UVA due to school demographics.

- A resident

Property taxes are ridiculous, but then again, income tax is so low compared to DC, where pp is coming from.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Taxes in FCC are just stupid ridiculous. it's a pricetag for bragging.

+1

What are the taxes? Property taxes? Income? Sales?

Wait property taxes are 1.27%?
http://fallschurchtimes.com/34538/council-keeps-city-tax-rates-steady/

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Taxes in FCC are just stupid ridiculous. it's a pricetag for bragging.

+1

What are the taxes? Property taxes? Income? Sales?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Marshall is too far out for OP, but Kilmer should get better when the Langley/McLean kids get moved to Cooper. Within a year or so, this will have to happen.

Parts of Marshall district are about a mile away from George Mason HS (FCC). Marshall is growing, though - projected at 1900 next school year.

The "Langley/McLean" kids go to Cooper or Longfellow, not Kilmer. I think PP is referring to "Langley/Great Falls" kids who currently go to Kilmer for AAP and may be sent "back" to Cooper.

There may be more residential projects approved in the Marshall district than any other HS district in the county, given all the plans for Tysons. Quite a change from the early 1990s when the school's enrollment hovered around 1000 and FCPS came close to closing Marshall and selling the valuable land.

Anonymous wrote:Taxes in FCC are just stupid ridiculous. it's a pricetag for bragging.

+1

FCC enrollment is increasing at a greater rate than most districts around here...so I am not sure the smaller class sizes are going to exist much longer. There are already lots of trailers, budgetary issues, etc.

Anonymous wrote:Marshall is too far out for OP, but Kilmer should get better when the Langley/McLean kids get moved to Cooper. Within a year or so, this will have to happen.

Parts of Marshall district are about a mile away from George Mason HS (FCC). Marshall is growing, though - projected at 1900 next school year.

Taxes in FCC are just stupid ridiculous. it's a pricetag for bragging.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are the great public small ms and hs in N Arlington?

Only HB Woodlawn but chances of admission are very small.

Of course, I'm not convinced that smaller schools are, in and of themselves, "better."

absolutely correct, pp, but DC would do better in a smaller school, so for DC, it IS a better school..I am open to other schools, however, just not enormous ones!

It really sounds like you want FCC, so asking for other recommendations is almost a waste of time. All the houses 23:01 mentioned, for example, feed into one of the largest, and most overcrowded, middle schools in FCPS. I assume that would be an issue for you as the parent of a rising 7th grader.

The only alternative to FCC I can think of might be some South Arlington schools like Gunston and Wakefield. You absolutely cannot count on HB Woodlawn an option.

New poster,
You are wrong and obviously are biased towards crap schools in south Arlington.

Kilmer has the seventh largest enrollment out of the 25 middle schools in the county. It is also projected to be the most overcrowded middle school in the county in 2018.

I have no bias towards South Arlington schools, although I don't think they are "crap." I just noted that they are among the smaller schools in the area to a poster who asks about smaller schools. Good grief. Are all those with children at Kilmer/Marshall as nutty as you seem to be?

Not affiliated with kilmer, just Sick of the south Arlington boosters . They rope you in with visions of grandeur and then you are stuck in the neighborhood.

PP, I hope you would not make your major life decisions based on the opinions/advice of anonymous posters on a forum.

Marshall is too far out for OP, but Kilmer should get better when the Langley/McLean kids get moved to Cooper. Within a year or so, this will have to happen.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are the great public small ms and hs in N Arlington?

Only HB Woodlawn but chances of admission are very small.

Of course, I'm not convinced that smaller schools are, in and of themselves, "better."

absolutely correct, pp, but DC would do better in a smaller school, so for DC, it IS a better school..I am open to other schools, however, just not enormous ones!

It really sounds like you want FCC, so asking for other recommendations is almost a waste of time. All the houses 23:01 mentioned, for example, feed into one of the largest, and most overcrowded, middle schools in FCPS. I assume that would be an issue for you as the parent of a rising 7th grader.

The only alternative to FCC I can think of might be some South Arlington schools like Gunston and Wakefield. You absolutely cannot count on HB Woodlawn an option.

New poster,
You are wrong and obviously are biased towards crap schools in south Arlington.

Kilmer has the seventh largest enrollment out of the 25 middle schools in the county. It is also projected to be the most overcrowded middle school in the county in 2018.

I have no bias towards South Arlington schools, although I don't think they are "crap." I just noted that they are among the smaller schools in the area to a poster who asks about smaller schools. Good grief. Are all those with children at Kilmer/Marshall as nutty as you seem to be?

Not affiliated with kilmer, just Sick of the south Arlington boosters . They rope you in with visions of grandeur and then you are stuck in the neighborhood.

You've got to be kidding. All I've seen them do is occasionally speak up for their neighborhoods and schools - and without the whole "suck it" routine whenever a house in South Arlington gets a contract.