Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No smart home buyer consults Great Schools -- it's not a reliable arbiter of school quality at all. None of those sites really are. No one takes Great Schools seriously.

Most home buyers start with Greatschools and go on from there.

Horse shit. A few gullible ones do. But not "most."

are you more horse, or more shit, to ignore one of the most obvious and objective markers of school quality?

It doesn't really show quality - more like SES level. But maybe that does mean quality to you...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No smart home buyer consults Great Schools -- it's not a reliable arbiter of school quality at all. None of those sites really are. No one takes Great Schools seriously.

Most home buyers start with Greatschools and go on from there.

Horse shit. A few gullible ones do. But not "most."

are you more horse, or more shit, to ignore one of the most obvious and objective markers of school quality?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In this price range, I would think townhouse will give you more search options. Quite a few townhones in Burke under $350k

Agreed.

Yes I'd look at Burke and Fairfax. But commute might not be optimal if you are going downtown.

Anonymous wrote:Parents of an almost-three year old here. We're moving to the DC area in a few weeks and totally flabbergasted about trying to select a neighborhood with good schools. GreatSchools rates all of the Arlington schools tremendously lower than Fairfax county, but we've heard good things about Arlington!

How do you evaluate schools? Any websites or resources that have been helpful to you? We'd really like to narrow things down before we get there.
Or, sell me on your neighborhood and schools!

Thank you!

Greatschools is a great indicator. It's accurate, although I'm sure highly intelligent kids with school minded tiger moms can do fine at any school, Arlington or wherever. So of course boosters from various towns will say how great their school is regardless.

If schools are important and you don't know the area, I'd start with Fairfax County unless you work in md. Consider your commute too. Living outside the beltway and not close to a Metro can make a commute to DC miserable.

There's lots of home for rent in pimmit hills. It's basically tysons corner. I live within 2 miles of every store, every food you can imagine. And our school is very good. But the homes are small here, mostly 1500 sq ft going for 2k/mo. To buy might cost $530 I'm guessing. There's a variety of homes in this school district that sell for $530 to maybe $1.3m.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No smart home buyer consults Great Schools -- it's not a reliable arbiter of school quality at all. None of those sites really are. No one takes Great Schools seriously.

Most home buyers start with Greatschools and go on from there.

Horse shit. A few gullible ones do. But not "most."

Sorry, meant to include the link to the condo:

http://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/Arlington-VA/house,townhouse_type/2100308784_zpid/30258_rid/2-_beds/0-355000_price/0-1288_mp/featured_sort/38.951933,-76.949444,38.809483,-77.255002_rect/11_zm/0_mmm/

There are some apartments that feed into Claremont, which is good if you want a Spanish immersion school.
But if you want more space for your family in that price range, you'll have to look further out.

How many bedrooms? Even a 2 bedroom 1 BA TH or condo apartment in Arlington will cost more than that in most of the school districts you'd want to look at. There's a condo in Waverly Hills (excellent schools: Glebe/Williamsburg/Yorktown; nice neighborhood) at that price, but it's small (970 sq. feet). You'll get more for that budget if you go further out.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This one is in a good school district.

[+]5430 RUBY DR, FAIRFAX, VA 22030 FAIRFAX VANNOY ACRES $ 330,000 3 2 MRIS

That would leave $20k in the budget to fix up that place.

20K is probably not nearly enough.

Anonymous wrote:This one is in a good school district.

[+]5430 RUBY DR, FAIRFAX, VA 22030 FAIRFAX VANNOY ACRES $ 330,000 3 2 MRIS

That would leave $20k in the budget to fix up that place.

Anonymous wrote:Budget is $350k. Where can we get a sfh with great school?

I do not think you can in Fairfax. You could get a decent townhouse in the Burke/Fairfax/Wes Springfield areas, though.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Budget is $350k. Where can we get a sfh with great school?

You might find a fixer upper in West Springfield or Burke at that price. Very good schools. What is your commute, where are your jobs?

For 350? No way. I don't think you will find a SFH in Fairfax County for that price.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Budget is $350k. Where can we get a sfh with great school?

Prince William County.

+1

They have goof schools near Warrenton in newer developments.

Anonymous wrote:In this price range, I would think townhouse will give you more search options. Quite a few townhones in Burke under $350k

Agreed.

Townhouse!

OP - are you looking at just SFHs? Open to THs or condos? That will open up more options.