Anonymous wrote:OP people on this board are biased toward locations closer to DC like McLean or Langley. They assume everyone wants to be as close to DC as they can afford which just isn’t true. I agree with the suggestion of 22033 zoned for Oakton or Chantilly or 20171 zoned for Oakton. There are lots of Asians in these areas and you and your family will fit right in. As for your budget that would get you a home in a neighborhood like Folkstone which is Crossfield/Carson/Oakton. These are good schools. If your younger kids get into AAP they can stay at Crossfield or go to Navy Elementary which is majority Asian. Carson is the AAP center for middle school so they would go there either way. I’m f you don’t want to push your budget up, don’t. We have a similar HHI and we like that we can pay our mortgage very comfortably and not really worry about expenses. Not everyone wants to stretch to have a big house. You know what works for your family.
Ignore the people arguing about renovations and bashing FCPS. They are miserable people who do this on every thread. I happen to think the 22033/20171 area is a very nice suburban area great for families and convenient to a lot of different things. Most people I know feel the same way.
OP mentioned Mclean so that's why it was considered. This is an FCPS schools page, not a real estate page. People pay actual money for this type of advice. People have been very helpful including mentioning swim and tennis clubs. A lot of these "bashers" as you call them are the ones actually trying to help keep the system afloat. You can just read the Lewis thread to see that finally after 15 years of people here saying do something about Lewis they are finally considering AP from IB. It's taken years of pressure to do those things which wouldn't have been needed if FCPS wasn't so "progressive".