Good suggestions!

Anonymous wrote:Annandale

Falls Church/Fairfax County

+1

Brookland has some large yards.

20124 Clifton, Va

PG county - University Park

Our home in the Seminary Valley part of Alexandria City is on a .25 acre lot (corner lot) and was sub-$500k. (We obviously don't belong on DCUM.) Elementary school is ok, middle school is probably where we might need to do something else, and high school is ok. There are nicer, more updated houses in our neighborhood for closer to $550-575k. It's a nice neighborhood and the commute to downtown is easy, and there is a limited stop bus to the Pentagon.

We looked at some houses west of 395 in the Fairfax County part of Alexandria, around Little River Tpke, and north and south, and because the lots were originally laid out without access to county water/sewer, they had to have bigger lots to accommodate a drain field. Some of those are as big as half an acre, but much less of a neighborhood feel with some very odd tear-down neighbors. Honestly, 6000 sq. ft. isn't even that much if you're looking for a single family home. There's a lot both inside and outside the beltway, although probably not in the close-in desirable areas like N. Arlington. I don't think we saw anything smaller than that except townhouses.

For what it's worth, OP...we have a house that fits your description in Vienna and we'll likely be putting it on the market in the next couple months.

I've been seeing similar go for $600k-$650k recently, so I expect it to be priced somewhere in that range.

Our yard is about 0.35 acre and the house has a fully finished walkout basement (about 2300sqft liveable space).

I think there would be some good options for you in this area...

Anonymous wrote:there are areas of mclean (22101) that have .25 acre lots with smaller, early 1960s era split levels. Not sure if that's quality enough for you. $650 would be tough, but there were quite a few that sold for under $650 in the last couple of years if you search the sales history.

here's an example of one that's a little higher than that on the market now: http://www.redfin.com/VA/Mc-Lean/1637-Great-Falls-St-22101/home/9397385

They are starting to knock down in that area, lest PP still be confused.

Anonymous wrote:Hmmm, if .25 lot counts as big - you can look in Rockville/N.Potomac/G-burg area
20878, 20850, some 20852/20854
It is possible to find a small house (under 2K) in your price range, especially if school district is not important (eg houses zoned to Richard Montgomery would be cheaper than comps zoned to Wootton in 20850)

There are even a few houses in Rockville/Potomac in the Wootton cluster that are in OP's price range.