You’re much better off in Fort Hunt area. Especially Waynewood area. Great suburban vibe and You feel like you’re far from dc but you’re still close to old town and dc right up the GW Parkway.

I never understood the point of moving out in the sticks like FX Station. If you want to live so far away from things, then just move out of the dmv entirely. Unless you just love commuting.

Fairfax Station is lovely, but PP is correct that many parts have well/septic and lack sidewalks, if that’s important to you.

Burke does have some condos, but primarily townhomes and SFH. We’re in a SFH and yes, our AA neighbors are retired military.

It's full of wannabe rednecks and trumpers.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd avoid the Lorton part of FFX Station. Look for houses in the Robinson or Lake Braddock pyramid. Specifically Fairview, Oak View or Sangster for ES.

Those familiar with school demographics know this is code language, and only thinly veiled at that.

OP here. Please enlighten me. I'm not arguing, I actually want to know what you mean. Like I said, I am not from here and not familiar with schools here. Not a whole lot of elementary schools where I grew up and they were all the same in terms of demographics and performance, nothing like here.

South County HS is newer than Lake Braddock SS and Robinson SS, and single-family homes in the SoCo district are, on average, also newer and more expensive as well. When posters steer people away from SoCo or its feeders to Robinson or Lake Braddock, it more often than not isn’t because the strip malls in Burke are beautiful, but because SoCo has more Black kids (22%) than Lake Braddock (7%) or Robinson (6%).

People can claim they had something else in mind, but they deserve to be called out.

I agree. The racism in Burke is well known. When I lived in Burke Center there were no black families in the single family homes.

This is super interesting and I am curious to know more about Burke. My husband and I are planning to buy a single family home there and we are black.

What? Didn’t Colin Powell and his family live in Burke in the 80s/90s? I don’t think Burke is an area that particularly attracts Black and African families, but Lake Braddock is around 10% black.

I didn’t know that about him but he’s military so I guess that makes sense.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd avoid the Lorton part of FFX Station. Look for houses in the Robinson or Lake Braddock pyramid. Specifically Fairview, Oak View or Sangster for ES.

Those familiar with school demographics know this is code language, and only thinly veiled at that.

OP here. Please enlighten me. I'm not arguing, I actually want to know what you mean. Like I said, I am not from here and not familiar with schools here. Not a whole lot of elementary schools where I grew up and they were all the same in terms of demographics and performance, nothing like here.

South County HS is newer than Lake Braddock SS and Robinson SS, and single-family homes in the SoCo district are, on average, also newer and more expensive as well. When posters steer people away from SoCo or its feeders to Robinson or Lake Braddock, it more often than not isn’t because the strip malls in Burke are beautiful, but because SoCo has more Black kids (22%) than Lake Braddock (7%) or Robinson (6%).

People can claim they had something else in mind, but they deserve to be called out.

I agree. The racism in Burke is well known. When I lived in Burke Center there were no black families in the single family homes.

This is super interesting and I am curious to know more about Burke. My husband and I are planning to buy a single family home there and we are black.

You'll be welcome there if you're good neighbors. There is no racism, but many people won't look like you, if you care about that. Many residents are military/civil service, it's a solidly middle-class environment.

That’s good to know. I’m the poster that is black that is moving there. We consider ourselves middle class but we are not in that income range. We are a little over $400k. Is that going to be weird? We are also looking at West Springfield.

You'll be fine. We are HHI $350k and I know based on job titles our next door neighbors eclipse our salaries. It's a lovely mix of dual working parents, SAH parents, civil servants, military, consultants, accountants, in house lawyers, etc. We've got a little bit of everything. While the area is largely white, you won't stand out for being non-white. My immediate neighbors are white, white, korean, pakistani, indian. There aren't any apartment complexes in Burke so you won't find much low income but there also aren't mega mansions so it's all pretty down to earth people.

West Springfield is basically the same as Burke with a bit more variety in levels of housing (there are apartments and a few new construction pockets that feed to WSHS)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd avoid the Lorton part of FFX Station. Look for houses in the Robinson or Lake Braddock pyramid. Specifically Fairview, Oak View or Sangster for ES.

Those familiar with school demographics know this is code language, and only thinly veiled at that.

OP here. Please enlighten me. I'm not arguing, I actually want to know what you mean. Like I said, I am not from here and not familiar with schools here. Not a whole lot of elementary schools where I grew up and they were all the same in terms of demographics and performance, nothing like here.

South County HS is newer than Lake Braddock SS and Robinson SS, and single-family homes in the SoCo district are, on average, also newer and more expensive as well. When posters steer people away from SoCo or its feeders to Robinson or Lake Braddock, it more often than not isn’t because the strip malls in Burke are beautiful, but because SoCo has more Black kids (22%) than Lake Braddock (7%) or Robinson (6%).

People can claim they had something else in mind, but they deserve to be called out.

I agree. The racism in Burke is well known. When I lived in Burke Center there were no black families in the single family homes.

This is super interesting and I am curious to know more about Burke. My husband and I are planning to buy a single family home there and we are black.

What? Didn’t Colin Powell and his family live in Burke in the 80s/90s? I don’t think Burke is an area that particularly attracts Black and African families, but Lake Braddock is around 10% black.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd avoid the Lorton part of FFX Station. Look for houses in the Robinson or Lake Braddock pyramid. Specifically Fairview, Oak View or Sangster for ES.

Those familiar with school demographics know this is code language, and only thinly veiled at that.

OP here. Please enlighten me. I'm not arguing, I actually want to know what you mean. Like I said, I am not from here and not familiar with schools here. Not a whole lot of elementary schools where I grew up and they were all the same in terms of demographics and performance, nothing like here.

South County HS is newer than Lake Braddock SS and Robinson SS, and single-family homes in the SoCo district are, on average, also newer and more expensive as well. When posters steer people away from SoCo or its feeders to Robinson or Lake Braddock, it more often than not isn’t because the strip malls in Burke are beautiful, but because SoCo has more Black kids (22%) than Lake Braddock (7%) or Robinson (6%).

People can claim they had something else in mind, but they deserve to be called out.

I agree. The racism in Burke is well known. When I lived in Burke Center there were no black families in the single family homes.

This is super interesting and I am curious to know more about Burke. My husband and I are planning to buy a single family home there and we are black.

You'll be welcome there if you're good neighbors. There is no racism, but many people won't look like you, if you care about that. Many residents are military/civil service, it's a solidly middle-class environment.

That’s good to know. I’m the poster that is black that is moving there. We consider ourselves middle class but we are not in that income range. We are a little over $400k. Is that going to be weird? We are also looking at West Springfield.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd avoid the Lorton part of FFX Station. Look for houses in the Robinson or Lake Braddock pyramid. Specifically Fairview, Oak View or Sangster for ES.

Those familiar with school demographics know this is code language, and only thinly veiled at that.

OP here. Please enlighten me. I'm not arguing, I actually want to know what you mean. Like I said, I am not from here and not familiar with schools here. Not a whole lot of elementary schools where I grew up and they were all the same in terms of demographics and performance, nothing like here.

South County HS is newer than Lake Braddock SS and Robinson SS, and single-family homes in the SoCo district are, on average, also newer and more expensive as well. When posters steer people away from SoCo or its feeders to Robinson or Lake Braddock, it more often than not isn’t because the strip malls in Burke are beautiful, but because SoCo has more Black kids (22%) than Lake Braddock (7%) or Robinson (6%).

People can claim they had something else in mind, but they deserve to be called out.

I agree. The racism in Burke is well known. When I lived in Burke Center there were no black families in the single family homes.

This is super interesting and I am curious to know more about Burke. My husband and I are planning to buy a single family home there and we are black.

You'll be welcome there if you're good neighbors. There is no racism, but many people won't look like you, if you care about that. Many residents are military/civil service, it's a solidly middle-class environment.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd avoid the Lorton part of FFX Station. Look for houses in the Robinson or Lake Braddock pyramid. Specifically Fairview, Oak View or Sangster for ES.

Those familiar with school demographics know this is code language, and only thinly veiled at that.

OP here. Please enlighten me. I'm not arguing, I actually want to know what you mean. Like I said, I am not from here and not familiar with schools here. Not a whole lot of elementary schools where I grew up and they were all the same in terms of demographics and performance, nothing like here.

South County HS is newer than Lake Braddock SS and Robinson SS, and single-family homes in the SoCo district are, on average, also newer and more expensive as well. When posters steer people away from SoCo or its feeders to Robinson or Lake Braddock, it more often than not isn’t because the strip malls in Burke are beautiful, but because SoCo has more Black kids (22%) than Lake Braddock (7%) or Robinson (6%).

People can claim they had something else in mind, but they deserve to be called out.

I agree. The racism in Burke is well known. When I lived in Burke Center there were no black families in the single family homes.

This is super interesting and I am curious to know more about Burke. My husband and I are planning to buy a single family home there and we are black.

We ended up in Springfield but looked at many houses in Fairfax Station. I think most of the homes in that area are on well water and have septic systems/fields. At least all the ones we looked at did.

With VA being a "Buyer Beware," state, I would do a LOT of due diligence for a house like that. Most of those houses are quite old, and isn't too hard for a seller to mask issue during the buying process that could become very $$$ headaches for you. Make sure you have extensive testing done.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here again. Thanks. One other area we are looking at now is Oakton/Vienna. One parent WFH long term other than travel once COVID is over, one parent commuting to Old Town on flexible schedule a few days a week.

Budget is ideally around 1-1.1 though it's our goal to put down about half of this in cash.

Thoughts on Oakton/Vienna vs. FFX station given this info? Are there specific neighborhoods we should target in Oakton/Vienna?

At 1.1 million- I love Mantua. It’s just got this old school vibe. The parks in the area are nice. I love all of the community pools. But if you are looking for land- FFX station is better.

I used to live in Burke. Burke is great! But the houses are really close together and I feel like the neighbors are a bit nosy.

If you look for a house in 22039, try to stick close to ox road. It’s the major thoroughfare and it will get you everywhere. We live close enough to it that we can bike to places.

Yup...mantua definitely an “old” neighborhood. Used to be a great place during the 80s...I grew up there, graduated from
Woodson HS. There is a swim club and we used to frequent the YMCA which was located on rt 236. As a kid I always wanted to return to Mantua but the place just lost it for me. It’s a relatively good
Location but lost its charm when we were seeking to purchase a single family home. We Moved a bit north to Oakton
Age that move has been good for us.
And love it.

Bumping this thread as I am looking into these locations now. Could you explain more about Mantua vs Oakton vs Fairfax Station?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here again. Thanks. One other area we are looking at now is Oakton/Vienna. One parent WFH long term other than travel once COVID is over, one parent commuting to Old Town on flexible schedule a few days a week.

Budget is ideally around 1-1.1 though it's our goal to put down about half of this in cash.

Thoughts on Oakton/Vienna vs. FFX station given this info? Are there specific neighborhoods we should target in Oakton/Vienna?

At 1.1 million- I love Mantua. It’s just got this old school vibe. The parks in the area are nice. I love all of the community pools. But if you are looking for land- FFX station is better.

I used to live in Burke. Burke is great! But the houses are really close together and I feel like the neighbors are a bit nosy.

If you look for a house in 22039, try to stick close to ox road. It’s the major thoroughfare and it will get you everywhere. We live close enough to it that we can bike to places.

Yup...mantua definitely an “old” neighborhood. Used to be a great place during the 80s...I grew up there, graduated from
Woodson HS. There is a swim club and we used to frequent the YMCA which was located on rt 236. As a kid I always wanted to return to Mantua but the place just lost it for me. It’s a relatively good
Location but lost its charm when we were seeking to purchase a single family home. We Moved a bit north to Oakton
Age that move has been good for us.
And love it.

At <1 million:

https://www.redfin.com/VA/Fairfax-Station/6807-Spout-Ln-22039/home/9765144

Anonymous wrote:OP here again. Thanks. One other area we are looking at now is Oakton/Vienna. One parent WFH long term other than travel once COVID is over, one parent commuting to Old Town on flexible schedule a few days a week.

Budget is ideally around 1-1.1 though it's our goal to put down about half of this in cash.

Thoughts on Oakton/Vienna vs. FFX station given this info? Are there specific neighborhoods we should target in Oakton/Vienna?

At 1.1 million- I love Mantua. It’s just got this old school vibe. The parks in the area are nice. I love all of the community pools. But if you are looking for land- FFX station is better.

I used to live in Burke. Burke is great! But the houses are really close together and I feel like the neighbors are a bit nosy.

If you look for a house in 22039, try to stick close to ox road. It’s the major thoroughfare and it will get you everywhere. We live close enough to it that we can bike to places.

Anonymous wrote:OP here again. Thanks. One other area we are looking at now is Oakton/Vienna. One parent WFH long term other than travel once COVID is over, one parent commuting to Old Town on flexible schedule a few days a week.

Budget is ideally around 1-1.1 though it's our goal to put down about half of this in cash.

Thoughts on Oakton/Vienna vs. FFX station given this info? Are there specific neighborhoods we should target in Oakton/Vienna?

Bumping this thread in case the OP is still around.

OP, did you end up finding a place? If so, where did you end up and how are you liking it so far? My family is looking to move out of DC in the next year or so and I've been looking a lot at both Fairfax Station and Oakton. If you are still around and don't mind sharing any updates, I'd be curious to hear what you decided. Thank you!