Anonymous wrote:Why do so many on DCUM look down on Ashburn? It has great schools, beautiful houses, amenities, and it’s a quick 20-25 min from downtown DC. It has it all!

It is a 25 minute drive if you are George Jetson.

FWIW, and this comes from the HoCo poster earlier—my impression of folks who move out to Ashburn from DC is that they are either from Virginia or see anything in NoVa as more DC-centric than not. That’s not at all a criticism, I just think once you start talking “DC exurbs” on the Maryland side, you quickly move into the Baltimore and Annapolis suburbs. That brings a whole different mindset to the move. Frederick to some extent as well, I suppose, but Frederick isn’t a job hub in the same way Baltimore is—or Annapolis, being the state Capitol.

Of course, also could be taxes.

Just my two cents.

We go to Ashburn regularly. MIL and SIL and her family live there.

So boring, so cookie cutter, and traffic is horrendous. Tons of new developments that all look alike without expanding infrastructure.

All the big data centers are an eyesore.

Forget about any good restaurants. All boring chains.

Schools are not too good. SIL pulled my nephew and he’s now in private.

In the middle of nowhere and way too far from DC. It’s like at least an hour with no traffic.

DH and I both work out here off of Loudoun county pkwy and 28. Tons of jobs out here. We have really short commutes.

What we liked most about living out here is that it's kid friendly. I really felt like DC and Falls Church (where we lived prior) wasn't kid friendly. Out here there are kids in every single house, great moms groups, tons of playgrounds, great hiking and parks, wineries and our schools are really excellent. Not sure what schools the other pps were looking at. Sure the stores are homogenous, but with 3 little kids, I really don't care. I like getting what I need quickly and getting back to real life. We like antique shopping at Lucketts and Leesburg has an adorable downtown (other people mentioned silver spring's downtown and shirlington- well I prefer Leesburg's!).

It's a great life out here. Super short commutes, child centered, cheaper (but if you want cheap- go to prince william county) and we really like all of our neighbors. ALSO- our neighbors aren't the white hicks that you all keep mentioning. It's very diverse out here- Indians, middle easterners, hispanics. I believe that a lot of Ashburn schools are majority Asian.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why do so many on DCUM look down on Ashburn? It has great schools, beautiful houses, amenities, and it’s a quick 20-25 min from downtown DC. It has it all!

Wut? I live in Arlington and am 15 min. from downtown. No way you can make it from Ashburn in just 5-10 more minutes unless you have a helicopter.

She must have an Iron Man suit!

Nope, the Falcon.

Both wrong. Clearly an infinity reality stone that warps reality altogether. Or time stone.

But....Falcon was in DC in Cap America and the Winter Soldier... so she is Falcon!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why do so many on DCUM look down on Ashburn? It has great schools, beautiful houses, amenities, and it’s a quick 20-25 min from downtown DC. It has it all!

Wut? I live in Arlington and am 15 min. from downtown. No way you can make it from Ashburn in just 5-10 more minutes unless you have a helicopter.

She must have an Iron Man suit!

Nope, the Falcon.

Oh, funny! I like you!
But, which one is faster though?
There is probably a youtube video about that!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why do so many on DCUM look down on Ashburn? It has great schools, beautiful houses, amenities, and it’s a quick 20-25 min from downtown DC. It has it all!

Wut? I live in Arlington and am 15 min. from downtown. No way you can make it from Ashburn in just 5-10 more minutes unless you have a helicopter.

She must have an Iron Man suit!

Nope, the Falcon.

Both wrong. Clearly an infinity reality stone that warps reality altogether. Or time stone.

People are literally insane. It is 40 minutes to Arlington (glebe rd exit) from ashburn. From ballston to downtown is another 20 minutes by car. 15 of you are lucky.

That is with NO traffic.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why do so many on DCUM look down on Ashburn? It has great schools, beautiful houses, amenities, and it’s a quick 20-25 min from downtown DC. It has it all!

Wut? I live in Arlington and am 15 min. from downtown. No way you can make it from Ashburn in just 5-10 more minutes unless you have a helicopter.

She must have an Iron Man suit!

Nope, the Falcon.

We were in Ashburn for many years and the things I miss most are the endless wooded trails and walkability to schools and shopping. Yes, the restaurants and housing stock are homogeneous and people who choose to live elsewhere usually point to that as evidence of suburban soullessness, but my Ashburn neighborhood was more ethnically and economically diverse than any of the neighborhoods that I suspect are preferential on this board.

Also I promise the hordes of aging Hokies playing cornhole in the cul de sacs and and spending their summers at their choice of community pools (instead of checking their status on a wait list) aren't secretly wishing they were closer to <insert DCUM brag>. There's a lid for every pot, why crap on a choice that doesn't impact you.

Anonymous wrote:It's bland and boring. Cookie cutter developments, car-oriented, and strip malls with mostly chain stores/restaurants.

Nothing wrong with that, just there's no character. You're really not close to DC -- not like you're going to pop in for a quick coffee at a cafe in Georgetown for example. So if you're not close to DC, might as well move even further out if the goal is to find inexpensive housing. Leesburg, Winchester, etc. All have plenty of cookie cutter developments and strip malls.

You go to to a place like Arlington or Silver Spring you get an actual downtown and real character, and you are actually close to DC. But, you're gonna pay for it.

Lol, the people in Arlington and Silver Spring don’t go to a quick coffee in Georgetown every day. They have their own downtowns that the residents frequent. Excluding work, even people in the closer in burbs don’t go to DC for leisure all that often, probably no more often than some of the further out residents do.

Feel like people are exaggerating the commute times. Definitely not 20-25 minutes, but also definitely not ever 90 minutes either.

Anonymous wrote:If you like Ashburn good for you!
I hate it.
I like tree canopy and old houses.
I also hate Howard County new builds and would hate my life if I had to live on places like “Paternal Gift Dr.” (This is seriously road with a farm crop of McMansion s in Howard County).
Green spaces do more for your well being than having money at a certain point:
https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/03/17/the-picture-of-health/
https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/what-is-a-tree-worth

I don’t disagree the name of the road in Howard County is a bit silly, but it is the name of the farm the development sprung out of. I’m a little surprised you picked this development to pick on—it’s quite an interesting story, and preserved a lot of green space—given the awards it won for conservation. (Also, there is a horse boarding facility.) We live down the road and if you want trees, they’re not hard to find in our area .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paternal_Gift_Farm,_Maryland

Anonymous wrote:Perhaps there are people who do not need to commute to DC
Imagine that

true

if you work in western fairfax or beyond, there is zero need to live closer in

we chose the area near chantilly hs when my husband was working in ashburn and I was working in pt in lorton

he now commutes to stafford county and I am about to start working in mt. vernon area. we honestly should move to south county or prince william, but our eldest is in HS already.

Anonymous wrote:I think you had a typo--unless it's 2am on Christmas Eve, You aren't getting to DC in 20-25 minutes. More like 70-90. I do it every single day from Ashburn Farms leaving at 6am.

This! I live in Vienna and that is not a quick 20-25 minutes to DC so I don't know how anyone would do that from Ashburn unless they are in a helicopter.