Relocating to VA.

Wanna trade houses? I am moving from Maryland to Chitown.

 

Luke is moving??

 

Yup. New position in the company. I am going to try to stretch it out till 09 before I move. Frequent flyer miles here I come!

 

you may want to reconsider being near a train. You may also want to consider renting for a time to figure out the area. I can't imagine moving from another area and just buying straight away here. too many considerations-schools,neighborhood,commute,price,ect. Having the option of living in md, dc, and va is complicated. You are also moving to a very expensive, very congested area. the wrong move can be costly in many ways. why don't you give us more info. like your family, your preferences. where in arlington her job is and where your job will be. You always trade off house and yard for convenience around here. I traded house size and yard to be inside the beltway. I would hate to be stuck in our traffic everyday. but alot of people make the opposite choice and trade traffic for house size and yard. NOVA is the worst. unless you are very wealthy, it would be hard to replicate what you have now near arlington.

 

Keep in mind Ed the Chicago suburbs are very expensive too. Granted, not as high as DC. Additionally, I would venture to say the traffic there is worse than it is here.

I agree however that you should avoid NOVA. (flame suit on). I live in Montgomery county Maryland. You should look there. Try zip 20878 on your searches. Feel free to PM me if you want to talk. I would love to hear your recommendations about Chicago.
Luke

 

Virginia chiming in here: I don't care for Maryland. I can't think of anything worse than Mont County on a weekend.

In this area, I have lived in DC, Alexandria, and now Broadlands (Ashburn). I really like Loudoun county. If you looked at South Riding, check out Brambelton, Broadlands, and Landsdowne.

NoVA FTW

-dsd

 

i live in roanoke and everyone who moves here absolutely loves it. It is probably too south for you but it is a great town. The cost of living is low also. I have family in McClean and have been up to washington quite a few times. It isnt that great of a place to raise a family. That is why me and my family lives in Roanoke. PM if you want, and i will give you my cell number. Give me a call if you want.

 

Looking for a good golf course community look in Prince William at Dominion Valley, Piedmont and Lake Manassas. By the way, they hold the Presidents Cup at Lake Manassas. All very nice areas with the best schools in the Prince William area, little further to drive, but more bang for your buck! There are plenty of car-pools to boot!
With the down turn in the housing market take your time! There is plenty to choose from!


Robert

 

I'm a fan of being close in - I'm in south Arlington - 5 minute walk from Crystal City Metro and a 7 minute walk from Pentagon City Metro. 1928 bungalow that I bought in 1991 and then gutted and expanded - 9000 s.f. lot. For me it makes tons of sense; I work at 22nd and Penn Ave (Fogy Bottom Metro) and my wife works in Old Town Alexandria - 15 minute drive during the rush. I love Arlington, but you will pay out the nose for decent housing stock here that is anywhere along the blue/yellow/orange line metro corridors. The lot next to me is 6000 s.f. with no house on it - County assessment is $450,000.

I agree w/ Ed, you really need to test drive your location for at least 6 months to see what specific commuting hell is in store for you. If your job is in Tyson's Corner, you're screwed; there is no good way in or out of that place, which has more commercial s.f. than downtown Boston, but with none of the infrastructure.

 

you know i hate to argue with you, but it's not even close.

washington is the 7th worst commute, chicago isn't even in the top 10.

median home price in Chicago-Naperville-Joliet-264k
median home price in Washington-Arlington-Alexandria-405k

http://money.cnn.com/pf/features/lists/re_growth_forecast/city.html#table
http://www.local10.com/automotive/16291746/detail.html?rss=mia&psp=news

 

ron, maybe you can help us by giving us more info. so far i gather you want nova, big,newer house, possibly on a golf course. good schools. what is your price range? <500k,500k-1m, 1m+? so far i'm thinking out the greenway or rt 7. at least you'll be near FOW but not a train. can you tell us what train you are talking about? the only thing i can think of that goes to arlington is the metro and that only goes out to Vienna. not very far out. and getting to is via 66 is a nightmare. to me, riding the metro from vienna to arlington wouldn't be much better than driving it.

 

Touche...

 

I have one word for South Riding, RT50!!!!!!! That road sucks BIG time! Essentially the only way in and out of South Riding and all of your buddies from WVA, Winchester and West Loudoun will come rolling in with you and the road has traffic lights every 200'!! Just try driving on that stretch at noon and you will go crazy!
Chantilly area would is much better, plus you have Fairfax County Schools, best in the country. If you can, try and look to be in the Westfields High School area, thats probably the best school in Fairfax, steer away from the Chantilly High School district.
All the shops are within 5 minutes of your house in Chantilly area, including Fair Oaks Mall, one of the nicer malls in the area. Plus FOW is about 10 minutes away.

A little note about South Riding. They have volunteer firemen in some areas of Loudoun Co. this is one of them. About 12 years ago there was a reported gas leak in a home in SR and the home blew up!!! The nearest fire station scratched because there were no volunteers, took over 15-20 minutes for the first fire unit to arrive!!! No Thanks! They actually built a fire station in SR after this event.


Robert

 

Ed made a good point about looking around first . i realize you do not have much time so may i suggest Burke VA. Good schools and a good value right now here is a sample listing and it has a 4 car garage. around $560K

http://www.realtor.com/search/listingdetail.aspx?ctid=27135&ml=3&typ=1&pfbm=920000&ofbm=2000&sid=58e91bb38bdf4f6da3ad553705070350&lid=1099677590&lsn=7&srcnt=141#Detail

if you can not click on the link go to Realtor.com and search Burke, Virginia on golf courses. Good luck

 

We live off of Route 7 in Ashburn. I have lived in Ashburn the past 10 years and love the area. Lansdowne golf community is about 3 miles down the road from me. My fiance currently commutes from ashburn to Arlington everyday. Depending on what time you leave in the morning and afternoon it takes anywhere from 1 hour to and 1.5 with bad traffic to get to and from Ashburn/Arlington.

 

5 br 2,800 sf? whoa. for 560k? sounds about right for here. the rooms might be a tad small. 98k in upgrades? that should get one of the baths done.

 

I agree with Ed about renting. Some friends of ours just moved here and rented a house instead of buying. With all the surplus of homes on the market there are TONS of great homes available for rent for a song. They even had people throwing things in to try and get someone in the house to get some cash flow. At least that way you can get used to the area without locking yourself in and then make buying decisions based off of experience.

 

Ron, we moved to Northern VA 5 years ago from Fairfield county CT and thought this place was a bargain! Granted, everything is relative so we were moving to less expensive place, despite the fact that the DC area is still expensive compared to most parts of the US. I would think Chicago and DC are probably similar in the housing market, but I agree with the others, you should rent first if you can because there is alot of inventory and you can get a great deal if you take your time. We also have kids so the schools were important and that is why we settled in Great Falls, VA, in addition to getting a great deal on home in a great location. The one thing we noticed is that the pricing difference within the DC is not materialy different between the towns, but the schools and property you can get does vary greatly. We wanted privacy and great schools and just got really lucky. Although we do not use the public school system, we have it as a safety net in case things get tought and we cannot afford the private school. I also own other property (no I am not in the real estate business and never use them) and know the market pretty well. If you would like to discuss this further, I can give my viewpoint on buying in this area, but it utlimately depends on your wants and needs, but remember as they always say, location, location, location is the key in real estate (another reason why we bought in Great Falls). Shoot me an email at [email protected] and we can discuss this matter further. Oh yes, there is an annual car tax on each car that you own so get ready to pay annually if you own a F and title it in VA. Good Luck!

 

Don't count yourself out for a rental. The friend that just rented has two kids and three dogs and had people making him deals to take their lease. Check realtor.com and look at the rentals...you'll be pleasantly surprised.