NoVa Neighborhood Suggestions for a Bike Commuter?

[Emm]

My husband and I are now getting serious about buying a house this summer. I think we plan to make an offer sometime in May or June, and move in August (VA loans take some time to process). We’re now deciding neighborhoods to really narrow our search with a real estate agent. Do any of you have any thoughts about the following neighborhoods in NoVa, and how friendly they are for bike commuters? Our criteria are stand-alone house, 3-4 bedrooms, 2-2.5 bathrooms, 1750 sq ft or +, w/in a 15 mile bike commute to SW DC, decent public schools, and a yard. Our budget is somewhere in the $600-$650 range, which based on our criteria eliminates most of Arlington, and the Del Ray and Old Town neighborhoods in Alexandria.

Each of the below locations offers a good number of houses that meet these criteria. Do any of you live there, and how do you like it? Does it make for a decent bike commute? Is there anything I need to be concerned about/aware of? Any other neighborhoods in NoVa we should look at, or parts of the below areas to help narrow the search down more?

Falls Church:
Pros: pretty active area with alot to do, W&OD and Custis make good access routes to work and weekend bike rides. Commute can be 8-15 miles from work (or more) depending on exact location. Some of the trails to work get plowed in Arlington, and there is metro access in some places. House prices vary alot.
Cons: When driving, i-66 is the route to work, which according to my colleague is a disaster (he also detests the city tax).

Belle Haven (Fairfax County)
Pros: just outside old town, so fairly close to work.
Cons: houses are on the small side if you stay east of Route 1, no great access point to MVT. MVT doesn’t get plowed.

Fort Hunt (Fairfax County)
Pros: A few good access points to MVT, really scenic bike commute to work which is a huge bonus, large-ish houses with lots of bike storage spaces. We have friends who live here who also bike alot.
Cons: MVT doesn’t get plowed, towards the far end of my commute range, MVT in this area gets some serious flooding and becomes impassable in spots after bad rain storms from what I’ve seen.

Any thoughts or input would help. I’ve only lived in Rosslyn and Del Ray, so I’m sure we’re missing really good potential neighborhoods!

Topic

[MFC]

Fort Hunt Elementary was a good school, at least when my kids went there (about 3 years ago). Sandburg MS and West Po. HS are good as well. Both also have good music programs, and at least for West Po. a good fine arts programs. We’ve been happy with all three schools, although the quality of the schools, especially the music and arts programs, can change over time, and the ability to interact with the school in a useful manner can depend on the principal.

If you go to Huntington Metro, on off-days when you can’t ride, you can usually get a seat. As far as the distance biking in goes, there a few bikers that live further out and park opposite the long wooden bridge over Dyke Marsh and bike in from there. That could knock a few miles off your ride.

The problem with Belle Haven and Fort Hunt is that the only major road other than the GWMP is Route 1, and weekend traffic really really really blows, but the same is true for the rest of Fairfax County. The ride up the GWMP is very pretty, either in a car or on a bike.

[MFC]

Fort Hunt Elementary was a good school, at least when my kids went there (about 3 years ago). Sandburg MS and West Po. HS are good as well. Both also have good music programs, and at least for West Po. a good fine arts programs. We’ve been happy with all three schools, although the quality of the schools, especially the music and arts programs, can change over time, and the ability to interact with the school in a useful manner can depend on the principal.

If you go to Huntington Metro, on off-days when you can’t ride, you can usually get a seat. As far as the distance biking in goes, there a few bikers that live further out and park opposite the long wooden bridge over Dyke Marsh and bike in from there. That could knock a few miles off your ride.

The problem with Belle Haven and Fort Hunt is that the only major road other than the GWMP is Route 1, and weekend traffic really really really blows, but the same is true for the rest of Fairfax County. The ride up the GWMP is very pretty, either in a car or on a bike.

[TwoWheelsDC]

@Emm 136340 wrote:

(VA loans take some time to process)

Slightly OT, but are you USAA members? If you use their realtor-finding service, they give you a few thousand dollars in kickbacks, even if you don’t go with a USAA mortgage (which is good, because USAA does not have particularly competitive rates). We found our previous and current realtors through the service and expect to get about $9k back on our upcoming home purchase (assuming our house sells…). The other advantage of using a USAA-matched realtor is they tend to have more experience dealing with VA loans and the VA inspection process (which is obnoxious).

[Emm]

@TwoWheelsDC 136355 wrote:

Slightly OT, but are you USAA members? If you use their realtor-finding service, they give you a few thousand dollars in kickbacks, even if you don’t go with a USAA mortgage (which is good, because USAA does not have particularly competitive rates). We found our previous and current realtors through the service and expect to get about $9k back on our upcoming home purchase (assuming our house sells…). The other advantage of using a USAA-matched realtor is they tend to have more experience dealing with VA loans and the VA inspection process (which is obnoxious).

Ohh good to know. We plan on going through Navy Federal for the loan, but the USAA realtor may be a good option. Navy Federal has a similar realtor program, but we’ll take some time and compare them and see what looks best. Luckily we’re members of both organizations

[Steve O]

I know it’s pricier than you’d like, but it’s hard to beat Arlington. It’s possible that wherever you are commuting now may not be where you are commuting in the future. From Arlington, I have bike commuted to:
DC (several locations)
Silver Spring
Herndon
Reston
Kensington
and now, shortest ever, Rosslyn

It would also be easy enough to commute to Alexandria. College Park might be a stretch.

I don’t know if you plan to be a 1-car, 2-car or no-car family, but living in Arlington made it possible for us to only own one car forever (my son will graduate from college in May, and my daughter is 16; we had two cars for about a week once after we bought a new one and before we sold the old one). I estimate that saved us between $60k-$100k over the last 15 years, money which you could use to help pay a little more for a house. And it’s getting easier and easier with Uber, Car2Go, ZipCar, Metro, Bikeshare, Enterprise Carshare, etc.

@Emm 136340 wrote:

Cons: houses are on the small side

This is a pro, not a con. Helps reduce the accumulation of crap.

[hozn]

@Steve O 136363 wrote:

This is a pro, not a con. Helps reduce the accumulation of crap.

This is so true. I love the [relatively] small house. Though more room for bikes wouldn’t be horrible …

For low-stress cycling nothing in my experience around here (in VA) beats Arlington. Or commuting flexibility. I love road riding in Montgomery County, but that is only 30 minutes from Arl by bike. If I were living somewhere just for cycling (road and MTB), it would probably be Germantown area, but that would be less desirable location in most other regards.

[Emm]

@Steve O 136363 wrote:

This is a pro, not a con. Helps reduce the accumulation of crap.

I FULLY agree with you. My ideal house size is closer to 1500 sq ft. But my husband (who is overall amazing) is also a borderline hoarder when it comes to sports equipment and comic books. Soooo…we need the larger space or else we wont have room for the dog and future kids.

He actually REALLY wants to move down to Springfield or even further since he doesn’t mind spending hrs in the car every day, so the fact I was able to keep him w/in a 15 mile bike commute to my office is a win for me.

yay marriage

[Rockford10]

Falls Church City is lovely and is very convenient to work: DC, Tysons, Reston, Ballston… If you drive to DC, Rt. 50 is not HOV-2 and almost as easy as 66. If you aren’t driving, there are two metro stops within a mile.

Schools are very good, but you are paying for that. I think Fairfax County just matched our (and Arlington’s) meal taxes, so property taxes might be higher, but not too much. Crack police department is always on the ready using our tax dollars to buy and conveniently place traffic cones!

There are quite a few bike commuters in Falls Church (City and FFX County). Monday Morning Pancakes meets in Falls Church right on the trail on the north west end of town and Tuesday Kindred coffee is on the far east end of town. Falls Church just came out with a bike plan that looks great (lights on the trails, bridge over Lee Hwy), we’ll see how that is implemented. The worst thing I can think of is the hills! My steep street is featured on the Kill Bill ride. Some may think of this as a “pro” rather than a “con” though. The City does not currently plow the W&OD trail, but there are several easy street ways around the trail to go east or west and connect up with a plowed trail.

Because the City is so compact, unless you opt out of the local private schools, you are only ever 2 miles away from a classmate or the actual school building. Coming from a school district that was very geographically spread-out, I love this. The local bike store knows my kids (and has called my husband to let him know they wandered though) and we feel very safe with them going around the city unaccompanied.

[Steve O]

Also, don’t discount S. Arlington. There are a number of interesting neighborhoods at more reasonable prices than N. Arlington, and Columbia Pike continues to improve in lots of ways. From a pure investment standpoint, I would bet on greater home value appreciation in S. Arlington than North over the next decade. Also, there are a number of county-wide school options, so you have flexibility with finding a neighborhood you like even if the local school isn’t your fave.
And if we can just get a teensy bit of cooperation from NPS, you may have a cleared ride to either the 14th St. Bridge or Memorial Bridge at some point.

[KWL]

So the only Con for Fort Hunt is the MVT in really bad weather? Sure, it’s not Del Ray, but that doesn’t sound too bad. I have some friends who commute from down that way (Team Lardbutt) and they seem pretty happy.

[hozn]

I would recommend using Strava’s heatmap tool to get an idea of the cycling-friendly (or at least heavily used) road/route options: http://www.strava.com/routes/new

Of the original lists, Falls Church sounds awesome. I just lump Falls Church City in with Arlington in terms of having accessible commute options, cycling-friendly infrastructure. And agree w/ Steve on S. Arlington; that does seem like a great investment (we considered it when we decided to buy a place back in 2008, but we’re really happy living in Westover).

[Anonymous]

I live near the Belle Haven area. MFC is correct about Rt.1, it’s pretty awful. You already know about the need to cross GWP to get to MVT. Proximity to both Old Town and metro (Huntington) are in easy biking distance; about a mile to metro and 3 miles to old town; if those things matter to you — to me these are basically short-errand distances which are almost as fast by bike as car, where the extra 3 or 4 miles to fort hunt would change that equation a bit. On the other hand, fort hunt does have the easier connections to mvt.

[Emm]

Thanks everyone! I shared some of these insights with my husband, who relented and agreed we can ask whatever realtor we find via USAA or Navy Federal to look harder at Falls Church and South Arlington, and not just Fort Hunt (which was his ideal). A few new listings have popped up in S. Arlington, so I’m hoping as home-selling season kicks off more will appear!

[Rootchopper]

I live in Fort Hunt and have been bike commuting for many years. There is now an alternate route to the MVT for snow days. It is not great but I used it a couple of times this winter on my commute to Rosslyn. For housing prices, all else equal, the closer you are to US 1 the lower the price. The best elementary schools are Stratford Landing and Waynewood. Waynewood, both the school and the neighborhood, lack diversity. My neighborhood is Williamsburg Manor North.

I have done the drive to Dyke Marsh option when I was pressed for time. It works well.

These are sleepy suburbs. You have to go several miles to get to any restaurants. The closest movie theaters are 5-6 miles away. US 1 has many services but they are nearly all chain stores. I avoid it like the plague.

All that said, I have an absolutely wonderful bike commute along the Potomac, 15 miles to/from Rosslyn. I used to work at L’Enfant. Same distance.

Good luck.

[americancyclo]

I like the Providence district of Fairfax County where we live. Easy access to the W&OD. 13 mile bike commute to Capitol Hill, plenty of grocery stores and shopping to be had. inventory is a bit sparse though, unless you want a teardown or spend megabucks.

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[TD=”class: xl65, width: 100″]Arlington[/TD]
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[TD=”class: xl65, width: 109″]Falls Church City[/TD]
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[TD=”class: xl65, width: 113″]Providence (FFX)[/TD]
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[TD=”class: xl65, width: 128″]Marshall High (FFX)[/TD]
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[TD=”class: xl65, width: 113″]average list price[/TD]
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[TD=”class: xl65, width: 100″] $ 1,316,104.01 [/TD]
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[TD=”class: xl65, width: 109″] $ 1,058,556.58 [/TD]
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[TD=”class: xl65, width: 113″] $ 977,682.24 [/TD]
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[TD=”class: xl65, width: 128″] $ 1,144,756.40 [/TD]
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[TD=”class: xl65, width: 113″]listings <$650,000[/TD]
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[Author]

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