patrick.net

Guess a piece of advice I would give would be to not just move and instantly buy a house if you are not totally familiar with the area- any area. Instead consider renting first and get familiar with the areas that you like and THEN start looking at houses.

Thanks Edvard. I did go to school in the area and have lived there before (in the general area). We have been renting for many many years now and find the Bay Area completely unaffordable.

Have been following your other thread and am in the same situation. Have 2 kids and running out of room in our small rental townhome. Rents on SFH in Cupertino are outrageous ($3000+ a month) and don't want to move elsewhere in the Bay Area as it would disrupt the kids schooling - I would rather move elsewhere where your money goes further. We have family and friends in VA and while it's not as cheap as say TX etc. (which I also looked into), I think you get more for your money there. Plus it has a great job market overall too.

I still think its worth considering renting first if for nothing else giving you the time to carefully look, choose, and decide on a house. If you've rented for years then waiting another 5-6 months seems like small beans to get a house you really like in a price range you like as well. We've also thought about moving out of state- to TX. Its very tempting to simply move there and just buy a house since in comparison its cheaper. But we would still rent- perhaps for about a year- before making any purchasing decision in case we wind up just hating it there.

You really won't find much in this form for anything in the DC area.

Well, we moved *from* NoVA back to TX a couple of years ago. I worked in DC, but lived out in the NoVA "sticks" if you will.

Ashburn, a.k.a. "Cashburn", is probably your best since the Silver Line is being brought out that way, and everyone wants to live near the Metro. Otherwise, get ready for the daily commute to DC, which could involve car+bus+rail. Obviously, if you're not working in DC then the daily commute won't be an issue, but you'll still need to concern yourself with traffic on Hwy. 7, 28, and 625 during the week. If you want to avoid the traffic a little bit, you may want to also consider moving to Reston or Tyson's Corner as well.

Now, that's if you want a house out in the beautiful NoVA countryside. Personally, I had no house and got tired of the long commute (1 1/2 hrs one way) and moved to Arlington, VA near the Orange Line. It was a great lifestyle change. I could walk almost everywhere I needed, and my office commute went down to 15 min. which was walk+train only. Housing was astronomical, but then again I wasn't in the market to buy.

Funny thing is, reading Patrick.net caused me to make that lifestyle change instead of "investing" in a house in NoVA back in 2006/2007.

I was born in Fairfax and lived in NoVA for the first 30 years of my life. Moved out in 2009 to VA Beach to follow my fiance who did her residency in Norfolk, VA

FWIW

Schools- Very Good. Cannot compare to Cupertino though, as I know nothing of their schools. NoVA schools in general though are excellent.

Real Estate- There was a huge bubble, and it has not gone down. In this respect it's much like the SF Bay area still. If you want a nice home in an expensive area like Oakton, or Vienna, you're looking at a minimum of $750,000, and that's for like 2,200 sq ft (on a very nice lot, in a nice area) If you want to go to Loudon or Ashburn, you can find similar size house (sq ft wise) for around $400,000, but these are bubble-era homes with no yards, cheaper building materials, and for lack of a better term, the areas have no "soul". IMO you have to go further out, into the sticks, to get nice land and home for decent value. That middle ground between super-expensive McLean, Fairfax, Vienna, Oakton, and the outlying areas like Ashburn and Leesburg, you are going to get the least value for your money. Bubble prices still exist most places in NoVA.

Safety- No Problem. Stay away from DC proper and MD, and you're fine. Only shady parts of VA are south of 495, and even then, pretty tame relatively speaking.

Job Market- For your industry, you will do exceedingly well here. There is a region very close to Leesburg called the "Tech Corridor" where dozens of high-tech firms are headquartered. Between that and the defense contractors in Reston, you should do fine assuming you have a decent resume.

Cost of Living: Very High

Weather: Fantastic. 4 balanced seasons. Winters do get cold (low 40s high 30s during the day in Jan & Feb) but nothing extrement) *I do say "Fantastic" in relative terms....I am talking to a Californian after all.

Outdoor Activites: Fantastic. If you're a runner you'll love it. Too many places to go into detail, but you will find endless options. If you move here, make sure to run the path that follows the GW Parkway at some point. Fantastic views of DC.

Diversity: You're in luck. I'd say the region is about 30% white. The rest is a mix of EVERYTHING, and I do mean everything. Extremely diverse. This lends itself to some fantastic dining. There is every kind of ethnic food imaginable, and very high quality. There are very large Indian, Asian, Persian, and Hispanic populations in the Norther VA area.

All in all I think it's a fantastic place to live, if you can handle the traffic. I hear it's terrible out where you live too, but I don't know if it's as bad depending on where you will work. If you work outside DC, you'll be ok and you'll find the right roads to use at the right times. In and out of DC every day is just something you'll have to come to accept as being a nightmare. Our traffic is on par with LA and NYC in terms of how maddening it is. Rush hour is about 4 hours long up there, from 3pm to 7pm, and Saturdays can be even worse on roads like I-66. You'll catch on quicly though. But for recreation, diversity of population, dining, entertainment, and quality of life (save traffic headaches) it is a fantastic place to live IMO.