5 Northern Virginia Suburbs of Washington DC You Should Consider Moving

It’s so hard to move to this area with such a variety of choices and cost of real estate. You have probably checked sites like Niche.com and wondered if their rankings were accurate. Newsflash, they are not. I have a video on Niche’s top Arlington neighborhoods and some of the neighborhoods weren’t even real. Beware of AI Garbage people. Don’t trust AI Garbage when making major life decisions.

This is my list, my, “If I were house hunting again, here are the places I would consider in Northern Virginia for my family” list. At the end, I’ll tell you where I would never want to live.

The 5 Northern Virginia Suburbs You Should Consider

Vienna

I admit it, I’m a Vienna booster. Vienna wins “Best All Around” in the Yearbook Superlatives for me. It’s filled with family-friendly neighborhoods, crawling with great schools and has a strong community feel. It’s easy to meet people and it is close to employment centers. Vienna, Virginia is about 15 miles west of downtown Washington DC.

There is a variety of real estate in Vienna, but it is on the pricier side of real estate for the area. The $800,000’s will get you a rambler or split-level home. Most of the buyers looking at Vienna would consider that a “teardown.” They will buy the home for the precious land on which it sits, and the location and amenities Vienna has to offer. They will tear it down and build a bigger house in its place. Maple Avenue, which runs right through Vienna, is filled with  restaurants that have stood the test of time, and offer a diverse array of food types.

The town of Vienna has 12 Parks and the Vienna Recreation Center offers recreational and educational programs as well as festivals & concerts year-round. Chillin on Church is a monthly block party that runs from June to September. There are Fourth of July fireworks at Yeonas Park, Oktoberfest, a Halloween Parade, Holiday Stroll, a Kids on the Green summer series of events, Memorial Day Celebration and a Farmer’s Market. ViVa Vienna is a music and craft festival. The W&OD Trail also runs right through Vienna and many walkers, runners and bikers use this trail daily.

Lyon Park – Arlington

Lyon Park is about as good as it gets for people who love the urban vibe but still like green space. This neighborhood has always attracted families for its proximity to DC for short commute times and amenities. Lyon Park has a friendly feeling with many people walking dogs, biking and hanging out at the park. The streets are narrow, discouraging speedy drivers and easy for kids to get to friend’s houses. The park & playground in the middle of the neighborhood serve as an anchor for everyone to head outside.

Clarendon metro is just a couple blocks away, as well as the shops and restaurants along Wilson and Clarendon Boulevards. Arlington schools are well rated, and you will see a lot of people who live here before kids, then stay in the neighborhood once the kids arrive on the scene. Homes are expensive though, they start in the $800,000’s if you’re lucky to find something at that price and go well into the $2M’s.

Del Ray – Alexandria

If living in a neighborhood with only local shops and delicious mom and pop restaurants, tons of walkability and a great sense of community sound like a dream, Del Ray is your spot. This neighborhood is super popular among both families and those without kids. Del Ray is very walkable, and it is stroller and kid-friendly.

You can find row homes, townhomes, and duplexes sprinkled throughout the neighborhood in the $500,000 – $1.5M range.  If you want a single-family home, prices range from the $600,000s up to $2.5M. The popularity of Del Ray has driven the home prices quite high.

These prices vary so greatly because of age, condition, square footage, and location. Most homes in the lower ranges require a lot of renovation. Del Ray also can often have wet basements, so inspect your home thoroughly and be sure to bring in any additional inspectors that may not be typical in other neighborhoods, such as mold.

Falls Church City

The City of Falls Church stands on its own. Cities in Virginia are not within counties, and the city portion of Falls Church not only has its own government, but its own school system as well. Contained within 2.2 square miles, the population of Falls Church City is 14,000. It is the second smallest city in the Commonwealth of Virginia.  Falls Church City is 6 miles east of Washington DC.

It’s not easy to buy a house in Falls Church City. There are many bidding wars here. Why do people endure this trauma? Schools are unbeatable.

A single-family home here will be in the $1M – $2M range.

About 30% of Falls Church City is comprised of one person households, so it isn’t all families here. The demographics the city provides each year outline the breakdown and 41% of households have 3 or more people.

The City of Falls Church has a little downtown area with a lot of cool mom & pop places. Route 7, which is called West Broad Street, runs right through the city and has a variety of ethnic restaurants – Greek, Italian, Irish, Bolivian, Thai, Salvadorean, Jamaican and Seafood. There’s a lot to choose from and it’s all rated pretty close to 5 stars. For coffee and pastries, Northside Social is very popular as well as Rare Bird and Bakeshop.

West Springfield

If you have kids and need great schools and amenities but you also want to live somewhere without the mansions and high prices like most of Northern Virginia, without a doubt you want West Springfield. The affordability of West Springfield cannot be overstated. You can easily get a home here in the $600,000 to $700,000’s. If you want to spend more you can, there are neighborhoods that are $1M+.

This is as great of a low-key family community as you can find here. The Fairfax County Schools that serve West Springfield are some of the best in the area. While more residential feeling than other areas on this list, you have a ton of amenities nearby that are so close that you won’t feel isolated. Parks, trails, playgrounds and pools, Hidden Pond Nature Center.

Northern Virginia Suburbs You Shouldn’t Consider

So where are those places where you shouldn’t live? We can’t steer people into or away from areas, but, these are places where I feel the cons outweigh the pros, or the cons are just too strong to consider the pros that exist.

Sterling

Before I get nailed here, I will say there are some awesome parts of Sterling. There are! The northern parts, closer to Potomac Falls are everything the burbs should be. Lots of big box stores make it super convenient, and a lot of pretty awesome restaurants. It feels clean and new and of course my own personal barometer of if I could live there – there’s a Sweetwater Tavern, northeast of Dulles Town Center. There’s a Wegmans and Costco. But note that I’m not a chain-restaurant or big-box snob, I love all that because I didn’t grow up with it around me. If you hate all that, then even the northern parts of Sterling probably aren’t for you.

So why is it on my list of places you shouldn’t move to? This is Ground Zero of where 1/3 of all Internet Data is housed, in many many data centers. You may not comprehend what this really means so let’s break it down.

Did you know that 1/3 of all internet data in the world is housed in Northern Virginia? These data centers use up a ton of power as I’m sure you can imagine. And that could seriously put the power grid in jeopardy. The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality suggested that the data centers use their generators more. But, the generators are diesel fueled, and this isn’t so great for air quality. If you live in an area where the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality suggests waiving air quality rules to appease the data centers, how do you think you stand as a citizen? Did I mention that whole humming thing too? You’ll never get a moment of peace and quiet, that humming will become the background noise of your life. I have tried to capture this on video, but it’s nearly impossible to hear it.

If that wasn’t enough for you, you’re also in the shadow of Dulles International Airport. If you don’t hear the data centers humming, you’ll hear the airplanes. Also, the one chain restaurant I have cut ties with happened for me in Sterling. The world’s most expensive Benihana BS Chain Restaurant in the world, so don’t go there. Seriously. They wanted like $40 for Hibachi Shrimp. That wasn’t even that good. Insanity!

Crystal City

The 1980’s called, and they want their obsolete office buildings and condos back.

Crystal City has been trying to rebrand into National Landing for six years now. A little company you have probably heard of decided to put their second headquarters here. Amazon. And BB – Before Bezos, Crystal City was a neighborhood everyone sped through on their way to somewhere else, like Old Town Alexandria. It was filled with offices and condos with high monthly fees – relics of everything half-assed about 1980’s construction.

Before Bezos, these were condos that sat on the market. After Bezos, people from all over the country started snatching them up, sight-unseen, banking on the Amazon effect. How did that work out for them? The Amazon machine hasn’t panned out the way it was advertised. Last year there was some job loss, and while Amazon has recently stated it wants all employees back in the office 5 days a week, their hiring targets aren’t where they were promised they would be. And they get a subsidy from the Commonwealth of Virginia for each new hire, so you know they must be hurting.

Development is crazy in Crystal City but there’s still much ugly. The Costco here wins the prize for being the world’s worst Costco, but it doesn’t stop me from going there and smashing my car through the parking lot. Speaking of the parking lot, someone was just carjacked in the garage there. They have a six-story garage and surface parking, I’m not sure who parks in the garage. I’m also not sure who would want to carjack someone in the garage because the line to get out of there is like the lines trying to leave a concert. You can’t really make a quick getaway.

Also did I mention you’re right next to the airport? Like, right next to it.

Manassas

People move to Manassas because it’s less expensive, but, I’m going to let the map do the talking. Do you see what I see? It’s nowhere near a highway that goes anywhere helpful. Sure you can take the Prince William County Parkway but that’s going to take you from one bedroom community to another. If you need to get to work, you’re likely going to head north to 66, and that could take forever. People commuting to Centreville report that it can take anywhere from 30 – 75 minutes.

People leave Manassas because of the commute. The commute from Manassas to pretty much anywhere else is awful. If you don’t believe me, you can ask Michael. He left the city to buy a house in Manassas and I made fun of him for a year. First he claimed it wasn’t that far and he could get there in the same time it took him to get across the city. Joke’s on him – He moved out and you will too.

Alexandria – Specifically, Huntington

When you leave the charm and loving embrace you feel in Old Town Alexandria and head south, you will wonder if you somehow went from Boston to Gary Indiana in a split second. After you pass some ugly high rise apartments, here come the sketchy motels. I’m going to let the video do the talking here.

There you have it, the unfiltered, non-sponsored list of what I believe to be the best and worst of Northern Virginia!