<p>My youngest daughter has been hired (hallelujah) as a teacher in Fairfax County. She and her roommate, who will also be teaching there, will be in the area next week looking for an apartment. I know lots of CC parents are familiar with Nova - do any of you have suggestions for them regarding areas that give more value for the dollar, or issues specific to Fairfax County that they should bear in mind?</p>
<p>They’ll be teaching in the Falls Church-Alexandria area. They aren’t naive - they know there will be commuting issues wherever they live, and they know they can’t afford a luxury apartment that’s a couple of steps away from a Metro station. My d tells me they are looking for safe and clean, with convenient a distant third, though that would also be nice. They’re willing to budget a total of $1750-2000 for rent per month. They need 2 bedrooms, but are willing to share 1 bathroom if necessary.</p>
<p>If you have specific apartment complexes or rental companies to recommend or caution against, please feel free to PM me if you’d rather not post that in the thread. I told her I’d pass along any suggestions that come up - many thanks if you can help her out.</p>
<p>It would be helpful to know the specific schools. Fairfax schools in the Falls Church area can be a considerable distance from Fairfax schools in the Alexandria area.</p>
<p>My daughter’s school is within a few miles of the Seven Corners area; I don’t know where specifically her roommate is teaching, just that it’s in Alexandria. You’re right - that’s one big county.</p>
<p>Thank you for the Annandale suggestion - it looks like a convenient location for where they’ll be teaching, and some of the apartments I’ve seen online look a bit less expensive for what they offer.</p>
<p>When I was in college I lived in Fairfax Square Apartments in Fairfax City. Great location, pool, etc. At the time a lot of college kids/young 20’s lived there.</p>
<p>First of all - to your daughter - Welcome to Fairfax County!</p>
<p>It’s hard to give very specific advice as concerns commuting.
Unfortunately two of the area’s busiest roads … Rt. 50 and Rt. 7 go right through Seven Corners.</p>
<p>See if your D can ask people who currently work at the school.</p>
<p>My son lived here with a roommate and was very happy with it. They had some specials and got a pretty good deal around $1800 per month if I remember correctly. Not sure what it is now. </p>
<p>Sullivan Place
[Luxury</a> Apartments in Alexandria | Washington DC Area Apartments | Sullivan Place](<a href=“http://www.rentsullivanplace.com%5DLuxury”>http://www.rentsullivanplace.com)
3 Google reviews
5575 Vincent Gate Terrace, Alexandria
(703) 962-1512</p>
<p>please make sure they drive around the areas a bit! there are some places where there are literally million dollar homes very close to section 8 housing.</p>
<p>the Ballston / Virginia Square / Clarendon is very popular with 20-somethings. It is also on the expensive side. I know some teachers that rent houses in that area (3-4 per house). They can probably find something there that is walkable to the metro, though it won’t be super nice. I would also look around the Columbia Pike area, east of rt 7 (also known as King street).</p>
<p>Annandale is not near any metro and has many people living there from outside the U.S. Lots of asian food places. There are some great parts, and some questionable parts (like everywhere).</p>
<p>From my experience, my teacher friends like to hang out in places that they don’t work, to try to keep the school week and weekends separate.</p>
<p>Our S found it helpful to drive around the apartment complex several times, including nights and weekends, to get a feel for the neighborhood and atmosphere. Some had a lot of immigrants and he didn’t feel he’d fit in, while others were young professionals like him where he ultimately decided to rent.</p>
<p>I lived in Ballston area, but that was over 20 years ago, but it was in a great location. Later I lived in S Arlington on George Mason Drive and found it very convenient. Easy to get into Arlington or Alexandria, or 7 corners. But I can imagine it would be a bit of a commute to Fairfax.</p>
<p>Agree with GolfFather. Newly graduated son is currently living in Ballston in a high rise and the prices are high. But the only reason he can make it work is that 3 of them are dividing up a 2 bedroom apartment to keep costs down. Ballston, Clarendon in Arlington are popular with many 20 something’s. Also, some of the DC neighborhoods but they are ,of course, also expensive. Also agree that if your daughter will have a car to drive to work as a teacher, good auto access to her job would be key. She can always visit the areas where the young people hang out on the weekend. Good luck!</p>
<p>Yup, a long time ago I was looking at apartments.
I was at one in Rosslyn and the manager said it was popular with G’town and GW students.
I asked how they could possibly afford the very high rent.</p>
<p>Answer: Four to an apartment … and the parents pay.</p>
<p>If S was a student he’d likely have a student to share his 1 bedroom in Arlington. He is rarely even in town, but enjoys having his own place and can afford it, so I’m happy he’s happy and living as he chooses. He is managing to max his pension and IRAs, as well as save a LOT of money and has a part time job as well as his full time job. </p>
<p>Being near car access if they have a car and the schools they teach at are not near bus or train seems important. </p>
<p>About living in areas where there are few to no young people–we urged S to do so to minimize his commute. He did so for several months (living in sleepy Reston), but then decided to relocate because he found it too isolating and is much happier now in Arlington. It’s a lot easier for us to visit him now too, since his place is very near bus and metro lines.</p>
Yes, they are, and I can see why. What a great, vibrant area for people with energy to burn (and excess money would be nice, too).</p>
<p>My oldest d actually did the same thing, sevmom - 3 people in a 2 BR highrise in Ballston for a year. She says she’s glad she had the experience but a year under those circumstances was plenty. No real living room, since the most laid-back member of the trio used that as a bedroom. Terrific kitchen and amenities, though.</p>
<p>My youngest d is developing a nice list with the help of the suggestions and PMs here, so thanks to all. She has set a parameter of being within a 25 minute drive of her school - ideally only, since she knows the trip won’t usually go as quickly as googlemaps thinks. She has found a number of properties in the Alexandria area to look at - the Kingstowne neighborhood and off Van Dorn Street. She might also look at a few near-ish the Vienna Metro, and she has a few other locations to check out.</p>
<p>Does anyone have an opinion on how reliable the reviews on apartmentratings.com are? I know that on-line reviews are subject to being skewed by a few posters in either direction. But when you read a dozen reviews about rodent infestations at an otherwise nice-seeming place, or read about financial shenanigans from the rental company, you do (or anyway, I do and I hope my d does too) take those places off the list.</p>
<p>frazzled1, That’s funny because son is the one without a bedroom and he is fairly laidback so I think he’ll be fine for at least a year. He actually has the space that is a dining room on the floorplan. It is kind of cut off from the living room so there is a little bit of built in privacy. We see it for the first time next weekend . Never saw reviews on apartmentratings.com but I did google his building when he said they were going to sign a lease. It popped up reviews on yelp and that was helpful.</p>
<p>I try to read what I can on the web, taking note of the dates posted, etc., weighting more recent posts more over older posts. Would be concerned about rodents and financial shenanigans. That said, S mainly rents directly from owners and so far, so good.</p>
<p>My other son started out in Ballston with 4 of his friends from college in a house. Rented directly from the owner and it was awful. One year definitely was more than enough on that one and he has now been in Chinatown with just one roommate in a high rise . Much better. Some kids are also pickier than others so that probably has to be taken into account in looking at options. The main thing for me though was that once they got out of college, they needed to choose something that was in THEIR budget. If that meant having to live with other people, so be it.</p>