Affordable Homes in Northern Virginia
You’re moving to the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington DC, and everyone is telling you that Vienna and McLean are the place to be. But then you checked those prices. If you can’t afford the $1.4M average sales price in Vienna for the past year, or the $2.6M average in McLean, where’s the next best place to live?
You have to know where to look. And I’m going to tell you.
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Let’s dig into the Northern Virginia suburbs. Let’s start with the great news. If you can’t afford what people tout as the fancy suburbs like McLean and Vienna, you do not have to settle! Not at all! And I’m not just telling you this. Believe me ladies and gents, I work on commission, and I have zero problem selling you a $3M home. But the truth is, you can get a great home in the metro DC Area for less than a third of that price.
I’m going to tell you about the places in Northern Virginia where you can find great schools, commutable distance to employment centers, a sense of community and more affordable homes. Just because Vienna and McLean are out of reach, it does not mean you will be relegated to places like my unnamed Florida Facebook Group I can’t get enough of – where a recent comment said, “JFC, what is it with the people from this trailer park?”
Oakton
The average price for all of Oakton in the past year was $1.3M. I know I just blew your mind out the gate because Vienna’s average price is $1.4M. But here’s what you need to know. Some of the neighborhoods have much bigger lots. There are a lot of these “outlier” houses that sell for big money. But there a ton of homes here under $1M. They are also more walkable than those homes on the large lots. Oakton seems to be a bargain compared to Vienna and McLean.
What some people don’t love about Oakton are the age of the homes. They may go a bit further west to the parts of Herndon and Oak Hill that still feed to Oakton High school. That’s going to be zip code 20171. If you want a larger lot than what you get in Vienna or some parts of McLean, then zip code 22124 is where you should focus. Another bonus of Oakton? It can be easier to get to the Vienna metro station than it can be in Vienna if you don’t have to cross Maple Avenue.
Burke
If you have little kids, Burke is fantastic. There are tons of playgrounds and walking trails. The average price is $893,000. Schools are awesome and people love the sense of community. It’s not often on the radar for people moving to the area. It’s a place people either find out about or make their way to after they check out areas with more recognizable names.
West Springfield
Situated next to Burke, West Springfield is another area popular with families for it’s affordability and sense of community. People have left Vienna, purchased in West Springfield and report that they prefer it. It’s down to earth, schools are great, and houses cost half of what you pay in McLean or Vienna. The average price for the last year runs neck in neck with Burke at $889,000. Single family homes in bounds for West Springfield High School sell fast. You can get a decently large home and lot for the area, and a desirable neighborhood. There’s so little inventory that even the average stuff is flying off the shelves provided it doesn’t have any major issues. We often excel as Real Estate Agents in these areas too – we’ve been so schooled in competition having been in DC for so many years that when we take our skills to an adjacent market and approach the offer process with the same level of determination, we can really secure something for our clients in less time than many others.
Fairfax City
People love being in Fairfax City. It has its own downtown and events throughout the year (Fall Fest, Summer concert series, July 4th parade.) There is a variety of housing, good schools and it is centrally located within Northern Virginia. The average price of homes sold in the last year is $878,000.
Fairfax
The neighborhoods in Fairfax are a mix of educated professionals, families and retirees (who are the ones selling their homes). The average price of the homes sold in the last year is just over $1M, but there are different parts of Fairfax offering different price points. In Zip Code 22033, the average sales price is $952,000. Zip 22032 which is a huge part of Fairfax has an average price of $905,000. Then the Mantua part of Fairfax is Zip 22031, and the average price there is $1.15M.
Fairfax Station
Fairfax Station used to be more affordable but the prices have come up. The average price now of the homes sold in the last year is $1.21M. A lot of people who lived in Burke before Covid ended up selling to move to Fairfax Station and Clifton for schools. There is less of an HOA here than in Burke and with older kids it might actually be a little better because you might not want to pay for the pools and the festival as much.
What you get here is less planned community but more old-time early suburbia where homes are more spread out. Lots of areas have no sidewalks, the lots are large and you are far from your neighbors which you may like. The roads are narrow and winding and you will have longer drives to get to schools and shopping. As to be expected when areas are more spread out, many homes in Fairfax Station are on well and septic.
Falls Church
The average price overall for Falls Church is $1.08M. Some Falls Church neighborhoods feed into McLean schools. The areas in Falls Church that feed into McLean schools are less expensive than McLean, but cost about the same as Vienna. The average price on those homes is $1.6M.
The area of Falls Church that feeds into Marshall HS with the Vienna students includes neighborhoods like Pimmit Hills and Falls Hill. These areas are somewhat more affordable with the average price of $1.2M. You have some serious outliers here though, because the median price is $886,000, so you have a good chance of getting a house under $1M. If you are interested in these two areas, we’ll do a search by school boundary or by zip code 22043.
Reston
You have to be okay with the whole idea of a planned community and the Reston Association to live here but people love it. The average price overall for Reston is just under $1.1M. The northern part of Reston has higher priced homes than south of the Toll Road. The sense of community here is huge, and our Reston videos are some of our most popular videos. You have a lot of options from smaller homes to McMansions.
Annandale
Of note is the Truro section of Annandale. It has a great pool, elementary school within walking distance, walking trails, all in all very nice and family-friendly area. In 2021, the Washington Post described Truro as “a neighborhood where people come to live and rarely leave.” Because it’s a community of 360 homes, there is not a lot of turnover. In the past year, the average sold price was $980,000.
If going farther out is an option, a couple honorable mentions are:
South Riding
This is a community by Dulles Airport of 6200 homes. It often makes the “best of” lists on places like niche.com because of the community. It’s walkable with tons of family friendly amenities. They have four outdoor pools, four tennis courts, 10 playgrounds, hiking and biking trails, a beautiful library, good schools. You probably wouldn’t want to commute into DC daily from there, but if you work in the tech corridor this could be a great option. Single family homes average $1.08M. Because the community has a lot of townhomes, I pulled that average price too which was $701,000 for the past year.
Ashburn
Wildly popular Ashburn sees most of the nice (and many of the not-so-nice) houses go under contract within a day. There aren’t a lot of homes for sale and you have to move fast when they hit the market. With the addition of metro, the elimination of lights on Route 7 west of 28, more restaurants and shopping, the love for Ashburn keeps climbing. Make no mistake that it is suburban, but the IT boom here has resulted in continued building conveniences.
