McLean VA
McLean Virginia is a Census Designated Place or CDP in Fairfax County Virginia. McLean is home to large homes and lots, the CIA Headquarters, the MARS Headquarters and a lot of wealth in the DC Area. The median income is $250,000. Over 85% of the residents have a bachelor’s degree or higher.
What is it like here? And, how do families feel about living in McLean?
I do these videos for you every week and break down living in DC, Maryland and Northern Virginia. I’ve lived here over 20 years and I know these areas. I go deeper than anybody. Make sure you subscribe so you don’t miss the new videos.
My last McLean video continues to be one of the most popular videos on my channel. But my experience filming for you all didn’t go so well when some woman told me I couldn’t take video of her ugly subdivision on a public, ungated street. I grew up in a town like McLean, but up in Connecticut, so I’m well versed in the behavior of some people who have more money than the rest of us. And unfortunately, I’ve got yet another unbelievable encounter with another resident of McLean to share with you too.
Location
McLean is located west of Arlington and Washington DC. The Potomac River, The Dulles Toll Road (267) and the Arlington County border make up the border of McLean. McLean is a CDP though Census Designated Place, meaning it is unincorporated and the boundaries are fluid. This is why you will see some areas by Tyson’s Corner also have a McLean address. McLean is 15 minutes from DC.
McLean Real Estate
McLean Virginia ranks as one of the wealthiest areas in the country. Let’s dive into the housing market and see how things look.
In the last six months, the prices of single-family detached homes sold for $1M at the low end and $10.5M at the high end. What does $1M will get you? A 1500 sf ranch style home which most buyers will tear down. The value is in the land. The houses priced at $10.5M have over an acre of land, 6 or more bedrooms and most were paid for in cash. The average price of all homes sold in the last six months is $2.4M, and the median is $2.1M.
Townhomes range from $800,000 to $1.8M. The average price of all townhomes sold in the last six months is $1.1M and the median price is $1.04M.
What kind of house styles are in McLean? There is a tremendous variation. Many of the older colonial homes that used to be here have been torn down and McMansioned. McLean has been one of the ground zeros in the DC Metro Area for tearing homes down, due in part to the fact that many homes date back to the 1950’s to 1980’s. Some of these newly built homes are gorgeous. Some are…not.
If you recall my other McLean video, when I was driving around, I passed a road which was filled with the ugliest houses I have seen in my life. When I was filming and giggling to myself about the ugly houses, Jabba the Hutt’s wife Karen came running out yelling at me. She said, and I quote: “We don’t want anyone to copy what we have here.”
Holy moly lady, no one wants to copy this. She said she and all her neighbors were watching me and that I should go back to DC. I’m afraid this is McLean for you. I grew up in a town like this, filled with Karens, and I escaped.
This was not my only run-in with the mean of McLean. For me, McLean is the gift that keeps giving. I’ll let this next video do the story telling for me. I’m in an office park in McLean trying to get through the only road that leads to my awesome Pilates class. And this guy stopped his giant truck next to a car that was already stopped where it shouldn’t be. He effectively blocked the road and anyone from passing. He didn’t like that I beeped and told him he was blocking everyone behind me from passing. Here’s what happened next.
As you can see, my luck here in McLean in finding considerate and friendly people is not so good. To be fair, while he was in an office park in McLean, he may not live in McLean. There are a lot of high-ranking government officials living in McLean. Perhaps many of the people here are just used to everyone jumping when they scream how high.
There are several condo communities, Lilian Court, the Rotonda, Fountains at McLean, Gates of McLean, Regency at McLean, Colonies at McLean – you get it. The high-rise buildings have very high monthly condo fees – think in the $1000’s, like New York City prices. This is due to the size of the building, amenities and staff on site.
Schools in McLean
The most recent census information states that about 40% of the households in McLean have children under 18.
Elementary, middle or high school, the scores are high here. These are Fairfax County Schools, which is often considered one of the best school systems in the country. If you go by Great Schools, the scores are 8, 9 and 10. All schools feed to either one of two high schools – McLean or Langley.
McLean offers Honors, AP and Dual Enrollment Courses where you can get college credit. Languages offered are Spanish, French, Chinese, Latin and German. McLean High School is walking distance to the downtown area of McLean. Many students head over after school to grab Starbucks or hang out with friends. This really gives it a small town kind of feel.
Langley High School offers AP classes. The languages at Langley are Spanish, French, Latin, Russian, Chinese and Japanese. Langley was recently renovated.
What’s the difference between AP and IB? IB Courses are writing heavy and tend to cover less material. AP classes are more focused on the college credit, but they go deep into the subject matter. Fairfax County instituted IB into underperforming high schools to allow for a standout group or a school within a school as it’s often called. AP existed at the higher performing high schools
Historically, these schools were different. A 1978 Washington Post Article compared the two schools. With respect to redistricting, a Langley student who may possibly be redistricted to McLean said: “It’s a whole different class of kids that go to Langley. The kids who go there come from all over the world; they’re more cultured and intellectually stimulating than the ones who end up going to McLean.”
Here we are 45 years later and the topic du jour is still redistricting.
Langley High School is under enrolled as of right now. According to the demographics on Fairfax County’s website, Langley’s population is 53% white, 30% Asian, 7% Hispanic, 1% Black and 8% other. Just 2% of the students are identified as English Language Learners. Langley is on Georgetown Pike, in a very residential neighborhood.
McLean High School is close to the downtown areas of McLean. Despite things you read on message boards and see online, McLean’s demographics are similar to Langley. The population is 49% white, 26% Asian, 14% Hispanic, 4% black and 6% other.
Why McLean is Great for Families
Aside from school, what else is here that makes it such a great place for families?
There’s Child’s Play which is a toy and bookstore for kids. For playtime, check out MyGym for the little ones. We took various levels of tumble classes at MyGym and I had the best time with the kids.
Clemyjontri Park is one of my top 5 must-do parks in the DC Area. Clemyjontri Park has a carousel and several different play areas for various ages and abilities.
There are a lot of neighborhood parks in McLean as well – McLean Central Park and Meadow Lane Park are neighborhood parks with a playground. There are several of these neighborhood parks throughout McLean.
McLean is the quintessential suburb with extraordinary natural resources. Scott’s Run Nature Preserve has hiking trails. Great Falls Park has a McLean mailing address but it’s a few miles north of McLean, heading toward Great Falls. You can hike along the Potomac River where trails and overlooks have some amazing views of the falls in the river.
The Alden Theatre is part of the McLean Community Center. They have close to 400 seats for guests of their musical or comedy acts that stop here. There’s teen improv and other programs for kids. McLean Project for the arts offers camps from age 3 through teenagers. The Old Firehouse is a recreation space for teens. The Community Center also offers classes and camps, live music and other shows. There’s a concert in the park series in the summer, the Community Center is the hub of entertainment offerings in McLean.
There are also several membership-based swim and tennis clubs. There’s Highlands Swim & Tennis, Chesterbrook Swim & Tennis, Kent Gardens Recreation Club, McLean Swim & Tennis and Tuckahoe Recreation Club.
We were members for three years at Tuckahoe. I woke up one day and thought, “this place is the worst” and I canceled it. There’s not enough lounge chairs, the pool is always freezing even when it’s 100 degrees out and the lifeguards are really mean. They are on their whistles constantly for the silliest little “infractions.” It’s also expensive and then this past year they sent a letter to all members saying there was $3M in deferred maintenance so dues were going up 20%. That, plus one lifeguard screaming across the pool at another lifeguard was enough for us.
Finally, I have to mention Dolley Madison Library. They don’t have just books! They offer a ton of programming geared toward kids too. Storytime, book clubs, classes, games, cooking classes, art, improv – the library is another source of entertainment for the kids.
There’s also Tyson’s Corner which is the DC Metro Area’s largest shopping mecca. If you can’t find what you want in Tyson’s, it probably doesn’t exist!
Food
It probably goes without saying that an upscale suburb is going to have a variety of food options. Most everything you need is in the downtown area. The restaurants are clustered on Old Dominion just south of 123 or Dolley Madison and also along Chain Bridge and Old Chain Bridge Roads. J. Gilberts is a steak and seafood restaurant on 123 and is always packed. There’s Mexican, Afghan, Italian, American and pizza as well. Aracosia is Afghan food that gets all thumbs up from people born in Afghanistan. There’s also an Iranian restaurant that gets high marks – Amoos.
There’s Lidl, Giant and Balducci’s in the downtown area. Over in Chesterbrook Shopping Center there’s a Safeway. Chesterbrook Shopping Center just got a makeover so some stores were closed and now it’s reopening and coming back to life. They have opened the ever-popular Call Your Mother deli here as well.
I hope this helped you in learning why McLean is very appealing to families. Getting into a home here is definitely costly. But with the schools, recreation centers, parks, trails and proximity to jobs in DC or Tysons, this is one of the top suburbs of choice for active families!
