Hello to all,

My wife and i are moving to the area shortly, and thankfully i stumbled across this site, when i did.

It seems that all we will be able to afford will be a condo. (i dont know how people here afford SFH.)

What is the best condo community in Reston, herndon, or sterling?

Safety would be priority #1, then location.

Thanks in advance for any help.

If safety is your priority, then I'd avoid Herndon and Sterling all together. Reston seems to be overvalued, but have nice condos at the Towne Center which have been selling well, even in a slower market like now. -§

Eh, buying a condo around here is tough. They build new ones every other day, and a lot of apartment buildings are converting into condos. There's already a glut of them...when you decide to sell it might be hard to unload it and break even.

My wife and I are renting until we can afford a SFH. That might be a while, but I'm reluctant to put any money we've saved into a condo.

So avoid herndon and sterling?
Thanks for the heads up.

Any particular condo community in Reston?

What about Ashburn?
Brambleton? Which is located in Ashburn?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/10/2006 04:45PM by themiz.

Please, don't use this forum as a cross section of the area. We're a bunch of cynics here. As with any metropolitan area, there are good and bad areas sometimes within shouting distance of each other. My advice to you is to live as close as possible to your job to avoid the commute. It will certainly affect your quality of life more than anything other single thing you can do. For someone to say 'avoid Reston or Herndon' is rediculous since there are many nice areas in both of those places.

I'm curious to know where you'll be working since I'll be working in Reston in a few weeks (changing jobs). Until I change jobs, I'll be working in Ashburn.

themiz- I am selling my 2 year old condominium by owner. It is located in Vienna directly across the street from the Vienna Metro Station. It is a great location and a completely secure building. It is a 1 bed/1 bath unit. The asking price is $349,999. The community has a number of ammenties including a game room, pool, fitness center, basketball court etc. Please email me if you are interested at hokiegirl_1@hotmail.com, I can provide further details and send you a flier. Thank You.

One (kinda obvious) advice from a former condo owner: check the condo fee amount and whether it includes utilities. At the end, your monthly payment may be very close to those for more expensive SFH or townhouse.

When getting a condo I'd suggest doing what I did when I rented my first apartment and was deciding where to go. Drive to the place at around 9p and park there for a couple of hours with a book or something. If you don't like the looks of the people going in and out, reject that option.

As far as safety for your family goes, definitely avoid Reston, Herndon, and Sterling. Ashburn and South Riding are ideal for young families. They're somewhat secluded communities, but ask anyone that lives there and you'll hear mostly good things. You could get a nice townhome in those areas and pay less than some condos in Reston (considering the condo fees, etc.).

I echo the South Riding and Ashburn comments above. Newer communities, no crime, and you'll have better resale in the medium term (approx. 10-15 years) because while there are decent places in each Herndon and Sterling to live, the population belt will keep expanding to where run-down areas such as Baileys Xroads and Annandale will make a push into Western Fairfax around that timeframe. With higher population density, you'll have more crime. Herndon and Sterling may be ok for now, but it all depends on your threshold for how run-down an area is. For example, if you're from PG County / SE DC and move to say Alexandria now, you may think it's nice and the best place to live while someone like myself who grew up in Alexandria and moved to Loudoun Co. thinks it's the best place to live because Alexandria is going to sh!t. Now I don't entirely believe that all of Alexandria is bad, but when you look at quality of life and low-crime rates of the two, there's no comparison. I'd advise you to NOT buy anywhere until you check out the areas you're interested in in BOTH day and night.

Lastly re: condos. Three major things to check for (1) What are the fees and what does it include (anything over $200/mo. is not competitive unless you get a good gym, good pool and concierge service) and (2) check to see if there is any pending litigation or major maint. needed (i.e.: if they lose a lawsuit or need a new roof, will they issue a special assessment?) and most importantly (3) check to see how the funding level of the association looks. You don't want a condo assoc. with funding of less than $250,000 per 150 units. This is for forseen reasons mentioned in Item 2 above and for unforseen reasons such as a fire or natural disaster that caps out the insurance coverage (guess who pays after that - the condo owners) If I had to add another thing, I'd say check out the ratio of owners to rentals. You don't want to live in a place that has a majority of renters over owners because they simply will not preserve the common areas as most owners would. This is a fact. The condo assoc. is obligated to inform you prior to purchase if asked. Good luck. -§

dont forget to avoid a gay homeowners association, nothings worse than living around people who tell you how to live

Watch out for that asshole HOA President in Centreville - Control freak