Nice place in the 'burbs is fine for me - I have a family with a 4 year old boy and a baby on the way in February so I don't care much about nightlife. I'd prefer a house but a well designed townhouse would be fine too if it had a garage but I can get over that. I can deal with a 30 min commute or less; same as what I had in Whidbey going to and from A-town.
Schoolsmight be a bit of a factor then, Fairfax and London both have good schools and especially where I mentioned. Centreville, Sterling and Herndon are other places to look, lots of townhouses in Herndon.
We've been looking at S. Riding and there aren't any rentals in our price range. I'm trying to keep the rental + utility cost under BAH ($3.1k). Either they don't exist or I'm too early..
Fairfax and Burke are decent locales that should have some rentals. The further out you go the cheaper it'll be and the housing will be cheaper too, I'm a little surprised at South Riding but given that the rental market isn't huge for the places you described I guess it isn't too big a surprise.
There is a place for rent down the street from me, , it is only about 10 miles from there and 20 mins with no traffic, I can PM you the info if you want. I'll also ask a buddy who works there now if they have anything posted on their internal board. I'll also ask him where folks generally live.
We'veI'll check out Redfin. You know anything about the I-66 construction or anything else going on with infrastructure in the area?
Military by Owner is another good place to look too. As for 66 I try and avoid it altogether, the construction shouldn't have too much of an impact but it is a parking lot already. Avoiding 66 shouldn't be too hard working in Chantilly but you will have some traffic no matter where you live. But at least with Chantilly you have a lot of options most others don't.
