Relocating to Reston (section 8, condos, neighborhood)

[sallynj]

I am 63, single, thinking of moving to Reston to be nearer family, intend to continue working full/part time. Son/family living in VA for 14 yrs, most recently Ashburn. Have very modest income, would look to purchase small, affordable condo. Am trying to find out if this area would be good for someone in my age bracket. A NJ/NYC "city" and "town" person, I need to be near activities and people, but do not want to be in an over-55 living situation. Was thinking of Reston because it is said to be a planned community with activities readily available through the association, but am wondering if anyone call tell me if this whole area is basically thirty-somethings or if I would find enough people in my age group with which to socialize. Also, a little "concerned" reading emails re: unfriendliness of the north Virginians?? Is this true?????????????

[Electron]

Two bedroom in condo will be somewhere in the neighborhood of three bills, as in 300K. dullnboring will be able to give you a better perspective on all your concerns, as I never lived there, just drove through it for 13 years.

[dullnboring]

Reston has your average mix of people. It's not overrun by twentsomething, or childless thirtysomething yuppies or young families or older people. There's a bit of everything and I would imagine that you would be able to meet others in your age group here. One thing you should realize seeing as how you are from NYC/NJ is the fact that the layout of our suburbs is different in Northern Virginia. They tend to be very sprawly and not pedestrian-friendly. This isn't the sort of place like they have up there (I used to live up there) where there's a nice walkable downtown full of restaurants and small businesses. Nope. This is the land of massive strip malls and Applebees and Best Buys and the like. I'm sure you realize this if you've visited the area, particularly if your son lives in Ashburn (which is where I live at the moment). While a planned community, Reston isn't really an exception to this rule. Reston has the Reston Town Center which is a faux-downtown it constructed from scratch some 15 years ago or so which is very nice and yuppie and crowded with people who crave a more authentic downtown urban atmosphere, but that's pretty much it; and of course, you have to drive TO the Reston Town Center unless you live in one of the luxury condos that are on it's periphery.

Northern Virginia as a whole is expensive, but coming from NJ/NY, it may not seem too bad to you. Reston has a certain amount of housing set aside as Section 8 and was created with the intention of being a diverse community with a commitment of tolerance and integration of people of all backgrounds and income levels but truth be told, that was a long time ago and it seems that the modern day market economy has won out and Reston is with exception of the aforementioned Section 8 housing, somewhat pricy. Unless you have a large amount of money saved up, purchasing a condo in Reston would be very difficult. I would say that they generally run somewhere between 250-350K (ignoring the luxury 500K ones near the Reston Town Center). Don't let that dissuade you though as there may be some deals here and there. If you were to choose to live in the Section 8 housing, well, truthfully, it isn't bad at all. There really aren't any bad dangerous areas of Reston. My favorite area is the area around Lake Anne with a nice shopping area set aside a picturesque lake with trails and greenery all around.

As far as the unfriendliness of people in Northern Virginia, while subjective, I'm afraid to say that I have to agree. I think a lot of it actually has it's roots in our car-centric layout here. People don't really walk places. They live in pods and drive from one pod to another, without much interacting and it seems as if people as a result just have lost certain social skills. In my opinion, people here are extremely uptight, rude, arrogant and boring. I find them almost to be "personality-less" in a way, just like these walking generic zombies who only leave their zombie-like state to cuss out a poor store clerk who's not ringing up their groceries fast enough. I'm not trying paint an unrealistically poor portrait of the area, and truth be told as someone who grew up here and is now dying to get out, I'm sure I have a bit of a bias. Your son I'm sure would have some good input as far as the people here, contrasting them to what you're used to up in NJ/NY.