A lot of different places share the same name in Fairfax County or the Northern Virginia area, and Falls Church is no different. So, Falls Church is an area within Fairfax County, and within Falls Church, there’s also an extremely small independent city called the City of Falls Church, which is only 2.2 square miles.
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Different Places to Live in Falls Church
Falls Church, or the City of Falls Church, has its own independent government and schools. Despite being a little over two square miles, the area has its own elementary, middle, and high school, which is really interesting.
Falls Church is conveniently located just miles away from Washington, D.C., Tysons, and Arlington. In Falls Church, you can find all types of properties like single-family homes, townhouses, and condos with prices ranging from low-hundred-thousands to multiple millions of dollars.
Now, let’s talk about a couple of different places you could live in if you’re thinking of moving to Falls Church.
Annalee Heights
The first neighborhood we’re going to check out is Annalee Heights, which is located in the western part of the Falls Church area, inside the Beltway, and near Annandale road.
This area has a lot of Cape Cods and smaller homes that were built between the 40s and 70s. These properties are mostly under 1000 square feet on nice size lots or a quarter-acre lot, and a few houses have basements.
Living in Annalee Heights offers you a chance to have one-level living, which is rare in the Northern Virginia area. In fact, we have several clients who moved out of the Northern Virginia area because they couldn’t find that many one-level properties.
In Annalee Heights, there are some larger homes and traditional two-level houses, but the majority of the area is composed of one-level Cape Cods and several single-family homes that provide a one-level living, so that’s one of the perks of moving in this neighborhood.
Another cool thing about this area is it’s in transition, and there are many teardowns in which people buy houses and tear them down to build larger colonials and craftsman homes. So, if you’re looking for a teardown opportunity or you want to get a property on a much larger lot, this neighborhood is a great place for you.
With teardowns, you can still expect to pay as much as you would as a first-time homebuyer. A one-level home that you would take as it is or renovate comes with the $600,000 price range.
Broyhill Park
Next up, we have Broyhill Park, also known as Old Broyhill Park, which is located just outside of the Beltway, close to Route 50, and not too far from Annalee Heights. This neighborhood is comprised of about 750 single-family homes.
Similar to Annalee Heights, most of the homes in the area are on the older side and were built in the 1950s. So, this place has older homes like ramblers and a few colonials.
More recently, there have been many teardowns and renovated or updated homes in Broyhill Park, which is a larger percentage than what is seen in some of the other parts of Falls Church.
Still, at first glance, a lot of the houses that have not yet been torn down look really similar because these properties were all built by one builder, and there were only a few options that buyers had as far as personalizing or renovating the space.
As mentioned, Broyhill Park is very much like Annalee Heights, which mostly has one-level smaller properties under very nice-sized lots or a quarter-acre lot, and there are some houses that have basements. These areas usually consist of teardowns because you can fit a nice-sized property and get a nice side yard with your home.
As for the styles of homes in Broyhill Park, there’s very little variation, and most houses have the same red brick exterior. The average price of homes in this neighborhood is around $650,000 over the last 12 months.
Additionally, what I like about Broyhill Park is that you get to have access to several amenities like the Holmes Run Park. Just to be clear, Broyhill Park is not really a park where you can expect to see picnic tables. It’s just the name of the subdivision, which happens to have some green space.
Pimmit Hills
The next community we’re going to talk about is Pimmit Hills, which is located in the northern part of Falls Church. Like the previous two areas, Pimmit Hills is an older neighborhood that has some smaller homes built in the 50s. There are also several single-family homes with two bedrooms and one bath, townhouses with one bathroom, and newer homes in the area.
This neighborhood has seen the most change over the last decade or so since a lot of the smaller one-level 800-square-foot homes that were originally built in the area have now been replaced with larger properties that have a higher price point. These larger homes usually come with a two-car garage and plenty of side spaces.
Considering that there are a lot of properties that have been built on older lots in Pimmit Hills, you can just mostly see nice colonial traditional-style homes and lovely craftsman houses in the area with an average sales price of over a million dollars. Then again, this is due to the teardowns in their multimillion-dollar homes as well.
Still, there are lower sales prices for the properties being transformed into teardowns in this neighborhood that start at about $540,000 based on the last 12 months of sales, but a lot of these are already being swept up by investors or builders. As for a property that’s been renovated, you can expect to pay within the $600,000 to $700,000 price range.
In the end, it’s all up to you if you want a smaller home that’s renovated or a newer home that’s more expensive. This is just what you’re going to be dealing with in this neighborhood that’s transitioning right now.
Nonetheless, you’re not just paying for a larger property here. It’s also more about the area’s proximity since it’s walkable to the Silver Line and Tysons, which are two of the largest employment centers in the country.
Hence, I would say that Pimmit Hills is my second favorite neighborhood on the list for the reasons that it’s highly desirable, pretty diverse, and there’s a lot of foot traffic in the area.
Sleepy Hollow
The next neighborhood on the list is Sleepy Hollow, which is located in the southeastern part of Falls Church. This area has a lot of either teardowns or renovations and smaller homes that were built in the 30s to 50s, which are even older than the previous neighborhoods.
In Sleepy Hollow, we’re talking about properties that will be a century old soon. But then, having older properties is pretty much a running theme in the subdivisions of Falls Church.
Sleepy Hollow may be a small community that is only comprised of about 325 homes, but it’s tucked away in a really nice wooded area. Again, this beautiful subdivision has a lot of smaller homes with prices ranging from $650,000 to multiple millions of dollars.
So, let’s take a look at some of the properties available in Sleepy Hollow, which is my favorite neighborhood on the list. What I really like about Sleepy Hollow is that it has many homes on even larger lots than what is offered in some of the previous neighborhoods.
In this area, you can get as much as an acre of green space and have a nice-sized house where you can graze the land. So, whenever I have clients who want a house with a big lot, I always ask them if they need a room for someone to graze.
Another cool thing to mention about this neighborhood is its proximity. I like how Sleepy Hollow is only 15 minutes away from Tysons, The Pentagon, or Washington D.C., and you can get pretty much everywhere quickly. Also, Sleepy Hollow is near Seven Corners, which consists of national, regional, and local retailers and restaurants.
However, the downside of living in Sleepy Hollow is that there are no sidewalks or trails in the area, and people just walk in the street. Being a small neighborhood under pretty big lots, the neighbors have to give up their land in order to secure the space needed for sidewalks, which may not just be the case here.
With Falls Church being rated as one of the healthiest parts of the country, where people are always outside walking and exercising, Sleepy Hollow not having the space for sidewalks or trails is a little disappointing.
Lake Barcroft
Finally, the last community we’re going to check out is Lake Barcroft, which is my wife’s favorite area on the list, mainly because it’s on a lake. Lake Barcroft is a beautiful neighborhood with over a thousand single-family homes on a wooded lake, wherein there are five private beaches that residents have access to.
Aside from the cool feature of having access to small private beaches, the area mostly has homes with midcentury modern styles as well as various types of architecture, so there are different floor plans for you to choose from.
The properties in Lake Barcroft have a higher price point with an average sales price of about $1.3 million, which has to do with the fact that these houses are on a lake. Having a high sales price for properties, this neighborhood would be ideal for people who either already plan on putting their kids in private schools or those who don’t have a young family.
However, if you look at the closed sales in this neighborhood, there are only a few even from this year, which means that it’s much harder to secure a lakefront property since the process also usually involves private sales without real estate agents.
Once again, Falls Church is pretty close to everything, so that’s an added benefit of living in Lake Barcroft. Despite having a convenient location, the area is not really walkable.
Just like the previous neighborhood, Lake Barcroft has no sidewalks nor street lights, and people are just walking in the street. As someone who walks every day, I just prefer some distance between me and the cars.
Nevertheless, this is a desirable neighborhood where people love living in.
Things to Know Before Moving to Falls Church
Now that we have finished covering all the different communities in Falls Church, it’s time to talk about the commute time, public schools, new construction, parks and recreational activities, and restaurants in the area.
Falls Church Commute
When it comes to the commute time in the area, Falls Church is conveniently located near Washington D.C., Tysons, and Arlington, which are major employment bases. Distance-wise, Falls Church is about 9 miles from Washington D.C, 8 miles from Tysons Corner, and just about 4 miles from Arlington.
Another super nice thing about living in Falls Church is it has two metro stations and several bus lines, including Capital Bikeshare stations, which gives people an additional option to travel in and around the area.
I just love the convenience factor of living in the Falls Church area.
Falls Church Public Schools
All schools are different, and some are just not as highly rated as others. Thus, we always tell our buyers to check out the Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) Boundary Locator System if schools are a priority for them. As a matter of fact, we had a client years ago that we helped move to Falls Church because they wanted to get their kids into a better school system.
The FCPS Boundary Locator System is an extremely helpful tool because when you move into a new area, you can look at a house and look at another house just a couple of blocks away, and they could already be assigned to different schools.
So, there are five public schools that service Falls Church and two of which are located in Falls Church, Fairfax County, one is in the City of Falls Church, and the other two are in the surrounding subdivisions, Vienna and McLean.
Two of the public high schools that service Falls Church, namely Marshall High and McLean High, are in the top five, according to U.S. News.
With that said, U.S. News is a great website for parents looking for public high schools because it provides graduation rates, test scores, and the number of students who both take AP courses and pass those exams.
Hopefully, when you’re searching for properties online, you’ll use our website as well.
Falls Church New Construction
If you’re looking for new construction, you’re not going to have a lot of options in Falls Church because most of the subdivisions in the area are already developed.
Once in a while, there is new construction, but it’s mostly just existing properties being torn down by builders or investors.
So, if you’re interested in new construction and you’re willing to be a part of a neighborhood that’s undergoing transition, Falls Church is the right place for you.
Falls Church Parks and Recreational Activities
Lastly, let’s talk about the things to do in the Falls Church area. As previously stated, Falls Church is one of the healthiest to live in since it offers many parks and recreational activities. Throughout the area, there is so much green space as well as miles and miles of hiking and biking trails, which are pretty common in Northern Virginia.
One of the parks in the area is Cherry Hill Park that is near West Broad Street, which is sort of like the main street of the Falls Church area. Cherry Hill Park isn’t that large, but it does have a lot of history with it. It is one of the central areas where events in Falls Church are usually held, and people do a lot of activities here as a community.
Just below Cherry Hill Park is the Falls Church Farmer’s Market, which is one of the few farmer’s markets in the area that is open year-round every Saturday from 8 am to 12 pm. It’s really popular not just for people who live in Falls Church, but also for people that drive over there coming from other subdivisions in the area as well.
Furthermore, just a few blocks away from West Broad Street and North Washington Street, we have State Theatre, which is a live music venue where you can always catch different shows. Fun fact, this place was actually a movie theater from the 30s until the 1980s, and now it’s become a live concert venue that’s really popular.
State Theatre also serves dinner, so it’s a great place for a date night. Another nice thing about this place is they hold outdoor events like concerts in the parking lot, so it’s a well-known spot for locals as they are heavily invested in the community, and they continue to do community events for people living in Falls Church.
Falls Church Restaurants
In addition to all these cool places, Falls Church has you covered when it comes to dining options. There’s a strip mall located near the crossroads of Seven Corners called Eden Center, which has the largest collection of Vietnamese restaurants and shops.
We’ve lived in Northern Virginia for almost a decade, and we like to say that we’re on the adventurous side since we frequent so many international markets with food courts and hubs, but we’ve only learned about this place now.
Eden Center has over a hundred restaurants that feature pretty much all Asian cuisines. I’m definitely looking forward to checking out all this place has to offer.
Eden Center
Address: 6751-6799 Wilson Blvd, Falls Church, VA 22044, United States
Phone: +1 703-204-4600
Now, the next step is to not make a decision on where you’re going to move inside of the Fairfax County area before checking out this playlist that covers its different locations and everything you need to look out for.
If you’re interested in working with us, fill out our Perfect Home Questionnaire, and we’ll schedule a time to meet online and answer any questions that you have about moving to the Falls Church area.
Conclusion:
Overall, you have learned everything you need to know before moving to Falls Church, Fairfax County.
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