When you are flying into the Washington D.C. area, either into Dulles Airport or to Reagan National Airport, you’ll see a beautiful carpet of trees covering most of the entire suburban area that is Northern Virginia. But wait!  What’s that grouping of buildings towering over the trees?

Most likely what you are seeing is Tysons Corner

Over the past decade, Tysons Corner has grown to be the largest office building and shopping area in Northern Virginia.  It is located near the intersection of four main roads: I-495, I-66, Route 123, and Route 7.

Map of Tysons Corner

However,  you won’t be able to find “Tysons Corner” as an official postal city. That means that you can’t send mail to a street address in “Tysons Corner, VA”. Actually, addresses in Tysons Corner either belong to the Vienna, VA ; Falls Church, VA or to the McLean, VA postal cities.

Now, why would Tysons Corner be interesting to you?

As I mentioned before, Tysons Corner is the largest office building and shopping area in Fairfax County.  Chances are that you’ll work in Tysons at some point.  Many of the big employers in the DC area have offices there.

And you’ll definitely want to go shopping in Tysons

Tysons Corner is the home of Tysons Corner Center, a world class shopping mall complete with restaurants and a huge movie theater.  If you are more into the fancy stores, then you’ll want to go across the street to Tysons Galleria, an upscale shopping mall adjacent to The Ritz-Carlton hotel.

If you want to live in Tysons Corner

If you like Tysons Corner and are considering living there, you can currently find condos, apartments, as well as townhomes and single family homes available for sale and for rent.  When you search for real estate online, remember to look in either Vienna, Falls Church, or McLean.

And, if you think that you want to live there, perhaps you’d be interested in finding out about the schools assigned to those areas.

The high school pyramids which serve the homes in or near Tysons Corner are:

• Marshall High School, for the majority of the area, as well as
• McLean High School, and
• Madison High School

These schools are some of the best in the area, and together with the great location, it should be no surprise to know that housing in Tysons Corner is in high demand.

The prices of real estate in Tysons Corner command a premium

Keep in mind that the prices of real estate in this area command a premium.  For example, homes in the Marshall High School boundary are about 35% higher than the Fairfax County average price for a similar property.

But surely, not everything is perfect in Tysons Corner?

Unfortunately, no. Traffic in Tysons can be quite challenging.  Many people find that the downside to working there is the traffic.

If you work in Tysons Corner, the commute options currently are:

•  to drive, or
•  to take the bus

There is also a free shuttle service that runs through Tysons at lunch time so that people can go to the mall for lunch and leave their car at the office.

In the future, traffic jams should improve thanks to the new Metro line (currently called the Silver line) which will pass through Tysons Corner.  The Silver Line is planned to start in Falls Church, peeling off the existing Orange line, go through Tysons Corner and eventually end at the Dulles International Airport.

Summary

The heart of Tysons Corner is a bustling area for working and shopping, and once the new Metro lines go in, there will be less traffic,  more homes and incentives for more people to move into the area.

Next step

If you are planning a move to Fairfax County, call us at (703) 480-6575 for your custom search of homes for sale by school district.