Loudoun's Allure Is a Blessing and a Bother for Families

Nation's Richest County Pays Price for Popularity

Terri Pla remembers vividly the day three years ago when her husband, Anthony, drove her to Loudoun County to look at new homes. From their townhouse in the Fair Oaks section of Fairfax County, they "drove and drove and drove and drove." Finally, Pla asked, "Where are we?"

Then the couple passed through the gates of Belmont Country Club. They saw moms pushing strollers on the sidewalks. They saw kids playing in the quiet streets. They saw spacious new homes along a lush, green golf course, sparkling pools and playgrounds. They fell in love.

The Plas are among a wave of prosperous Northern Virginians willing to move farther from the center of Washington than they ever thought they would. They have redefined Loudoun as a desirable suburb -- pulling it into tighter orbit with the region overall. And they have shifted the region's affluence out.

As new Census Bureau figures released last week show, Loudoun is no longer merely among the nation's fastest-growing counties -- it is also among its richest. With two-income families such as the Plas moving outward each year by the thousands, Loudoun boasts the highest median household income -- more than $98,000 a year -- of any county in the nation.

"I grew up in McLean," said Anthony Pla, 47, who runs a construction company. "I remember when Tysons Corner was called The Pits. We used to drive our motorcycles and four-wheel drives out there. [Loudoun] was the boonies."

The boom of nearby job centers such as Reston and Tysons -- and the growth of Dulles International Airport -- has helped change that. Terri Pla, 34, drives 15 minutes to her job in Herndon as a mortgage lender. The Plas' home, overlooking Belmont's fourth hole, is about five minutes from their three children's elementary school, a Food Lion, two other golf courses, a sushi restaurant with "the best spicy tuna rolls we've ever had" and Inova Loudoun Hospital. But best of all, they said, is that their gated community is just that: a community, with friendly neighbors, happy hour each Friday and its own soccer league.

"It's basically a village," Anthony Pla said. "That's what I love about the place."

That sense of community has drawn families to Loudoun for a long time. Whether for its rural life or a big, affordable home in a planned development, the influx of pilgrims has helped reshape the county. There are tradeoffs -- often longer commutes and a lack of amenities -- but most newcomers have shared a view of Loudoun as a destination where life would be good.

"I've been here for 49 years," said Evelyn M. Pope of Middleburg, a town of 641 people in the heart of horse country. Pope and her husband, who worked for the CIA, left the District in 1957 to pursue a dream on a 250-acre farm.

"We wanted to have a farm and raise cattle, and that's why we moved here," Pope recalled. "I've seen a lot of changes, of course. When we moved here, it was very rural. The farmers would come in on Saturday morning and sell their corn out of the back of their pickup trucks."

Jennifer and Brent Christie were seeking affordability. In 2001, when they were preparing to start a family, they bought a home on the outskirts of the western Loudoun town of Purcellville (population 5,800) for slightly more than $300,000.

"Proximity to my job? Yeah, that would have been nice," said Jennifer Christie, 34, now a stay-at-home mom who is expecting the couple's second child. "But I'll tell you what we gained: We gained a wonderful neighborhood with a lot of families who were looking for the same thing -- stability. In the evenings on a really nice day you can go out on our street and sit out there for hours and talk to the neighbors."