Monticello Forest's Commuter-Friendly Bargains

It's not easy to tell when you're in Monticello Forest, but if you're at the Springfield Trader Joe's, you're very close.

It's one of several Springfield neighborhoods that stretch from the Beltway south to Old Keene Mill Road, west of Interstate 395. They were built in the 1950s, all with the same styles of split-level, rambler and bi-level brick houses, and they all feed into Crestwood Elementary School.

Many Monticello Forest residents "don't even know [it] as Monticello Forest; they know it as Crestwood," the larger neighborhood to the north, said Debbie Tritle, an agent with Weichert Realtors.

Like its neighbors, Monticello Forest is close to the Springfield Interchange, the mixing bowl where Interstates 95, 395 and 495 intersect. Even with the construction that has made the interchange a bane of drivers from around the area over the last several years, that location makes the neighborhood an attractive option for multi-commuter households or those who travel throughout the region for work. It's fairly central to points on the Beltway such as Tysons Corner, locations to the south such as Fort Belvoir and Quantico, and job centers to the north such as the Pentagon and downtown Washington.

Location was a prime consideration for the Reiprichs, native Germans who rented for a year in Alexandria before deciding to buy a house in Monticello Forest.

It takes Addi Reiprich about 35 minutes to drive to work in Crystal City. She could take the Metrobus from a neighborhood bus stop to the Pentagon and transfer to the Metro, but because she leaves at 7 a.m., the traffic is minimal, she said.

She and her husband, Biggi, who is retired, moved to their one-floor rambler with a carport in 1993. They paid $150,000 for 1,200 square feet on a one-third-acre lot. Since then, they have added about 480 square feet to the home, including a large master bedroom and bathroom.

If there are any bargains to be found along the Beltway, Monticello Forest might be one.

"You can find a really nice house in there for under $500,000," Tritle said.

She thinks one reason might be the proximity to I-395. The neighborhood "gets a worse rap [than West Springfield] because it's right off I-395," she said.

The construction at the Springfield Interchange may have scared off some potential buyers. Phases 2 and 3 of the project involved construction on Old Keene Mill Road.

But that work is now completed, and the entire project is on schedule for completion in late 2007, according to the Virginia Department of Transportation.