Fairfax County ZIP Code Guide: Every City & What It's Known For

Fairfax County is not one place, it is roughly two dozen of them, and the ZIP code on an address is the fastest shorthand for which one you are actually talking about. A 22101 McLean address and a 22015 Burke address are twenty minutes apart and live in completely different worlds: different price tiers, different school pyramids, different commutes, different weekends. This guide walks every residential ZIP in the county and tells you what each place is genuinely known for, not just the number, so you can work out where you actually belong. It reflects how we advise clients every week as Fairfax County real estate agents.

How Fairfax County ZIP Codes Work

Fairfax County is the most populous jurisdiction in Virginia, home to more than a million people, and its ZIP codes were drawn by the Postal Service to move mail through that density efficiently. They were never meant to describe communities, which is why a single ZIP can cover several distinct neighborhoods and why the "city" on your envelope is often just the post office that serves you.

The county's ZIPs fall into two ranges that roughly track geography. The 220xx and 221xx codes cover the eastern and central county, closer to Arlington, Alexandria, and the Beltway. The 201xx codes cover the western county, out toward Dulles and the Loudoun line. Once you internalize that split, you can place almost any Fairfax address on a mental map from the number alone.

The county officially has around 75 ZIP codes, but that figure misleads. Most are dedicated to post office boxes, government offices, and business mail; the county government center has a ZIP nobody lives in. Strip those out and roughly 45 residential ZIPs remain, which is what this guide covers. For how Fairfax fits into the wider region and how its ZIPs bleed into neighboring counties, our companion guide to Northern Virginia ZIP codes takes the regional view.

Fairfax ZIP Index

Every residential Fairfax ZIP is listed below. Tap one to jump straight to what that place is known for. Alexandria-addressed and Falls Church-addressed county ZIPs are included and flagged.

Every Fairfax ZIP at a Glance

Fairfax County covers about 400 square miles, and its ZIPs make far more sense once you can see roughly where each place sits. Note the dashed boxes: those are Fairfax County places whose mailing address names somewhere else entirely.

Here is the whole county in one table, sorted roughly from the top price tier down. Use it to orient, then read the city sections below for what each place is actually like.

ZIP	Place	Known for	Price tier
22101	McLean	Estates, Langley pyramid, DC proximity	Highest
22102	McLean / Tysons	Luxury plus Tysons high-rises	Highest
22066	Great Falls	Acreage, rural-luxury, no sidewalks	Highest
22182	Vienna / Tysons	Wolf Trap, Tysons access, schools	High
22124	Oakton	Wooded lots, Oakton pyramid	High
22039	Fairfax Station	Large lots, Burke Lake, privacy	High
22180 / 22181	Vienna	Town of Vienna, Madison pyramid, Metro	High
20124	Clifton	Historic village, acreage, rural feel	High
22030	City of Fairfax	Independent city, own schools, historic core	Mid-high
22043	Falls Church (county)	Pimmit Hills, Idylwood, Metro access	Mid-high
20190	Reston	Town Center, Silver Line, walkable	Mid-high
20194	Reston	North Reston, lakes, quieter	Mid-high
22027	Dunn Loring	Metro, small and central	Mid-high
22031	Fairfax (county)	Mosaic District, Metro, central	Mid
22032	Fairfax (county)	Kings Park West, Woodson pyramid	Mid
22033	Fairfax (county)	Fair Oaks, Fair Lakes, shopping	Mid
20191	Reston	South Reston, Hunters Woods, lakes	Mid
22015	Burke	Burke Centre, family suburb, VRE	Mid
22152	West Springfield	West Springfield pyramid, established	Mid
22153	Springfield	Saratoga, South County pyramid	Mid
22315	Kingstowne	Planned amenities, Alexandria address	Mid
20171	Herndon	Oak Hill, Floris, tech corridor	Mid
20170	Herndon	Historic downtown, W&OD, Dulles	Mid
20151	Chantilly	Udvar-Hazy, Dulles Expo, tech	Mid
22003	Annandale	Koreatown, diversity, close-in value	Mid
22042 / 22044	Falls Church (county)	Seven Corners, Lake Barcroft	Mid
22151	North Springfield	Established, Beltway access	Mid
22150	Springfield	Town Center, Metro and VRE hub	Mid-entry
20121	Centreville	Virginia Run, commuter value	Mid-entry
20120	Centreville	Townhomes, I-66 commute	Mid-entry
22079	Lorton	Laurel Hill, VRE, newer builds	Mid-entry
22310	Franconia / Rose Hill	Metro access, Alexandria address	Mid-entry
22308 / 22307	Mount Vernon / Belle Haven	Riverfront, Waynewood, Hollin Hall	Varies widely
22309 / 22306	Mount Vernon / Hybla Valley	Richmond Highway corridor, value	Entry
22041	Baileys Crossroads	Skyline, condos, close-in	Entry
22303	Huntington	Metro, Jefferson Manor, condos	Entry
22312	Lincolnia	Central, Beltway access	Entry

McLean (22101, 22102)

McLean is what most people picture when they think of wealthy Northern Virginia. It sits at the county's northeast corner, closest to the Potomac and the District, which is exactly why it developed as it did: this is where you live if your work is in Washington and money is not the constraint. The housing stock ranges from mid-century ramblers on generous lots to newly built estates, with a steady teardown-and-rebuild churn that keeps values climbing.

The two ZIPs behave differently. 22101 is classic McLean: the village center, Langley, Chesterbrook, and the quiet estate streets north toward the river. 22102 stretches south and west, picking up much of Tysons, which means it holds both multimillion-dollar houses and glass high-rise condos in the same five digits. If you are searching 22102 without filtering, expect wildly mixed results.

Schools drive an enormous share of McLean demand, with the Langley and McLean pyramids among the most sought-after in Virginia. It is a place people move to and then do not leave, which keeps inventory tight. Our McLean community page goes deeper on the neighborhoods and current listings.

Great Falls (22066)

Great Falls is the county's rural-luxury outlier. One ZIP covers the whole place, and the deal it offers is simple: substantially more land than McLean at a comparable or slightly gentler price, in exchange for accepting that you will drive everywhere. There is no Metro, few sidewalks, and the village center is a handful of shops around a green rather than a downtown.

Lot sizes are the headline. Two-acre and five-acre parcels are common, some homes are on well and septic rather than public utilities, and the tree cover is genuine. Great Falls Park anchors the north end along the Potomac, and the whole area trades on feeling countrified while sitting twenty-odd minutes from Tysons.

Buyers here are usually deliberate about the tradeoff, and the ones who love it really love it. It shares the Langley pyramid with much of McLean, which is a large part of the draw. Note that 22066 extends slightly across the line into Loudoun County, so confirm the jurisdiction on any parcel near the western edge, and see our Great Falls community page for what is on the market.

Vienna (22180, 22181, 22182)

Vienna is probably the most misunderstood name in the county, because the Town of Vienna is small and the "Vienna" mailing address is enormous. Most people with a Vienna address do not live in the incorporated town at all; they live in unincorporated Fairfax County that the Vienna post office happens to serve. The town itself has its own government, its own police, and a walkable Maple Avenue core.

The three ZIPs split the area sensibly. 22180 is the town and its immediate surroundings, the most walkable and the closest to that small-town feel. 22181 sits north and east toward Wolftrap, quieter and residential. 22182 runs west and south, picking up Wolf Trap National Park, some of Tysons, and a lot of the higher-priced inventory.

What sells Vienna is the combination: strong schools, the W&OD Trail running through, a Metro station on the Orange Line, and Tysons employment minutes away, all while feeling like a settled residential town rather than a corridor. It is a perennial favorite for families trading up from condos, and our Vienna community page covers the neighborhoods in detail.

Tysons (22102, 22182)

Tysons is the strangest entry in this guide, because postally it does not exist. It has no ZIP code, no mailing city, and no town government. Addresses there resolve to McLean 22102 or Vienna 22182 depending on which side of the line they fall, which means you will never see "Tysons, VA" on an envelope despite it being one of the largest employment centers between D.C. and Atlanta.

What it is, is Fairfax County's experiment in building a downtown from a shopping district. Tysons Corner Center and Tysons Galleria anchor the retail, the Silver Line put four Metro stations in, and the last decade has filled in high-rise residential towers, offices, and an increasingly real street grid. The housing here is condos and apartments, not houses, which makes it a completely different market from the McLean and Vienna neighborhoods that share its ZIPs.

For buyers, that shared-ZIP quirk is the practical headache: search 22102 and you will get estates and one-bedroom condos in the same list. Search by community instead, which our Tysons community page is built for.

Oakton (22124)

Oakton is one of the county's understated wins. It occupies the space between Vienna and the City of Fairfax, and it trades on mature tree cover, larger-than-average lots, and a genuinely residential feel with no commercial core to speak of. People who want Vienna's schools and setting but slightly more land for the money often land here.

Housing runs to established single-family homes on wooded parcels, with pockets of newer construction and some townhomes near the edges. The Oakton High pyramid is well regarded, Vienna Metro is close, and I-66 access is straightforward, which covers most commuter needs without putting you on a main road. Our Oakton community page has the current inventory.

Reston (20190, 20191, 20194)

Reston is unlike anywhere else in the county because it was designed rather than accumulated. Robert E. Simon founded it in the 1960s on a then-radical idea: mix housing types and prices, put nature and paths at the center, and let people live, work, and play in one place. The name is his initials plus "town." Sixty years on, it largely worked, and the wooded paths, lakes, and clustered housing still feel intentional.

The three ZIPs describe three Restons. 20190 is the north and the Town Center, the walkable urban heart with the Silver Line, restaurants, and the highest-density living. 20191 is south Reston, around Hunters Woods, Lake Thoreau, and Lake Audubon, more established and residential. 20194 is north Reston above Baron Cameron, quieter and largely single-family.

Two things surprise newcomers. First, nearly every property pays Reston Association dues, which fund the paths, pools, and lakes and are a real line in your budget. Second, the housing spans everything from Lake Anne's mid-century modern condos to large single-family homes, so "Reston" tells you very little about price on its own. Our Reston community page breaks it down by cluster.

Herndon (20170, 20171)

Herndon is Reston's older, smaller neighbor and, unlike Reston, it is a real incorporated town with a mayor, a council, and a nineteenth-century railroad depot at its center. That depot is now the trailhead of the W&OD through downtown, and the town core has the farmers market and Friday-night-concert texture that planned communities try hard to manufacture.

The two ZIPs split town from county. 20170 covers the Town of Herndon and the area immediately around it, older housing stock and the walkable center. 20171 runs south and east into Oak Hill and Floris, which is unincorporated county with newer subdivisions and larger homes, and is where much of the recent growth has gone.

Herndon's economics are driven by Dulles and the tech corridor along the toll road, and it has long been the more attainable option for people who want Reston's location without Reston's prices or association dues. The Silver Line extension put a Metro station at the town's edge, which changed the calculus considerably. See our Herndon community page for neighborhood detail.

Chantilly (20151)

Chantilly is western Fairfax's workhorse: unpretentious, well-located for Dulles and the Route 28 employment corridor, and full of the kind of solid subdivisions that families buy and stay in. The Smithsonian's Udvar-Hazy Center sits here, a genuine destination, and the Dulles Expo Center draws the region's trade shows.

The critical ZIP note is one this guide will repeat: 20151 is Fairfax County, but the neighboring 20152, which also carries a Chantilly mailing address, is largely South Riding in Loudoun County. Two homes both addressed "Chantilly" can therefore sit in different counties with different taxes and different school divisions. If you are shopping Chantilly, confirm which side of the line you are on before anything else, and our Chantilly community page covers the Fairfax side.

Centreville (20120, 20121)

Centreville is the county's entry point for a lot of people, and there is no shame in that; it is a big part of how Fairfax County stays reachable at all. It sits at the western edge along I-66, and it grew fast in the 1980s and 90s, which means lots of townhomes, lots of colonial-era-style subdivisions, and a housing stock young enough to be practical but old enough to want updating.

The two ZIPs are similar but not identical. 20120 skews north toward the Loudoun line and includes Virginia Run, one of the area's most established and desirable neighborhoods. 20121 sits south and east, denser and with more townhomes and condos. Both feed strong Westfield and Centreville pyramid schools.

The honest tradeoff is the commute. If you work inside the Beltway, I-66 will define your life here, which is precisely why prices are gentler than they are ten miles east. Note that 20120 also straddles into Loudoun County. Our Centreville community page has the current market.

Fairfax City vs. Fairfax County (22030, 22031, 22032, 22033)

The City of Fairfax is an independent city. It is not part of Fairfax County, despite being entirely surrounded by it. It has its own mayor, its own tax rate, and, crucially, its own school system, which contracts with FCPS but operates as a separate division. Its ZIP is 22030, which also reaches some adjacent county land.

Everything else that says "Fairfax" is the county, and the three county ZIPs are genuinely distinct places:

• 22031 – central and close-in, taking in Merrifield's edge and the Mosaic District, with Dunn Loring Metro nearby. The most urban of the three.
• 22032 – Kings Park West and Country Club View, established single-family neighborhoods feeding the well-regarded Woodson and Robinson pyramids.
• 22033 – Fair Oaks and Fair Lakes, newer, shopping-centric, and built around the mall and the office parks, with easy Route 50 and I-66 access.

The practical stakes are real: buy in 22030 and you pay city taxes and your children attend the city's schools; buy a mile away in 22031 and both change. If a Fairfax listing's price or tax figure looks strange for the address, jurisdiction is usually the reason. Our Fairfax community page covers both sides.

Falls Church: 22041–22044 vs. 22046

This is the county's costliest misunderstanding. The City of Falls Church is tiny, roughly two square miles, and it runs its own school division that is consistently among the top performers in Virginia. That reputation is capitalized directly into home prices. Its ZIP, and its only ZIP, is 22046.

Meanwhile, four ZIPs carry a "Falls Church, VA" mailing address while sitting entirely in Fairfax County, served by FCPS and taxed by the county:

• 22043 – Pimmit Hills and Idylwood, close to Tysons and the Metro, the priciest of the four.
• 22042 – Seven Corners and around, close-in and diverse.
• 22044 – Seven Corners south and Lake Barcroft, the latter a genuinely distinctive lake community with private beaches.
• 22041 – Baileys Crossroads and Skyline, dense, condo-heavy, and among the county's most attainable close-in options.

Buyers regularly believe they are purchasing into the City of Falls Church school division when they are not, which is a difference worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and twelve years of schooling. Confirm the jurisdiction on any Falls Church address before you write an offer, and see our Falls Church community page for the distinction in practice.

Merrifield & Dunn Loring (22081, 22027)

Merrifield's story is the county's best redevelopment case study. What was a warehouse and light-industrial district around the Metro is now the Mosaic District, a dense, walkable mix of restaurants, a cinema, retail, and residential that draws people from across the county on a Saturday. Much of the residential inventory around it carries a 22031 Fairfax address rather than 22081, which is largely commercial and postal.

Dunn Loring, 22027, is a small ZIP wrapped around the Dunn Loring-Merrifield Metro station on the Orange Line. It is compact and central, and its appeal is exactly that: you are inside the Beltway, on Metro, and minutes from Tysons and Mosaic. Our Merrifield page covers the area's inventory.

Annandale (22003)

Annandale is one of Fairfax County's best-kept value propositions and its most interesting food destination. The Korean community established itself here decades ago and made the commercial strip along Little River Turnpike into the D.C. region's Koreatown, with a density and quality of Korean restaurants, bakeries, and markets you will not find elsewhere in Virginia.

One ZIP covers the whole place. The housing is largely mid-century single-family, solid and unglamorous, on decent lots, and the location is genuinely excellent: inside the Beltway, minutes from the City of Fairfax, with fast access to 495, 395, and 236. It has never carried the cachet of Vienna or McLean, which is precisely why buyers who want close-in Fairfax without the premium keep finding it. Our Annandale community page has more.

Burke (22015)

If Fairfax County has a definitive family suburb, Burke is it. One ZIP, 22015, covers essentially the whole thing, and what it covers is a large, wooded, thoroughly residential area built mostly in the 1970s and 80s around the Burke Centre planned community with its clusters, pools, and paths.

The draw is a stack of practical things rather than any single headline. Lake Braddock Secondary and the Robinson pyramid are strongly regarded. Burke Lake Park is a genuine amenity. The housing mix runs from townhomes to substantial single-family homes, so people can move up without leaving. And the VRE station gives a rail commute to D.C. that does not depend on the Beltway.

What Burke is not is walkable or urban; it is cul-de-sacs and trees and driving to the grocery store. Buyers who want that trade know exactly what they are getting, which is why turnover is low and the community is stable. Our Burke community page covers Burke Centre and the surrounding neighborhoods.

Springfield (22150, 22151, 22152, 22153)

Springfield is the county's transportation heart, for better and worse. The Mixing Bowl, where I-95, I-395, and I-495 converge, is here, and so is the Franconia-Springfield Metro station and a VRE stop, which together make it one of the best-connected places in Northern Virginia. Springfield Town Center anchors the retail after a full redevelopment.

The four ZIPs are worth learning because they diverge more than the shared name suggests:

• 22150 – central Springfield around the Town Center and the transit hub. The most commercial and the most connected.
• 22151 – North Springfield, established mid-century neighborhoods with easy Beltway access.
• 22152 – West Springfield, feeding the well-regarded West Springfield pyramid; leafier and family-oriented.
• 22153 – Saratoga and Newington Forest to the south, newer, feeding the South County pyramid.

Springfield's pitch is straightforward: you can get more house for the money than in Vienna or Burke, and you can reach almost anywhere in the region quickly. That combination of space and connectivity is why it stays popular with federal and military buyers who need reliable access in several directions at once.

If you are weighing the Springfield ZIPs against each other, our Springfield community page covers the area's neighborhoods and current market in detail.

West Springfield in particular tends to draw a different buyer, one prioritizing the school pyramid and a quieter, leafier setting over transit proximity, and our West Springfield page breaks out that submarket on its own.

Fairfax Station (22039)

Fairfax Station is where the county goes quiet. It sits in the south-central county, and the defining feature is lot size: one-acre, three-acre, and five-acre parcels are ordinary here, wooded and set back, with some genuine horse properties. It is the closest thing to Great Falls in feel, at a meaningfully lower entry point.

Housing is almost entirely large single-family homes, many built in the 1980s and 90s, and there is essentially no commercial core; you drive to Burke or Fairfax for anything. Burke Lake Park is the anchor amenity, the Lake Braddock and South County pyramids serve the area, and the VRE at Burke Centre gives a rail option. Buyers here are trading walkability and convenience for land and quiet, and they know it.

Clifton (20124)

Clifton is Fairfax County's surprise. The Town of Clifton is tiny, a few hundred residents, and its historic Main Street of Victorian buildings, a general store, and a couple of restaurants is a preserved nineteenth-century railroad village that people drive out to visit. The 20124 ZIP covers the town plus a large surrounding area of rural county.

Outside the village, this is horse country and acreage, some of the largest lots in Fairfax, heavily wooded and genuinely quiet. It feeds strong Centreville and Robinson pyramid schools, and the tradeoff is total car dependence and distance from everything. For buyers who want rural Virginia while keeping a Fairfax County address and school system, there is not really an alternative. Our Clifton community page has the details.

Lorton (22079)

Lorton has one of the county's better redemption stories. The site of the former District of Columbia Correctional Facility was redeveloped into Laurel Hill: new housing, a golf course, parkland, trails, and the Workhouse Arts Center in the old prison buildings. The result is one of the newest housing inventories in Fairfax County.

That newness is the pitch. Buyers who want recent construction, modern layouts, and lower maintenance without paying Loudoun-style new-build premiums come here, and they get a VRE station and I-95 access as part of the deal. It sits at the county's southern end near Occoquan, feeding the South County pyramid, and it remains among the more attainable places to buy a newer home in Fairfax. Our Lorton community page covers Laurel Hill and the surrounding neighborhoods.

Kingstowne & Franconia (22315, 22310, 22312)

This cluster is the purest example of the Alexandria trap. Every ZIP here carries an "Alexandria, VA" mailing address, and every one of them is Fairfax County: county taxes, county services, and Fairfax County Public Schools. Buyers regularly believe they are buying in the City of Alexandria and are not.

Kingstowne, 22315, is a large master-planned community built mostly in the 1990s and 2000s, with its own town center, pools, gyms, and a dense mix of townhomes, condos, and single-family homes. It is popular with military and federal buyers for a reason: Fort Belvoir is close, Springfield and Van Dorn Metro are reachable, and the amenities are genuinely good. If you are preparing one of its townhomes to sell, our guide to high-ROI improvements before selling a Kingstowne townhouse is built for exactly this housing stock.

Franconia and Rose Hill sit in 22310, older and more conventionally suburban, with the Franconia-Springfield Metro nearby. Lincolnia, 22312, is further north and central, close to the Beltway and among the county's more affordable close-in pockets. See our Kingstowne community page for the market here.

Mount Vernon Corridor (22303, 22306, 22307, 22308, 22309)

The southeastern county along the Potomac is Fairfax's most economically varied stretch, and all of it carries an Alexandria mailing address while being Fairfax County. Mount Vernon, George Washington's estate, anchors the south end and gives the corridor its name and its tourism.

The ZIPs tell the story of a corridor in transition. 22308 and 22307 hold the riverfront and near-riverfront neighborhoods, Waynewood, Hollin Hall, and Belle Haven, which are established, leafy, and command real premiums. 22309 and 22306 run along the Richmond Highway (Route 1) corridor through Woodlawn, Engleside, and Hybla Valley, historically the county's most affordable area and now the focus of a sustained public revitalization effort. 22303 is Huntington, dense and condo-heavy, built around the Huntington Metro station at the end of the Yellow Line.

This is the corridor where the "price tier" idea breaks down entirely: a riverfront home in 22308 and a condo in 22303 are in the same guide, the same county, and the same mailing city, and almost nothing else. It rewards local knowledge more than any other part of Fairfax.

If you are on the selling side in any of these ZIPs, the number that actually matters is what you keep, not what you list for. Our seller net sheet itemizes every cost between your sale price and your final proceeds, so you can see the real bottom line before you commit to a plan.

ZIP Codes vs. FCPS School Pyramids

This is the section to read twice, because it is where families lose the most money and the most sleep. Fairfax County Public Schools organizes attendance into high school pyramids, the elementary and middle schools that feed each high school, and those pyramids are drawn with no reference whatsoever to ZIP code boundaries.

The consequences are concrete. A single ZIP routinely splits across two or three pyramids. Two houses on opposite sides of the same street, sharing a ZIP and a mailing city, can be assigned to different elementary schools and different high schools. Boundaries also get redrawn as new schools open and enrollment shifts, so what was true for a neighbor five years ago may not be true for you.

Layer the jurisdiction problem on top and it compounds badly. A "Falls Church" address in 22043 attends FCPS; a "Falls Church" address in 22046 attends the separate Falls Church City division. A "Fairfax" address in 22031 attends FCPS; 22030 attends the City of Fairfax's schools. Same mailing city, entirely different school systems, and the price difference is baked into the listing.

Comparing Fairfax ZIPs Side by Side

Different buyers optimize for different things. This table sorts the county's best-known ZIPs by what they are actually best at, so you can start from your priority rather than from a number.

If you want...	Look at	Why
Prestige and top schools	22101, 22102 (McLean), 22066 (Great Falls)	Langley and McLean pyramids, closest to D.C.
Land and privacy	22066, 22039, 20124	Great Falls, Fairfax Station, Clifton: acreage at three price points
Walkable and urban	20190 (Reston), 22102/22182 (Tysons), 22031 (Mosaic)	Town centers, Metro, restaurants at your door
Classic family suburb	22015 (Burke), 22152 (W. Springfield), 22124 (Oakton)	Strong pyramids, established, room to grow
Metro commute	22027, 22303, 22150, 20190, 22182	Orange, Yellow, Blue and Silver Line access
VRE / I-95 commute	22015, 22079, 22153	Burke, Lorton, Springfield rail options
Newer construction	22079 (Laurel Hill), 20171, 22315	Lorton, Oak Hill, Kingstowne: the county's newest stock
Best value close-in	22003 (Annandale), 22041, 22312	Inside the Beltway without the premium
Entry price	20120/20121, 22306, 22309, 22303	Centreville and the Richmond Highway corridor
Condo living	22102/22182 (Tysons), 22041, 22303, 20190	The county's high-rise and condo concentrations

Notice that no ZIP wins on everything. McLean does not do value, Centreville does not do a short commute, and Great Falls does not do walkable. The useful question is never which Fairfax ZIP is best, it is which tradeoff you are actually willing to make, and browsing our communities across Northern Virginia is a better way to explore that than any ranking.

How to Choose the Right Fairfax ZIP

ZIP codes are a decent first filter and a poor final answer. Here is the order of operations that actually works.

1. Start with the commute, honestly. Where do you go on a bad Tuesday, and how? This single constraint eliminates more of the county than anything else, and people consistently underestimate it.
2. Then the schools, by address. If schools matter, check the FCPS boundary for specific addresses before you fall in love. Do not shop by pyramid reputation attached to a ZIP.
3. Then the housing type. Acreage, townhome, condo, and new construction are concentrated in very different ZIPs, and this narrows things fast.
4. Then the price tier. Match your budget to the realistic tier, remembering that every ZIP has a range and a dated house in a great ZIP is a real option.
5. Verify the jurisdiction last. Confirm whether the address is county or independent city, since taxes and schools hinge on it, and the mailing address will not tell you.

That last step is the one people skip. Pulling the parcel record takes two minutes and settles the question permanently; our walkthrough of how to look up any Fairfax County property's records shows exactly how to confirm jurisdiction, assessment, and history for any address you are weighing.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Almost every Fairfax ZIP mistake comes from trusting the envelope over the parcel. Avoid these six.

• Assuming "Falls Church" means the city: 22041 through 22044 are Fairfax County with FCPS schools; only 22046 is the City.
• Assuming "Fairfax" means the county: 22030 is the independent city with its own schools and tax rate.
• Assuming "Alexandria" means the city: Kingstowne, Franconia, and the whole Mount Vernon corridor are Fairfax County.
• Buying a ZIP for its school reputation: pyramids split ZIPs and get redrawn; verify the specific address.
• Searching 22102 or 22182 without filters: you will get McLean estates and Tysons studios in one list.
• Confusing 20151 and 20152 Chantilly: one is Fairfax County, the other is largely Loudoun.

The fix for all six takes minutes: confirm the jurisdiction and the school boundary for the actual address before you get emotionally or financially committed.

Frequently Asked Questions

Glossary

The Bottom Line on Fairfax County ZIP Codes

Fairfax County packs an enormous range into one jurisdiction: estates in McLean, acreage in Clifton, high-rises in Tysons, townhomes in Centreville, riverfront in Mount Vernon. The ZIP code is the fastest way to tell those worlds apart, and this guide is meant to be the map. But the number on the envelope is shorthand, not truth. It will not tell you your school, your tax bill, or even reliably your county.

Use the ZIP to narrow, then verify the address. And when you are ready to move on a specific home, or to price one you are selling in any of these ZIPs, we will help you get the jurisdiction, the schools, and the number right, and if you sell with us, keep more of your equity through a 1.5% full-service listing.

Disclaimer: This article is an independent educational guide for informational purposes only and is not legal, tax, or financial advice. ZIP code boundaries, jurisdictional lines, school attendance boundaries, and tax rates change over time and can be redrawn without notice. Neighborhood descriptions and price tiers are approximate, relative, and illustrative only, and are not appraisals or price quotes; every ZIP contains a wide range of properties. Always verify the jurisdiction, school assignment, and tax record for a specific address with Fairfax County, the relevant city, or the school division before making any decision. The Jamil Brothers Realty Group is a licensed real estate team with Samson Properties serving Fairfax County and the greater DMV. Equal Housing Opportunity.