OT: Moving to DC

[J.Kim]

Hey everyone,

I received a job offer from a firm with a location in DC, I'd be working in downtown DC pretty much near K St NW and Connecticut Ave NW

If I were to move, I just wanted to see what areas I should generally be living in, I'm pretty much a recent college graduate so I'd like to live in a neighborhood where the demographics is pretty much university students and young professionals. I also wanted to get an idea of generally what areas I should avoid.

Also, if anyone living there has an idea of what I should be expecting to pay in rent, that would be awesome! (I'm open to living in 1 Bedroom Studio or in a house shared with roommates, if that changes anything) (I've got a good sense of costs from going through craigslist, but I just wanted to get more reactions so that I can weigh everything much more carefully)

And also other questions that I had:
How is the Metro and is it reliable enough to get me to work every day on time? (Have had a few frustrations with the Toronto transit lines because of this)
Is there a Koreatown (or a congregation of Korean business of any sort) in the area? (Need to get my fix of my native country's foods once in a while lol)
How easy is it to meet people there? I mean, Toronto's a pretty friendly city but I wouldn't exactly call many of its people approachable

(As a side note, moving to DC, and considering how bad the Raptors are do I have any recourse as a fan to switch allegiances to the Wizards without any backlash? )

[Wizards2Lottery]

I live in Rosslyn (Arlington) which is right outside of DC and I pay $1200 for a studio apartment. If you want to live in an environment of university students and young professionals, this is the area for you. I moved here last year and I love it.

In Arlington you should look at: Ballston, Virginia Square, Clarendon, Court House and Rosslyn. All five neighborhoods are adjacent to each other and on the same metro line. Metro gets you into DC within 15 minutes. You can also look at Crystal City.

I'm not a fan of living in DC. The places in comparison to Arlington are really not that good and you have to pay more. The Arlington night life is also really nice and if you ever want to go to DC, it's an easy (around 15 minute) commute.

As far as the metro, I love it. I don't own a car and I use the metro to go around every where. It's very convenient.

For your Korean fix, that's probably Annandale. Annandale is on the outskirts of DC as well and has a good sized Korean population.

This is all I can help you with. One of the posters on here Wes_Tiny_Abe really knows the area well and loves out of towners who move into DC. You should ask him.

[montestewart]

One of the posters on here Wes_Tiny_Abe really knows the area well and loves out of towners who move into DC. You should ask him.

No J.Kim, don't do that. Otherwise, good recommendations. Your office will be convenient to three subway lines, and you could also look at neighborhoods in Maryland near Silver Spring and Takoma Park stations and in Virginia near Alexandria and Pentagon City stations. There's a really old Korean restaurant (maybe the oldest in the area) near the latter station, and a few in DC too, but Annandale seems to be the great concentration of Korean restaurants and other businesses. For convenience to your job, you could probably walk to work from Rosslyn (but not on a day like today) and you'd be walking through Georgetown and George Washington University neighborhoods on the way. $1200 sounds pretty cheap if you can get it.

[BigA]

<snip>Your office will be convenient to three subway lines, and you could also look at neighborhoods in Maryland near Silver Spring and Takoma Park stations and in Virginia near Alexandria and Pentagon City stations. There's a really old Korean restaurant (maybe the oldest in the area) near the latter station,<snip>

Woo Lae Oak moved from Pentagon City to near Tysons a few years ago.

[montestewart]

<snip>Your office will be convenient to three subway lines, and you could also look at neighborhoods in Maryland near Silver Spring and Takoma Park stations and in Virginia near Alexandria and Pentagon City stations. There's a really old Korean restaurant (maybe the oldest in the area) near the latter station,<snip>

Woo Lae Oak moved from Pentagon City to near Tysons a few years ago.

Damn! Missed that. Haven't been there since maybe 2005.

[pancakes3]

annandale is practically koreatown. they've got grocers, ktv, restaurants (honey pig), the works. yeah i'd suggest living in the 'burbs too if you're into keeping in touch with your roots. more asians in the suburbs. the city is full of hipsters and old money. places to go out? georgetown, dupont, adams morgan, and u-street are safe bets for the city, and the neighborhoods W2L just mentioned are all essentially one large mass of college bars with neighborhoods interdispersed.

[Rafael122]

If you can afford to live in the area, I'd do it. Mind you, a 1 bedroom would probably cost $1600 per, if not more, studio apartments will cost about $1300 but it beats having to live in Arlington and come into DC to hang out.

[J.Kim]

I think the range I might be looking at tops out at $1300. Anything above that I would be going way over my means.

I was looking at Rosslyn as an option as well, how close is it to the downtown core exactly? Like if I wanted to walk (or do the whole bikeshare thing) how long would it take me to get to downtown?

I did some more research and I think I generally want to move to something on the western half of the DC-Metro area... which I'm guessing is Silver Springs, Bethesda, Arlington, Alexandria?

[daSwami]

Hey everyone,

I received a job offer from a firm with a location in DC, I'd be working in downtown DC pretty much near K St NW and Connecticut Ave NW

If I were to move, I just wanted to see what areas I should generally be living in, I'm pretty much a recent college graduate so I'd like to live in a neighborhood where the demographics is pretty much university students and young professionals. I also wanted to get an idea of generally what areas I should avoid.

Also, if anyone living there has an idea of what I should be expecting to pay in rent, that would be awesome! (I'm open to living in 1 Bedroom Studio or in a house shared with roommates, if that changes anything) (I've got a good sense of costs from going through craigslist, but I just wanted to get more reactions so that I can weigh everything much more carefully)

And also other questions that I had:
How is the Metro and is it reliable enough to get me to work every day on time? (Have had a few frustrations with the Toronto transit lines because of this)
Is there a Koreatown (or a congregation of Korean business of any sort) in the area? (Need to get my fix of my native country's foods once in a while lol)
How easy is it to meet people there? I mean, Toronto's a pretty friendly city but I wouldn't exactly call many of its people approachable

(As a side note, moving to DC, and considering how bad the Raptors are do I have any recourse as a fan to switch allegiances to the Wizards without any backlash? )

Annandale (one burg west of arlington) is your best bet for Korean food, K-bars, etc... The Honey Pig has good food, and is swarming with hot Korean chicks on weekends. Unfortunately there is no Metro stop in Annandale (dunn loring or west falls church are probably the closest.

As for your Wiz fan allegiance - all are welcome as far as i'm concerned.

[Wizards2Lottery]

I was looking at Rosslyn as an option as well, how close is it to the downtown core exactly? Like if I wanted to walk (or do the whole bikeshare thing) how long would it take me to get to downtown

I've done the walk to Foggy Bottom which is close to where you will be working and it's around 40-50 minutes.

Biking from Rosslyn to Foggy Bottom is around 15-20 minutes and K St/Conn Ave will be around 20 minutes.

The metro commute is less than 10 minutes. Both blue and orange lines that depart from Rosslyn will get you to the Farragut West stop directly.

[FAH1223]

i'd say, stay on the orange line in VA or find a place in Silver Spring on the red line... it might take you more time to commute if you're coming from Maryland...

you can find cheaper housing in MD but the social life without any fam or friends would suck

[ST21]

you are more than welcome on the John Wall show bandwagon. welcome to the DMV.

[J.Kim]

I'm thinking I should probably try and live in a Studio or 1 Bed apartment before I try finding roommates or anything.

How's Silver Springs? (I can't seem to find anything under $1600 for a relatively new place in DC or in Arlington/Alexandria ... I could spend more, but I've got a budget and I really want to save up for things in the future, since I could be looking at an MBA in the future)
Is there a lot to do in that area and how long does it take to get downtown?

(I'm guessing I should live in Maryland since it looks like personal income tax rate is lower there than in DC or Virginia... an extra grand or two per month could go a long way for me, lol... You're personal income tax is done at the rate of the state that you live in right? And not the one your work in?)

[pancakes3]

from what i've gathered from my trans-state working friends you'll get taxed by the state you work in (DC). Silver Springs has a "downtown" they're reviving and it's not too shabby. It doesn't really compare to the college-y feel of arlington but there are bars, people, etc. Falls Church would be cheaper than Arlington/Alexandria but it's 1 metro stop further. You can also look to Friendship heights, cleveland park, woodley park, capital south, U-street... there are tons of neighborhoods that are metro-accessible. the beauty of it is all these neighborhoods are metro-accessible meaning you can get to work in less than an hour, they're "gentrified" meaning there are fun young people pretty much everywhere, and that pretty much any bar/club in the city is a ~$10-$15 cab ride away.

[montestewart]

Virginia, Maryland, and DC all have reciprocal agreements that allow you to be taxed at the rate of your state of residence. Make sure the employer gives the correct state's payroll deduction paperwork, as it's probably a big hassle to get it adjusted at tax time.

[verbal8]

As for your Wiz fan allegiance - all are welcome as far as i'm concerned.

I agree with one exception: former fans of the Cavs who became Heat fans last year

[J.Kim]

I'm really having a hard time finding anything on craigslist. Is there anything else you guys could recommend that I could use?

Also, why does rent seem so high? All these postings are pretty much $800-1000 minimum for a shared apartment/house, and I'd be looking at $1100-1300 minimum for a studio apartment in a decent place.

One last thing: Coming from Canada, if I were to try and lease an apartment (studio or 1 bedroom) and they wanted a credit check, how would that work? Are there certain aspects they look for in people coming from abroad? Or are there certain limits like, I can't rent a place that's over a certain percentage of my monthly salary?

[closg00]

There are apartment services that you can use in-addition to using Craigslist. Also look at the Washington Post online classifieds, there are PLENTY of apartments close-in to Metro stops.

[Induveca]

http://www.arlingtonva.us/departments/c ... dable.aspx

Check those out. Obviously you can't get assistance, but it has a great listing of apartments which are affordable. Most of them were built in the WW2 era, but honestly I've always liked that era of construction anyways being a New York guy.

Stick to the Courthouse/Rosslyn areas and you'll be golden and just a max 5 blocks away from a metro station/grocery store/drug store etc. There are some 1 bedrooms on there around 1000 bucks/month. I took a quick look the "Pierce-Queen" apartments are just 2 blocks from Wilson Blvd in Rosslyn. While they look very old, it's just 2 blocks from a great area (used to work 2 blocks away from there in the late 90s).

[Zonkerbl]

I'm really having a hard time finding anything on craigslist. Is there anything else you guys could recommend that I could use?

Also, why does rent seem so high? All these postings are pretty much $800-1000 minimum for a shared apartment/house, and I'd be looking at $1100-1300 minimum for a studio apartment in a decent place.

One last thing: Coming from Canada, if I were to try and lease an apartment (studio or 1 bedroom) and they wanted a credit check, how would that work? Are there certain aspects they look for in people coming from abroad? Or are there certain limits like, I can't rent a place that's over a certain percentage of my monthly salary?

Any place within reasonable walking distance of a metro stop is going to be super expensive. Consider getting a bike and finding a place a little farther out from the metro. There are parts of Virginia (particularly inside the Beltway) whose high schools are rated top ten in the nation and you have to pay for that, even if you don't have kids. That's why a lot of young folks live in DC, where the schools suck so you don't have to pay extra for it.

I lived in a place in between Rhode Island and NY Ave metros, which was pretty cheap. They've built a bikepath there and a new Harris Teeter, walking distance to a farmer's market int he summer, cool place. Some friends live in Trinidad on H St. NE. In 2015, allegedly, H St will have a Streetcar that will take you straight to Union Station. But there's also a lot of tension in that neighborhood between the "hipsters" and the "natives." So if you're looking for less than $1500/month you may have to look for places like that -- "in transition," as they say in the real estate biz.