RealGM

A job has just opened up for my wife at the United States Coast Guard Headquarters by the National Defense University in Buzzard Point. Problem is, we have to make the decision by Monday morning and would be moving from Seattle, WA in 2 weeks. I'm scrambling to do my research online, so I figured I'd also reach out to the RealGM community. I just wanted to ask a few questions, and any insight would be much appreciated.

-What neighboring communities would you recommend? Stay away from?
-What is parking like in the city?
-How is their public transportation?
-Job market? (I work in Sales and Marketing but would be open to finding a government job)
-I know traffic there is terrible, whats the commute like for areas outside of the dc metro area?

I don't really know what else to ask. A little background about us...we just got married a year ago and were looking to settle down and start a family. We'll be here in DC for 4 years, but we don't have the money to buy out here...so we're looking to rent. We're on a fixed budget considering I will now be out of work until I find something. We're looking to get the whole DC experience, while being able to live comfortably. We'd probably be looking at a 2br apartment for no more than $1000/month.

Thanks for any help...its much appreciated!

Across the river is Anacostia, which has a bad rap. There are neighborhoods there that are good. They are moving DHS' main headquarters there and are investing a lot in the general area. Once they have the 11th st bridge project done the traffic should get a little better.

You'll probably end up in Virginia, like Arlington. I don't know those neighborhoods very well. New construction, no character, close to lots of shopping malls. Yech. Also very expensive because a lot of really good high schools are located in Virginia inside the beltway and that gets priced into the houses.

Oh wait, two bedroom apartment for $1000/month?

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAA! Try Ohio.

Yeah when i read your response and saw "Arlington" i started to laugh. A doghouse would cost more than $1000/mo in Arlington.

I guess they don't know that this is an expensive area.


I would suggest browsing through apartment finders online to get a more realistic view of the price ranges. Maybe try Prince Georges County. You won't find anything that cheap but at least it will be more affordable than most of the area.

Given your budget, you will have about an hour and a half commute. So you might as well live in Annapolis or Baltimore, or something equivalent in Virginia. Don't get a place in PG county, it's kind of a wasteland.

Zonkerbl wrote:Given your budget, you will have about an hour and a half commute. So you might as well live in Annapolis or Baltimore, or something equivalent in Virginia. Don't get a place in PG county, it's kind of a wasteland.

That's pretty harsh (then again i haven't been there in a long time). Keep in mind that it would just be until the guy is able to find a job.

Thanks guys...

Yea I'm beginning to see that DC looks to have a higher cost of living than we've been used to, but she will be getting a bigger housing allowance than we are receiving now here in Seattle. I guess I really just need to know what areas most people who do commute to the city live and what areas to stay away from. I'll be able to find something on one of these apartment finders and make it work.

Again, I just got hit with this news about an hour or two ago...I just figured RealGM was the quickest access to feedback on a message board.

We need to bump the older versions of this thread, this thread gets started every 3-6 months.

If you are looking for a place in the District, you are going to want something near East Capitol, in Eastern Market or by the Marine Barracks. The commute from one of those areas to NDU would be <10 minutes. The Waterfront area is another option with a short commute. Pricing in these areas is going to be high, but not as high as in NorthWest DC.

FYI, DC is organized in a grid, with East capital & the National Mall splitting North South and with North Capitol & South Capitol bifurcating East-West. You want something in Southwest (the Waterfront) or South East if you want to be close to NDU.

A few questions:

1. How old are you and your spouse?
2. How many cars do you have?
3. Do you have children?

Zonkerbl wrote:Given your budget, you will have about an hour and a half commute. So you might as well live in Annapolis or Baltimore, or something equivalent in Virginia. Don't get a place in PG county, it's kind of a wasteland.

It would be more appropriate to say that certain areas of an entire county are a wasteland. To suggest that an entire county has become one would be unfair at best. There are certain swaths of every county (and the District) in the metro area that could be considered "wastelands" to some. Indeed, some parts of Prince George's are more in line with other areas of the country with respect to declining real estate values, which stands in stark contrast to other portions of the region that are bucking the trend with rising (a luxury in this day and age) real estate values.

Anyway, I get irritated when folks lump areas together. The same thing used to be said about SE before DC was a hot location when I was growing up (grew up in Hillcrest--). But I was always more afraid to venture out into certain portions of NW than any neighborhood I encountered in SE. It's certainly your right to have an opinion but I won't let it go unchallenged.

Back to the original poster, you should check out http://www.city-data.com. They have region specific forums and can point you in the right direction. Be aware that many of the posters harbor their own biases against certain neighborhoods/locales but you can run a search on washingtonpost.com and get the real info on crime stats and such.

yeah, but there are always different circumstances - the last one was some kid who scored an internship on capital hill, if memory serves. i don't see the harm in starting up a new one every so often.

you're going to be looking at $1000/bedroom, give or take. commute is a way of life. i've found Maryland to be more public-transport-friendly than va (more people ride buses). other than metro and bus, some people take the MARC train. one of my coworkers takes the MARC train (from Frederick) and he says there are people who live damn near West Virginia commuting into jobs in Rockville.

The closest metro (ie, the subway) stop to NDU is Waterfront, on the green line. The green line runs north-south through the city until it hits the Potomac, at which point it veers off to the East. The Waterfront stop is just after the curve, when the Green line is heading East.

The walk from Waterfront to NDU is about half a mile. It's probably doable, and Ft. McNair is probably a safe walking route.

That opens up anywhere along the green line for living.

I'm 27 and my wife is 24. We've only needed the one car here in Seattle and we don't have any children as of the moment. We're probably going to look at something on the outskirts, because it sounds to be pretty expensive in the District.

I'm just nervous entering the job market and don't want to fall flat on our face financially. I don't have college background but have 10+ years in Sales experience. Is it tough to land some of these government positions with no degree / experience?

If you're only going to be there for four years, see if you can score a place in downtown DC. A two bedroom condo will run you about $1500/month. Then you can bikeshare to work and not worry about public transportation at all.

There are a lot of high tech jobs in Rockville and around Tyson's corner (the only VA neighborhood I'm familiar with).

If you want to be a hippie look into Takoma Park in MD. Expensive though.

Adam's Morgan is fun and expensive, as is Dupont Circle. Bloomingdale is nice and expensive. Eckington is a cheaper version of Bloomingdale. U St NW is fun but expensive. Silver Spring is nice and not too expensive, about a 35 minute commute in car (if there's parking near your work) or you can take the Silver Spring Metro. Wheaton is a cheaper, quirkier version of Silver Spring. I was lying about the hour and a half commute -- you should at least be able to find something in Wheaton. Glenmont would be even cheaper. Glenmont is the last station of the metro -- much past that (say Olney) and housing becomes much more affordable, but you have no choice but to drive, and the commute at that distance is pretty yucky. That's the east side of the red line. On the West side you have Adam's Morgan and the zoo and Friendship heights, fun and expensive, then Bethesda, boring and expensive. Then White Flint and Twinbrook and Rockville. Good high schools in that area so housing is more expensive there than on the east side. I would not consider it worth it if you only intend to stay there four years -- not much else to recommend those neighborhoods besides good high schools. Then there's Rockville where there are some tech jobs. That might be ideal if you can get a job there, wife can take the metro in and can always get a seat. There are tech jobs in the "dulles corridor" but the metro doesn't go out there very far.

I'm sorry, but have you ever been to Springfield, Ohio? That's PG county. Yuck. But yeah, there are some nice places. There's this one neighborhood that has a really nice diner. And there's MD university. And Bowie and places out there, not so familiar with those areas but I hear they're not bad.

swisscheeseD wrote:I'm 27 and my wife is 24. We've only needed the one car here in Seattle and we don't have any children as of the moment. We're probably going to look at something on the outskirts, because it sounds to be pretty expensive in the District.

I'm just nervous entering the job market and don't want to fall flat on our face financially. I don't have college background but have 10+ years in Sales experience. Is it tough to land some of these government positions with no degree / experience?

Wheaton. I don't know if you can get a govt job, but there should be sales jobs for you out there.

Zonkerbl wrote:If you're only going to be there for four years, see if you can score a place in downtown DC. A two bedroom condo will run you about $1500/month. Then you can bikeshare to work and not worry about public transportation at all.

You must be a newbie thinking you can live in downtown DC for $1500 in anything more than a studio apartment lol. If you can then it will be a pretty crappy place with poor management that just gets by on having a prime location.

You can find sales jobs. Montgomery County has many...

REDardWIZskin wrote:

Zonkerbl wrote:If you're only going to be there for four years, see if you can score a place in downtown DC. A two bedroom condo will run you about $1500/month. Then you can bikeshare to work and not worry about public transportation at all.

You must be a newbie thinking you can live in downtown DC for $1500 in anything more than a studio apartment lol. If you can then it will be a pretty crappy place with poor management that just gets by on having a prime location.

You don't know crap about the DC real estate market. That's exactly -- EXACTLY -- how much my two bedroom condo in Eckington cost - and it's a ten minute walk to the New York Ave metro in the NoMa BID.

Eckington. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/e ... ington.jpg
is not exactly downtown is it? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Map_downtown_dc.jpg

Zonkerbl wrote:

REDardWIZskin wrote:

Zonkerbl wrote:If you're only going to be there for four years, see if you can score a place in downtown DC. A two bedroom condo will run you about $1500/month. Then you can bikeshare to work and not worry about public transportation at all.

You must be a newbie thinking you can live in downtown DC for $1500 in anything more than a studio apartment lol. If you can then it will be a pretty crappy place with poor management that just gets by on having a prime location.

You don't know crap about the DC real estate market. That's exactly -- EXACTLY -- how much my two bedroom condo in Eckington cost - and it's a ten minute walk to the New York Ave metro in the NoMa BID.

oh ok yeah you live in Eckington that makes sense.... Eckington is a pretty run down place. no wonder you pay $1500 smh

if you want to live in a NICE PLACE you'd be best served doing your research and going around different neighborhood. Montgomery county is a pretty balanced place as far as cost goes. but if you want a NICE place in the city it will run you a little more than 1500