Advice on moving away from the city but still commuting?
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Anonymous
This is what we said too but now we're 4 people in a 2nd apt and i can't wait to move to the burbs to get a yard and a little space! |
Anonymous
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I think it would be awful. I've known several people who have lived far, because they wanted the big house --- but the commute just wore upon them and wore upon them as time went on, hating it more and more.
Nowadays, though gas prices are down at the moment -- it is even questionable how much money you'd save. The MARC train isn't cheap either. |
Anonymous
| We used to live in Sterling. I commuted to the Pentagon and DH to Falls Church. Our Quality of life sucked. 2 hours a day wasted on commute. Time away from the kids. Stress from traffic. We were miserable. It was life changing to move in closer. I would never make a long commUte like that again. |
Anonymous
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In this economy there are no guarantees. You might live close to work and then get laid off or have to leave the company and have no choice, but to commute. Close in, far out, you might have a miserable commute one way or the other.
For me, I work in technology and there are lots of jobs for me in the Dulles corridor. I hope to be able to stay out here. Nice house, good schols, good job, reasonable child care costs=perfect. I my industry, I don't really see myself ever commuting to DC all the tech jobs are in NoVA with more and more coming to this area. |
Anonymous
You will always have more options if you live close-in. If you live close-in (DC, Arlington, downtown Bethesda, etc), you can commute via transit within the area. You can also commute in a reverse commute to a job in Rockville/further Bethesda/Tysons, etc. If you live in Loudon County, you are limited more - it would be darn near impossible to commute to the Maryland suburbs, and the commute to DC or Tysons is hard enough.
This is great for anyone in the tech industry in the Virginia suburbs - that is where the jobs are for your industry. The same thing applies in Maryland suburbs for those in the biotech industry. For others, however, unfortunately, it isn't smart to be nihilistic about jobs/commuting and just say "well no job is permanent, what can you do" -- to the contrary, in today's economy, you need to give yourself options. Commuting is a big part of quality of life. (I say this from my close-in, modest/tiny place!  )
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Anonymous
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I live in Dumfries. There's a commuter bus that goes directly to the Pentagon from here and then over the 14th St Bridge to downtown. It really is an hour. Most people sleep, some read.
I have friends who live far closer in with longer commutes. I don't think it is too bad. Our neighborhood is far less expensive than many closer in. We have a lovely house with a yard, a lake in the summertime, and many other child-centered activities. Love living here. |
Anonymous
| 09:33 here. With slugging it can be faster, too. Both go right up the HOV. |
Anonymous
The jobs are concentrated closer in though. I'm probably always going to be working in DC at least for the next few years. And if you do end up working out way out in the middle of nowhere and living close in, you'd be doing a reverse commute anyway. So I don't see the risk that living close in, especially near a metro. |
Anonymous
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DH traded a short commute a year ago for a larger house for us and a much longer commute.
He gets up at 4:30 a.m. His commute involves 8 min drive to the train, an hour on the train, then 10 minutes on Metro, then walking for 10 minutes to his office. It takes 90 minutes each way, more if there is bad weather, train breakdowns. After a full year, he's beat. He's so tired he sleeps much of the weekend. He does almost nothing with the children. I don't work, so I take up the slack, meaning I'm exhausted too. We're not moving because we love our house and love where we live, but he's now looking for a job closer to home. I don't think we can keep this up too much longer. |
Anonymous
| Yeah, that Dumfries bus might really be an hour IF one of the stops happens to be exactly in front of your building, and on the way home IF you can tell your boss "I am leaving exactly now, and not ten minutes from now"... and since you probably don't live at the bus depot, how long is it from the time you turn your key to lock your own door until you get on the bus - gotta count that!? |
Anonymous
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Also consider how your social life might change. I live in Alexandria and a co-worker lives in Herndon. We'd hang out all the time if we lived closer. But after all the driving I do during the week, I have no intention of driving a long distance on the weekends to hang out.
Another thing is how bad traffic can be getting driving into DC to do things closer in on the weekends. If you live down 95, forget trying to go anywhere during the summer. You are literally trapped in your own home. If it's 66, the traffic going east towards DC on a nice day is ridiculous. But if you have no friends or interest in doing things in DC and are happy hanging out at home and around the suburb you choose to live in, you'll be fine. It's not for everyone, but might be for you. The key thing to think about is that yes, you can move into a nice home, maybe even a brand new home that you get to customize. Wow, that's great. But soon you may begin to resent the house. You have this awesome house that no one ever visits because you are so far away. Sunday nights carry a feeling of enormous dread at the upcoming work week and getting up at the crack of dawn to start the commuting grind once again. If this happens, as it does for so many people, hopefully you can get out of your house and move closer in. For many that bought a few years ago, they cannot. They are stuck and hating it. |
Anonymous
| I don't buy that the Dumfries-Dc commute is just an hour. I used to drive in from Vienna - much closer- and if I left after 7:00 a.m., it took over an hour for 15 miles. I just moved closer in because I was commuting 3 hours a day between daycare dropoff, pickup and commuting. it sucked, and I got very road-ragey at times. I don't think a bigger place is worth it, frankly. |
Anonymous
| OP here - one night we had to stay with my husbands parents in upper marlboro (earth quake caused a little damage to our apt) anyway, he drove to the metro and took that to work...he seemed perfectly fine when he got back in the evening. Although if we moved to upper marlboro I would have to keep the car so he couldn't drive to the metro everyday. I am from a small town - far away from here. I just can't be happy in the city anymore, the best way to discribe it..I literally get sick at my stomach being here. I'm overwhelmed, it's hard to make friends because I'm so different because of where I came from etc * I'm from WV, but we're talking six hours away near KY. |
Anonymous
| I work in Herndon and my co-worker is in Crystal City. Takes him well over an hour to get here, sometimes worse. The reverse commute can be myth. He's moving to Reston, but of course all of the good paying jobs in our industry are concentrated between Tysons-Ashburn, so it makes sense. |
Anonymous
| I have a friend who moved her family from Arlington to Catlett....it took 5 whole years before the divorce. Don't do it at any cost. |