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Moving from St. Louis to take a job in downtown D.C....where in NoVA,MD, D.C to live?
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Anonymous
| OP, when I was single I lived in the Pentagon City area and I loved it there. It was within walking distance of restaurants and shops and my commute downtown was 25 minutes door to door using metro or car. I lived in an apartment, but there were houses in the area and there seemed to be lots of families. That area is not as expensive as Northern Virginia neighborhoods on the orange line. |
Anonymous
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Like the PP said, Pentagon City might be a good option. Or Crystal City. A lot of the apartments there are older so they are bigger. I had a friend who lived in a 2 Bedroom in Crystal House 2 and it was HUGE. Close to metro, Pentagon City Mall, and an easy drive into DC if need be.
Also look in the Tyson's area of Falls Church or Falls Church City. I work near there and there are several high rise buildings with 2BR 2 Bath in the $1700/month range. Search zip code 22043 or 22046. |
Anonymous
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Just wanted to say, sorry to hear, OP. |
Anonymous
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OP, to answer your question, communting from Reston would be at least an hour, assuming that you can get into an HOV lane. There is no metro in Reston right now, but it is being built so traffic can be extra messy now from what I hear.
And getting from Reston to Baltimore to see your family on a regular basis would be a pain. |
Anonymous
OP, I live in Cheverly MD and I love it here. It is a very wonderful, family friendly small town right outside DC in Prince George's County. It's on the orange line and you can pretty much walk to the Metro stop from anywhere in town, or there's a bus. My husband's commute downtown is about 40 minutes door to door. The town is basically right at the intersection of the Baltimore Washington Parkway and Route 50, so both Baltimore and Annapolis are easy to get to. Shopping, we don't have a lot of great shops around here unfortunately; but people make do, somehow. Houses are much cheaper here than elsewhere in the DC area. Schools are an issue, as anyone will warn you about Prince George's County in general. But one of my children attends PG County public school and I've been extremely happy with it; the other will attend next year. Our neighborhood elementary school is getting great reviews, and I really like the new principal there; there are also several magnet programs that parents report being quite pleased with (French Immersion and Montessori). Finally there's an awesome Catholic school in Cheverly (St Ambrose). We have a ton of families with young kids who have recently moved here; feels like a real baby boom in town. There's an organization dedicated to families with young children in town here and you see their website for more information specific to families with young kids -- http://www.cheverlyparent.org I don't mean to come off as such a booster... but do give the town a look! |
Anonymous
| OP - you might want to consider Silver Spring. There's a metro to downtown, and the commute would probably be around 30 minutes give or take. And it's on the Maryland side, so closer to your family in Baltimore. Silver Spring has a revived downtown area with lots of shops and restaurants. The public schools are kind of hit or miss, but my understanding is that there are a couple of decent elementary schools. I don't live in Silver Spring, so I will let residents chime in. |
Anonymous
What are you talking about? DC is a huge step up from St. Louis. |
Anonymous
Another good PG county choice is Greenbelt. While you can't walk to the metro stop, there is a park and ride metro stop. The schools are pretty good and the community rocks. We have our own farmers market, artful afternoons, and many other community events. There housing is affordable here and there is such a strong community. |
Anonymous
Blech! |
Anonymous
STL poster. OK, let me try to think about this. First, the cost of DC is a lot higher than St. Louis and certainly a lot higher than St. Charles. The sticker shock is probably going to be an issue. And it costs more to be within a short commute of downtown. On the other hand, if you live in St. Charles, you are most likely in a subdivision and drive to most of the restaurants and stores, yes? When you ask a question of DC folks about being near restaurants and stores, they most often think you mean that you want to be able to walk out your door with a stroller, and within ten minutes be on a restaurant row / shopping row like Georgetown, where there are a few dozen restaurants and shops right there. If you are interested in a suburban subdivision within 10 or 15 minutes drive to many good restaurants, that is relevant because it means you have more options. Suburban living is cheaper than urban or near-urban environments, which are walkable suburbs built around a "town center". Schools. Public schools in many counties are really good. Arlington and Fairfax county schools are excellent. I think they are better than public schools in STL, and I grew up around Parkway West, which is pretty good. And there are affordable places to live there, but the commute might be challenging. If you knew more about your husband's office cross streets, you can see whether it's close to an Orange Line metro stop. Sometimes the commute can be a bit longer than you would like, but you get to sit and read or finish your work while on the metro, which helps you reclaim that commuting time. I am thinking that maybe some place in Fairfax might be good. The schools are good, some of the Catholic schools are good, and there is a wide range of home prices. BUT you might not get down to a 30 minute commute. Maybe you have a 45 minute commute or a metro ride. You would be within driving range of good restaurants. You would be reasonably close to restaurants in Falls Church and Arlington, and of course you could always drive in to the District which is not that far outside of rush hour. Can you at least clarify a bit for people the restaurants / shops component? Are you looking for a place that you primarily walk to everything, or are you looking for a place where you can drive to a nice restaurant/ shopping area? This is really a question of how urban or suburban you are comfortable with. I went to catholic school / SLUH. Unfortunately my kids aren't old enough for me to give you good info on how the parochial schools are. I gather that nothing is quite like St. Louis, though, and the private schools here are mind-blowing expensive. |
Anonymous
I just did a quick search of houses for sale in St Charles, MO and there seemd to be plenty of expensive ones to me... similar to DC are it seemed? $770,000 to $1,000,000 for a 4 BR/3 BA house? Might not be such a sticker shock after all? |
Anonymous
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my friend commutes from reston to M st using public transportation and it is 1.5 hours door to door.
good luck, OP. We need a budget to help you, really. |
Anonymous
You really need to get a map, a really good map, like the ADC Greater Washington DC map. And then look at the number of miles those places you mention are. If those of the places you are looking at for working in DC, your husband didn't get a great $ offer and you will be surprised how much it costs to live here. Then go on mapquest and put in your husband's office address and suburbs you are thinking of and see how many miles the drive is. DC has the second worst traffic in the country. |
Anonymous
| Yeah, OP. Can you spend $300K or less? $500K? Or $900K+ on a house? That alone would really help! |
Anonymous
| Or even how much you're willing to spend on rent each month and how many bedrooms you feel like you need... |