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Anonymous
| My husband & I have lived in the Logan Circle area in a one-bedroom for seven years and just had a newborn baby. We are looking to buy our first house in a neighborhood that is safe and family-friendly, and not more than a 20-30 minute commute downtown. We would like to raise our family there and stay for awhile, so a good school district is important. Our max budget is 650K. Is there anywhere is this area we can afford? |
Anonymous
Hyattsville Hills. Safe, tight-knit community and you can buy a nice house for about half your budget, which will give you plenty leftover to pay for home renovations AND for private middle and high school. (elementary school is great in the neighborhood, but you probably want to go private for middle/high unless you get into one of the public magnet schools). If you're willing to go slightly further out, University Park is really nice, and has an extremely sought-after school. Houses are pricier, but still well within your budget. |
Anonymous
| Capitol Hill. |
Anonymous
| Capitol Hill??? The OP is looking for a house in a good school district for under $650K. No way you'll find that in Capitol Hill. |
Anonymous
|
If you want to stay in the city, the top end of your budget is just enough to get into Barnaby Woods or Friendship Heights. The house won't be anything spectacular, but you will find a 2 or 3 bedroom, close to lots and in a very good elementary school district. The middle school is very good (both feed into Alice Deal) and the high school is good (you may hear a lot of controversy on this, but the high school, Wilson, is divided into academies and if you value education I promise you child will get into a good academy and be able to compete with the typical private school students).
Check out the following examples (admittedly one is under contract and one is just over your price point, but you'll get an idea). Let us know if any of these interest you or if you are looking for something else. http://www.urbanbrokers.com/550430THWASHINGTONDistrict%2Dof%2DColumbia/DC7589769/MRIS http://www.urbanbrokers.com/3614JENIFERWASHINGTONDistrict%2Dof%2DColumbia/DC7634859/MRIS http://www.urbanbrokers.com/571727THWASHINGTONDistrict%2Dof%2DColumbia/DC7649587/MRIS |
Anonymous
|
Falls Church, VA
some of Silver Spring/Takoma |
Anonymous
| There is no place outside of DC, other than Arlington, that is a 20-30 minute to downtown. People will say differently, but they are just kidding themselves. Even on the weekends, it may take 30 minutes to get to downtown from Falls Church, and 40 minutes from Silver Spring. And, I assume that you have to work on weekdays, so the commute will be significantly longer. |
Anonymous
|
If you really mean no more than a 20-30 minute commute close to rush hour, you'd probably best stick to Arlington. You can find $650K three-bedroom colonials in very good school districts in North Arlington, but they do go quickly. More is available in that price range in South Arlington, where the local schools serve more lower-income students.
If you can live with a 30-40 minute commute, that opens up more options in nice areas of Falls Church and even the less expensive parts of McLean. Particularly for someone moving from Logan Circle, however, McLean might be a bit stodgy. |
Anonymous
| I get from 66 and Route 7 to 10th & Penn in 20 minutes most mornings. But I have a hybrid and can take HOV. Without OV it would take much longer and there are days when it can take 45 minutes (but it's usually 20-30). I leave at 7:15 am, though, so that may make a difference. I come home at about 6:00 and it takes about 30 minutes (sometimes more) |
Anonymous
|
20 to 30 mins from downtown, WITH good schools and a 650k budget is going to be tricky for you. Arlington is your ONLY option. Also, keep in mind that everyone underestimates their commute. Virginia people will tell you they are SO close and their commute is nothing, but getting stuck going over a bridge SUCKS. I mean really sucks. So, the 20 minute commute N Arlington people talk about is not 20 minutes, during prime rush hour any day. I did it for 2 years and there were some great days, but the bad days were really, really bad.
People in parts of Montgomery County (Bethesda/CC/Silver Spring/Kensington will tell you that their commute takes 30 minutes, but it is really 45-50 minutes on average. Are you willing to take metro? Living in Logan Circle, you probably don't metro everywhere since you are not that close to a metro station. You could get into some nice neighborhoods in Silver Spring that are near metro for that budget. Bethesda will be tricky to get close to that for a house near the metro. If you aren't looking to be near metro, you could get something very nice in parts of Chevy Chase or Kensington. You can buy into the Kensington side of Kensington-Pawrkwood ES for 550k. Chevy Chase would be more of a stretch but possible. |
Anonymous
On the weekends, it doesn't take 30 minutes to get downtown from Falls Church. The weekdays are a different story. When some people see what's available in Arlington, however, they end up increasing what they originally thought would be an acceptable commute. For us, moving out of NW, Arlington didn't really seem like the city, but neither did it offer a lot of space. In addition, we didn't find the homes very attractive. For others, it's the perfect "sweet spot." |
Anonymous
The flip side of that is that people who want or need to do a rush hour commute are rather quick to dismiss the shorter commutes that others who leave early, or otherwise don't commute during rush hour, may encounter. Someone who leaves at 7 AM is going to face less traffic than someone who leaves their house at 8:30 AM. |
Anonymous
| OP here.. Thanks for all of the feedback. I am thinking we should try to stick it out in our 1 bedroom for as long as possible & try to save, and then try the Chevy Chase route. |
Anonymous
Well, I commute in every day from CC MD and I can assure you it is 30 minutes on a good day, 40 minutes on a bad day, down connecticut. About the same on the metro. |
Anonymous
Where in the District do you commute to? What time do you leave? I do not believe that your "bad day" is 40 minutes if you leave the house at say, 8:30. At that time, you cannot make it to downtown in less than 40 minutes. I just don't buy it. |