Has anyone moved to a lower-cost area within DC metro?

[Anonymous]

From time to time, there are posts where people ask about moving to a lower-cost area outside of DC where there are better houses, schools, etc. For a myriad of reasons, I don't want to leave DC, but I do want to make some changes in my (our) life that would have quite a financial impact. Having a lower mortgage cost would be a huge help in making these changes, but of course, that lower mortgage cost comes with a less desireable neighborhood, longer commute, not as good schools (or at least two out of three of those desireables). ANyone do something like this? Loving it? Regretting it? My main desire is to change careers, and that is why we would need a lower mortgage payment. But it would also just make life less stressful and, depending on success in new career, free up money for other desires.

[Anonymous]

Your first peiece of information: D.C. is not the be all and end all that some think it is (mostly people who grew up here and take such as a personal affront - because after all, isn't it all about them?) If D.C. is not for you as many, I assure you you will have happy travels elesewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your first peiece of information: D.C. is not the be all and end all that some think it is (mostly people who grew up here and take such as a personal affront - because after all, isn't it all about them?) If D.C. is not for you as many, I assure you you will have happy travels elesewhere.

No, DC really is for me - I was born and raised here, my extended family is here, and I don't want to leave. If I didn't have family here and on the Eastern Shore, then yes, I probably would leave DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your first peiece of information: D.C. is not the be all and end all that some think it is (mostly people who grew up here and take such as a personal affront - because after all, isn't it all about them?) If D.C. is not for you as many, I assure you you will have happy travels elesewhere.

New poster. I like the area, but would agree DC area is not the end all be all. Then again, I can't identify any place that would be the end all be all, so no big loss there. But for many of us, we are here for a while due to jobs, family in the area, etc., so the answer is not always, "get up and move, immediately, somewhere else!!!!"

OP, I live in close-in Silver Spring (specifically Forest Glen area) and I think that area is pretty affordable compared to most. We are really happy here, can walk to the metro, have a three bedroom home with a nice sized kitchen and yard, great elementary schools, and lots of parks, playgrounds, bike trails nearby. It really depends on how old your kids are and what you think of the middle and high school situation. We bought years before kids and so can live here several years before middle school, though I'm open to staying since I've met so many neigbhorhood kids who have thrived in the schools. Also with the money we are saving from not living in Bethesda or somewhere more expensive, private is an option, at least in middle school, and then there are high school magnet programs. And the elementary school class sizes seem smaller than in other nearby areas which I think is great.

Commute is great though, with the metro, and one of us working in Montgomery County anyway.

[Anonymous]

I am a native Washingtonian and I cannot imagine living anywhere else, certainly not in a suburb. I make a decent living, as does my husband, but we are in no means in the same salary bracket as most Washingtonians. Together, we make about $120k. When we married in 2004, at the height of the real estate boom, we bought a 3 BR home in Hillcrest, DC. (Ward 7) We have a massive yard, parking, a basement, and lovely neighbors. We wanted a mortgage that we could afford on one salary if one of us decided to stay home after kids. Our daughter is almost 6 and she is in DCPS on Capitol Hill (lottery). Our local public school is not great, so we kept her in the better performing DCPS that she's been in since preschool. We live very close to several Metro bus lines, which can get us to a Metro easily enough, but we do rely on our cars quite a bit. The homes in our neighborhood and large and affordable. Most need some sort of sprucing up. We have seen a steady increase in the number of young people and families moving to the area in recent years. I don't feel we've had to compromise in the least by living in a "less attractive" DC neighborhood. You should take a look at Hillcrest!

[Anonymous]

How about Baltimore? Cheaper housing than DC, salaries aren't much lower and it's still close enough to drive into DC on weekends. I have friends who moved up there from VA and DC and love it, and I have one friend who lives there and commutes to DC most mornings. Worth considering.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:From time to time, there are posts where people ask about moving to a lower-cost area outside of DC where there are better houses, schools, etc. For a myriad of reasons, I don't want to leave DC, but I do want to make some changes in my (our) life that would have quite a financial impact. Having a lower mortgage cost would be a huge help in making these changes, but of course, that lower mortgage cost comes with a less desireable neighborhood, longer commute, not as good schools (or at least two out of three of those desireables). ANyone do something like this? Loving it? Regretting it? My main desire is to change careers, and that is why we would need a lower mortgage payment. But it would also just make life less stressful and, depending on success in new career, free up money for other desires.

Haven't moved from higher cost DC area location to lower-cost DC area location as you are proposing, but I do have some perspective on this.

DH owned a relatively modest place when I met him, that he'd owned for a couple years. He also had a high student loan balance and was working long, long hours. When we got married, many people were asking us when we were going to move. Some relatives even told us we "couldn't possibly" keep living in the smallish place.

Well, we were content enough with the smallish place and thought we'd stay put- like the location, like the neighbors, there are some compromises, but nothing we can't live with. We finished paying the last of his student loans shortly after we got married.

Having relatively low mortgage debt (for the DC area, at least) has given us both great peace of mind and has allowed him more flexibility career-wise, to do work that is interesting and without the insane hours.

I highly recommend-- simplifying... and focusing on your real priorities.

What would be helpful to know is, what is your budget and how do-able is it for your "must-haves?"

[Anonymous]

We're happy in Hyattsville Maryland. We love our neighbors, parks, bike path, library, PG Pool, easy walk/bike ride to the metro, shops and the new restaurants.

[Anonymous]

My brother and family moved to Winchester several years ago so he could commute into DC and his wife could sah. He and his wife hate living there but can't afford to move any closer right now.

[Anonymous]

We were going to buy in a lower cost neighborhood. But given the massive government lay-offs that are coming, we are holding off to see what happens to the market.

[Anonymous]

We bought in the Bloomingdale/LeDroit area (20001) almost 4 years ago and have been very happy here. It is still transitional but we love most of our neighbors and there is a ton of diversity in race, nationality, age, gay/straight, you name it here....I am enjoying raising my kids here and feel like when we get to the time where they are in school, there are so many babies here we might just try the neighborhood schools and see how it goes rather than consider private. I definitely think this was one of the smarter financial decisions we have made in our marriage. I love DC and could never leave easily. I grew up here and it is hard to imagine being somewhere else.

[Anonymous]

We were in a faculty apartment (special limited residency program) at a university west of the park and when it was over decided to buy a second much cheaper house along the busline to the university so we could keep our first much nicer house 60 miles outside the city for my mother in law to live in. We were quite happy with the decision. Dd stayed at her school out of boundaries. But it's a lot harder to get into west of the park schools out of boundary now. Then again I'd probably be fine with dd going to my local school here which has changed a lot in the last 10 years.

At any rate, this worked for us but it wouldn't suit everyone. A key thing was getting a cheap house near the metro. That was a big advantage. Plus despite issues with poverty and crime, people in our neighborhood turned out to be friendly. I really like this neighborhood just for the people. But we are not the type to worry about whether our friends from west of the park would want to visit us and we're pretty comfortable living like graduate students. Not everyone wants to do that.

BTW if I were looking now I'd consider Historic Anacostia. It's got lots of trees, is very village-like and you've got a metro stop just a few stops from downtown. Plus, once the 11th street bridge is finished, there will be a local access bridge over to Capitol Riverfront and Capitol Hill with walking and biking paths on it. And I love Anacostia National Park. A big problem would be that you would have to drive to the supermarket and there's not much right there in terms of restaurants and so forth. Also most of your friends from west of the park will probably never visit you. Still I like the feel of the place and we knew kids who went OOB to dd's schools, too, so some people do make the commute to schools. But then again that's just me - a lot of DCUMers would not be comfortable there.

Good luck, OP, it's a difficult decision! Hope it works out for you.

[Anonymous]

HILLCREST! (20020) I swear, that area is the best kept secret in DC. We had a 3 bedroom/2 bathroom/2 story detached house in a cul de sac with a huge front and back yard. the crime rates are lower than on capitol hill, but you're only a 20 minute drive away from the hill/downtown. And we were paying HALF of what it would have cost us for a 3 bedroom townhouse inside the river boundary.

the down side is that the schools SUCK. Our DD wasn't old enough for us to do too much research, but you would definitely have to find a charter or try to get in somewhere else. But check it out - there were beautiful houses for sale in our area, and it's definitely historic over there. Most people think it's anacostia, so they're too afraid to check it out. couldn't be further from the truth, though.

[Anonymous]

Totally love Mount Rainier/Hyattsville Hills. Houses are dirt cheap right now, too. Super easy access to downtown and Capitol Hill (talking 20-30 minute commute, door to door). Love the community, the bike and tool-sharing, the Glut and new Yes, the PG Pool, the bike path along the river, and Franklin's. Elementary schools are pretty good; for upper grades you would probably want to go private. Definitely worth checking out.

[Anonymous]

A former co-worker of mine lives in Cheverly, MD and raves about it. If MD made any sense for us, we'd probably look there. Alas, we are stuck in NoVA due to our employment situations. However, we did just buy a 4 BR SFH in Fairfax for @$450K - we can walk to all 3 levels of school (the elementary school ranks in the top 5 in the whole metro area), a shopping center and several parks. We're also no more than 30 minutes from both of our offices.