Who lives in exurbs?
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Anonymous
Sorry not sorry Forgot people who kayak. |
Anonymous
We live nearby in Crofton. It’s slightly walkable. We go for neighborhood walks for exercise but not for groceries though a few bikers I know do that. We do have neighbors who do CSA boxes. Who’s here? Some gs-14 type feds like us live here, esp now with more telework, scientists like at nasa especially it seems. But also lots of teachers, law enforcement, military, nurses and small business owners. Less lawyers I think than when we were in Nw dc but some paralegals. It’s a quieter life and people keep to themselves more that takes a bit getting used to. Not as much of an academic rat race - top students are more interested in naval academy or business schools than Ivy league. Several multi gen families which tend to keep to themselves. Not as dynamic as city life but much more affordable (we picked a modest house/neighborhood) and good schools so that was our big draw. We have definitely gained weight though living the more car dependent lifestyle. When I go back to the city I do realize I’ve gotten used to the more trees and less traffic out here. And proximity to the river and bay parks. But of course I miss places like 2 Amy’s! Some good pho and Indian out here but most restaurants not worth it - for that you can go into annapolis though. |
Anonymous
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I'd never have called Annapolis or Columbia exurbs. Columbia is a major employment center in its own right and is only 30 minutes from downtown Baltimore and has 80k people. It's always been a suburb.
Exurbs were on the fringes of suburbia where the land transitions into proper rural. For exurbs you need to go into deep western Howard, Frederick County, Carroll County, outer Loudon, towards WVA. As for who lives in exurbs, plenty of people do these days. Larger and yet more affordable housing is usually the main reason. But others also like the sense of open space and being more pastoral. |
Anonymous
| Our priorities were more trees, less people and more home, less expensive. DH still commutes into DC every day (45 minutes each way), as do a ton of his coworkers who don’t like DC. |
Anonymous
Louudon and prince william counties are exhurbs. |
Anonymous
Check out mount vernon area and do private schools. Lots of trees! |
Anonymous
| Most people in the exurbs don’t work in DC, or at least only commute to DC 1x a week at most. They mostly work in another suburb, or WFH, so the commute isn’t too much of a factor. And with the rise of suburban employment centers, the line between exurb and suburb and “edge city” is blurred. Is Reston a suburb? Is Manassas or Woodbridge an exurb? What about Fredericksburg? Plenty of people work in all those places so it makes sense for them to live close. |
Anonymous
| People like you. People trying to avoid crime and people concerned with school quality. They may not object to being able to walk to amenities like restaurants, but view that as a lower priority than other considerations. They represent every conceivable occupation, represent a wide range of incomes and education levels, and live in homes at varying price points. There is no one stereotypical "exurb resident", and your ability to fit in and find common ground with neighbors will be more about you than about them. |
Anonymous
| We live in the exurbs (Warrenton in Fauquier County) and still work in DC. We are both lawyers, non-litigation, and telework 3-4 days a week. Most of the people we know do not commute to DC but there are some. We moved out here because we wanted more space, and even on our income (not Biglaw) we could not afford what we wanted closer in. We genuinely love it out here. We live in walking distance to old town Warrenton so there is some walkability, my kids walk to middle school and then to get ice cream or a snack with friends, there is little crime, we walk home from dinner after dark and don’t think twice about it, and it is just beautiful country. The only thing we’ve missed from our old life close in is the restaurant choices. If you are a city person the exurbs aren’t going to be for you, but if you are already out in the suburbs and don’t go into DC other than for work I much prefer being in the exurbs. |
Anonymous
Is there an official metro DC exurb map? |
Anonymous
I would say the bolded is true. People who live in the city walk in woods and are ethically good too. I would add to the list that you won't need to use private schools if you move to the right area of the exurb/suburb (whatever those terms mean). We are in 22152 behind the golf course and in a fantastic school pyramid (and within 30 miles of IAD). That said, it is very, very hard to find a house to buy here. Houses are either passed down, sell before they go on the market, or have many bids and are overpriced right now (IMO). There are plenty of good, hardworking people here and that is really all that matters. |
Anonymous
+1. I live in the actual exurbs, out between Leesburg and Purcellville. Trust, most people still go to restaurants versus growing their own food, there are just a lot fewer options; and they go to bars (because they don't actually know their neighbors!), and breath in exhaust (probably not as much) when I walk with my kids and dog twice a day and have to be careful of passing cars whooshing by at high speed, because there are no sidewalks. Closer-in suburbanites complain about airplane noise, out here we get helicopter traffic from Mount Weather that is sometimes so loud it can make my house vibrate. There are probably more people who have chickens and are eager to get rid of the eggs, I will say that as a dozen from an acquaintance sit in my fridge. 
OP, you talk about exurbs in your subject line but it sounds like you actually mean the suburbs, TBH. There are pros and cons to any place. I was hesitant when we moved here but I do like it. I grew up in a VERY rural area so I knew what that was like and hated it. I LOVED living in the suburbs for 12+ years and having so many things so close and convenient, even if "walkability" was a stretch. I consider where I am now to be rural but not remote. There's a Starbucks three minutes down the road and two grocery stores in town, I'm within 30 minutes of outposts for most major medical services. I can get big-box store access in Leesburg and the drive to IAD and DC isn't awful most of the time, because I'm not commuting. That said, I was in Arlington this week for a policy event, left a little before 7 a.m. and was in the door by about 8:15 via the Greenway. Oh, and I do go to the farmers market and farm stores that are out here, but I still get most of our food from the regular old grocery store (so do most people in the exurbs ...). 
I work 100% remotely except for travel and the occasional in-person event locally. (When we bought, we ruled out some homes in the area because of lack of access to high-speed internet for WFH, which is not a given this far out. Thank God, because pandemic stuff with satellite internet was a total PITA for the people who had to deal with it.) My DH commutes to Herndon & works for a defense contractor. My neighbors are a mix of local business owners (HVAC, landscaping, etc.), people who work in Reston or Herndon, and feds who only have to go in once a week or less. Most people who move into the area are already semi-local and are coming from the closer-in suburbs (Arlington, Alexandria, Ashburn) for a variety of reasons. It's a different lifestyle than the city or the close-in suburbs, but also not the same (thank God) as small-town rural life where you are hours from a major metro. I've lived in all of those type of places at various times. I think whether you are happy in a different lifestyle environment depends a lot on how attached you are to the positives about your "known" type of place and how well you deal with the downsides that inevitably crop up. |
Anonymous
Unless it is an old farmhouse somewhere, everything is cookie cutter. |
Anonymous
Not a lot of safety in car-dpendent, souless places that dont have sidewalks. Even the way the schools are developed, they have HUGE parking lots and are generally not walkable by the students who attend. No thanks. |
Anonymous
I love Annapolis but you couldn't pay me to do that commute. Even once a week I would hate. But you couldn't pay me to live out 270 either so to each their own. |