Moving to DC with 2 Kids HELP!

[Anonymous]

I highly recommend the City of Falls Church. It's convenient to two metro stops, and is generally a very nice and family-friendly place to live. We really like it.

[Anonymous]

Can't you do Bethesda/North Bethesda so you stay on the red line? Can make a big difference in commute when you don't have to change trains.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Funny. Here in DC we tell people to avoid Rockville.

Definitely avoid Rockthesda. Avoid those ghastly suburbs off the Dulles toll road too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Funny. Here in DC we tell people to avoid Rockville.

Definitely avoid Rockthesda. Avoid those ghastly suburbs off the Dulles toll road too.

PP you quoted here. I certainly agree with you, but it doesn't sound like OP is necessarily opposed to ghastly suburbs .

[Anonymous]

To the people urging OP to stay on the red line - her DH is working in Chinatown. Depending on how much he minds walking, he could just get off at Metro Center and walk from there, avoiding the need to change trains.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thank you all for your replies. We are not specifically moving to DC to 'get ahead'. My DH got a great job opportunity and honestly, we'd be moving either way. We were just looking at housing prices, it seemed cheaper than Vancouver. There is simply more opportunity in his job here as opposed to Vancouver, which is a fairly small market.

We are not opposed to living in a townhouse, but we will not live in an apartment. We'd like some space and from what I've heard we would be better off living in the surrounding areas of DC instead of within the district. My DH's office will be off the Red Line at Chinatown.

I am a little confused though about rental prices, considering I've been looking on Craigslist and have seen houses for rent in our price range. Silver Springs is on our list for sure as it is close to the metro. Currently, my DH drives, parks, takes a bus, then a train into the city. It takes him over an hour to do this everyday. He does not want such a long commute and I don't blame him. We'd really like to find a place that suits our needs as close in as we can get. If that means we don't rent a house and have a townhouse instead, that's fine. As for the rent price, I'm sure we'll be open to raising that.

I'm fairly certain as far as taxes and cost of living, it's going to be cheaper than Vancouver. If you've ever visited Canada, you'd know clothes are more expensive, gas is more expensive and obviously we have a lot of taxes.

Question about housing costs...are the listed price on houses for sale the final price? or does it goes to auction and the highest bidder wins? I know in certain places because it is so aggressive, people list their houses much lower than what they're worth hoping for bidding wars. Is that the idea here or does a $400K house sell for ~400K?

TIA again

T

he days of the bidding war have ended

here for the most part...houses are selling for under the listed price in many cases. You can make an offer for under the listed price. I'd work with an agent who's savvy in the neighborhood you want to buy in.

not in Lyon Village. Bidding wars galore, multiple offers, escalation clauses and houses selling in under 1 week....most under contract within 48 hours. Add to this only 1-2 house coming on the market every 3-4months.