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Best Neighborhood for Short-Term Family
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Anonymous
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My family will be relocating to DC for one year for work and I am looking for recommendations on neighborhoods that would be a good fit for our situation. We are a bi-cultural, bi-racial family of five, with children ages 6, 5, and 3. We will be bringing our live-in nanny with us, so need a house/townhouse/condo with at least 3 bedrooms and 2 full baths. We are thinking that given the short amount of time that we will be there, it would make the most sense to rent rather than buy and would like to maximize this opportunity to really take advantage of what DC has to offer. We'd love to be able to:
1. Expose the kids to all the great stuff in DC 2. Not spend our whole year commuting 3. Have access to a good public elementary school for our two oldest and good pre-school options for the youngest. 4. Live in a family-friendly environment with lots of good walkable options, especially for our nanny and kids What neighborhood (zip code) would you suggest? We would probably prefer to be in DC, but are also open to MD and VA. We are able to spend about $3,000-3,500 on rent, so budget is definitely a factor. Looking forward to your suggestions! |
Anonymous
| You didn't say where you are working, but I would suggest Capital Hill if it's convenient to work. Lots of threads here on this area. |
Anonymous
| OP Here: Sorry for neglecting to mention the working part. I will be working full-time and my husband looking for work once we arrive. My job will require me to spend some time in Rosslyn and some time downtown (near Federal Triangle metro). |
Anonymous
clarendon in arlington. fantastic public schools and jump on the metro and be downtown in minutes. can ride bikes into dc in a matter of less than 5 min. |
Anonymous
| Georgetown and Hyde Elementary if you can find a place in your price range. Burleith or Glover Park (just north of Georgetown on Wisconsin Ave.) and Stoddert Elementary if Georgetown is a little too pricey. |
Anonymous
| I second Clarendon- very eas to get to. |
Anonymous
burleith--too loud with college students (read the paper today particularly). Georgetown--are 900 sq foot, teeny, tiny rowhouse easily rents out at $3500/month. It is fully renovated. It is next to impossible to get what they want in georgetown w/out spending closer to 5k (minimum)/month. Glover Park could work but since she spec. mentioned Rosslyn and downtown--there is no Metro in Glover Park. Clarendon is very close to Georgetown--walking distance to Rosslyn and has great Metro access where you can be downtown in under 15 min--door-to-door (metro center). |
Anonymous
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North Arlington (Courthouse, Clarendon, Ballston) would be great in terms of location and facilities, but you might find it challenging to find a house to rent in that price range. I've been out of the rental market for more than a decade, but this is mine line of reasoning: $3k/month covers (approximately) a $400k mortgage, not including insurance, taxes, etc. Most of the homes in those areas are well over $400k, so you probably won't find many for rent for less than a mortgage, unless you luck into a family that is relocating for a year and has a low mortgage. Make sense?
Ditto for Georgetown and Glover Park. Some of the neighborhoods east of the park might be a good fit, but I am not well acquainted with them. |
Anonymous
we were in a great rental in lyonvillage for $3050/month. it had 2 full baths and 2 large bedrooms and was fully, newly renovated. I think they could find something easily in their price range in that area. You have to remember----arlington's housing boom lagged behind DCs--it's peak was closer to 2006. Alot of ppl that bought in the mid 90s-2000 spent $300-450k and now are sitting on a 1million+ properties so they don't have the mortgage requirements you have cited. and we bought our first place for $650k in NW at the end of 2004 and our mortgage+taxes is only $2900/month....so we reap alot in rental income. |
Anonymous
One other thing---we base the price for our monthly rental on the market---not are mortgage. Our mortgage is lower than what the rental market dictates in the neighborhood. You also have some properties that families have been renting for decades. |
Anonymous
| Capitol Hill. Several perfectly good elementary options and fits the rest of your criteria to a tee. If you prefer D.C. and want to be near all D.C. offers, there is no reason to be in Arlington (or in upper NW, for that matter). |
Anonymous
curious---what are the good public elem school's on the Hill? didn't know there were any. |
Anonymous
| the market dictates the rental price, not the amount of somebody's mortgage. if rent in that particular neighborhood is 5K/month it will be whether somebody owns a place free and clear or somebody else owes 9k/month. That is the way it works. |
Anonymous
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OP Again.
It's interesting that this question about mortgage vs. rental came up. We were originally planning to buy a house and then keep it as a rental property after we leave, but in doing research, I had a hard time making the math work. Roughly, it seems as though if we buy a place for $700K and put 20% down, we'd need to be able to rent it for about $3,800/month to coverage mortgage plus insurance/taxes. Properties that are selling around that range seem to be comparable to houses attracting considerably lower rents. We have therefore abandoned that idea as too risky and are now focused on renting instead. If the poster who spoke to schools in Capitol Hill is around, I'd be interested to hear which ones are considered to be pretty good, as it has been my understanding that they are not considered to be that great. |
Anonymous
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I don't think living in Arlington would really fit your criteria for #1,2, and #4. For those, I'd suggest that you stick to living in DC proper, e.g., the Hill, Dupont Circle, Logan Circle, Woodley, etc. These areas are all very family friendly. You'll be able to get out and experience DC more spontaneously, versus living in the suburbs and timing the Metro or driving. Trust me, I used to live very close to the city and Arlington, and it always was a hassle to go into DC on the weekends, even though we did it frequently.
If you were going to make more of a long term commitment, then perhaps I would say that school could be more of a priority. |