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[quote=Anonymous]OP, this chain has gone off the rails a bit but I wanted to weigh in since we faced a very similar decision about a year ago. We did an exhaustive search throughout close-in Bethesda (inside beltway and easy access to 495) and McLean since we both work in Tysons. We ended up in McLean and have been very happy here. Doing such a wide search was awful and I definitely don’t recommend it— too many properties, too many failed bids, and too many neighborhoods to really know. We brought that upon ourselves.

But anyway, back to what you asked. I initially preferred Bethesda because I was more familiar with it, and had a couple of friends that moved there and seemed happy. Also i just perceived of it as “nicer / more tasteful / classier” and I guess I wanted to be associated with that. I honestly have no idea why I thought those things and I’m so embarrassed now about it but maybe it was linked to the many, many comments on DCUM about Bethesda being old money and McLean being more gauche. Neither of us are remotely close to old money but maybe I wanted people to perceive us as fancy (see I told you this was so embarrassing). Speaking to my friends in Bethesda turned up sort of similar sentiments about Bethesda being nicer, greener etc. And there are certainly some beautiful neighborhoods there (eg Bannockburn estates, etc). But the more time we spent there (our search was long), we realized that most of the neighborhoods that we wanted to live in were a 10 min drive to grocery stores, restaurants, etc. Also, neither of us plan to be at our current job for more than a couple of years and it seemed like NoVa, especially Tysons, had way more opportunities. Didn’t really seem like MD was doing as much to attract companies. Also, private school seemed to be a more common choice in Bethesda and we really want to do public. This may be changing in NoVa slowly - I don’t know. 
So we started spending more time in McLean and found that we really liked the neighborhoods bordering downtown. They were just a couple of minutes drive or a manageable walk to restaurants, library, community center etc. Super quick commute to Tysons when we need to go in. Great schools. We loved the offerings at the community center for our little kids. The community has been warm. We have been very happy. I don’t think you can go wrong with either Bethesda or McLean but if you work in Tyson’s or in a field that has a lot of options in NoVa, I think McLean could be a good fit. [/quote]

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