Anonymous wrote:Tysons is a hellscape of huge highways and strip malls, and Bethesda is infinitely better in every way.

Was going to post a more nuanced version of this, but yes. Bethesda has far more personality.

Also, Bethesda hasn’t been a government town since my ILs (foreign service) lived there in the 1980s.

If all I were doing was renting in an area for a year, I might go with Bethesda, but if I were looking at eventually buying a house and living in the area longer-term I'd go with the Tysons area. If you rent in Tysons itself, you could eventually find a townhouse or house in the general area and stay in the same school pyramid.

But that's my take. Personally, I find Bethesda a bit too uber-competitive and materialistic, and the Tysons area less conspicuous in that regard.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:depends a lot on how much money you're making. 300K+??? 3% county tax over 20 years adds up.

This is OP. Yes the higher income tax in MD is pointing us towards Tysons for financial reasons, but I do like the feel in Bethesda/Chevy Chase for a family with little kids. It has been a while since I have been in Tysons Corner, but it just looks like a bigger, more congested version of what I saw over 5 years ago.

Seems there are more 3 bedroom apartments available for rent in the newer complexes in Tysons at a cheaper rate than the 3 bedrooms in Bethesda. So again, financially VA makes more sense, but for non-tangibles of raising a family I prefer Bethesda/Chevy Chase area.

Maybe it comes down to a coin flip unless there is something else I am missing.

Your heart is in Bethesda. I’d focus on Bethesda, and Tysons as a backup if you can’t find anything. Bethesda is a real community with a soul unlike Tysons which is a more of a conglomeration. (Tysons is improving though with the developments around Metro.) Arlington could be another backup plan if you really can’t find anything in your desired areas.

Don’t forget Bethesda has the nice co-op market downtown:
https://montgomeryfarmwomensco-op.com/

Anonymous wrote:depends a lot on how much money you're making. 300K+??? 3% county tax over 20 years adds up.

This is OP. Yes the higher income tax in MD is pointing us towards Tysons for financial reasons, but I do like the feel in Bethesda/Chevy Chase for a family with little kids. It has been a while since I have been in Tysons Corner, but it just looks like a bigger, more congested version of what I saw over 5 years ago.

Seems there are more 3 bedroom apartments available for rent in the newer complexes in Tysons at a cheaper rate than the 3 bedrooms in Bethesda. So again, financially VA makes more sense, but for non-tangibles of raising a family I prefer Bethesda/Chevy Chase area.

Maybe it comes down to a coin flip unless there is something else I am missing.

Anonymous wrote:If you had the option of working/living in Tysons area or Bethesda area with 2 elementary age children in public schools, which would you choose? We would be renting the first year and our budget would go up to 5k/month.

If you plan to send your kids to public schools, I'd go with the Tysons area.

The public schools serving Vienna and McLean are as strong as those serving Bethesda and Chevy Chase; Fairfax generally has a larger commercial tax base and more high-income residential areas to support public K-12 education than Montgomery (where a few areas like Bethesda and Chevy Chase are increasingly called upon to do most of the heavy lifting to prop up the rest of the county); and there are substantially better state university options in Virginia than Maryland.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bethesda is truly awful. It’s all upscale chain restaurants, and there are zero jobs so you have nothing but children / teens and parents, zero young folks. MoCo is becoming a certified dump. Virginia is superior in every single way, and the only counterpoint you see on here is “Virginia has young kin and is less liberal” but it’s just vastly superior to the dump that is MoCo / Pg.

All upscale chain restaurants, as opposed to salt of the earth local eateries all around Tysons?! Are you joking or have you never been to Tysons?

I see way more teens and young families in Bethesda Row on a weekend night than in almost any other town center in close-in NoVA.

Bethesda and Chevy Chase are just nicer looking than Tysons, McLean, and Vienna. They aren’t as congested with traffic, have more houses with character, and feel like actual neighborhoods. I could care less about the political differences. Aesthetics > politics.

There are actually a lot of young families, teens, and lots of 20-somethings in the Ballston through Clarendon / Courthouse neighborhoods in Arlington. Clarendon has some charming historic commercial and civic architecture and parks but otherwise it’s new construction, some of it at a high quality. It is all very walkable along those Metro neighborhoods. And there are charming residential areas, schools, etc nearby.

Between Falls Church and Fairfax City there’s a new district called the Mosaic that is modeled after Bethesda Row. Lots of Families there at all hours. But a much older crowd than in Arlington, and the neighborhood feels plopped down in an industrial zone that’s still evolving. It didn’t grow organically like Bethesda or Arlington.

But Bethesda Row is the best of all these newish commercial neighborhoods by far. And B-CC High School with its stately school building, the old Bethesda Theater, all the independent eateries, the soon to be completed Purple Line with bike trail, stunning new office towers, etc adds to the charm of Bethesda, unrivaled in this area.

depends a lot on how much money you're making. 300K+??? 3% county tax over 20 years adds up.

It depends on your industry. If you are in a health-adjacent field, then Bethesda. If you are in tech, then Tysons.

Anything else could go either way. I'd probably pick Tysons, but as others have mentioned it's still evolving which could be good or bad.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bethesda is truly awful. It’s all upscale chain restaurants, and there are zero jobs so you have nothing but children / teens and parents, zero young folks. MoCo is becoming a certified dump. Virginia is superior in every single way, and the only counterpoint you see on here is “Virginia has young kin and is less liberal” but it’s just vastly superior to the dump that is MoCo / Pg.

All upscale chain restaurants, as opposed to salt of the earth local eateries all around Tysons?! Are you joking or have you never been to Tysons?

I see way more teens and young families in Bethesda Row on a weekend night than in almost any other town center in close-in NoVA.

Bethesda and Chevy Chase are just nicer looking than Tysons, McLean, and Vienna. They aren’t as congested with traffic, have more houses with character, and feel like actual neighborhoods. I could care less about the political differences. Aesthetics > politics.

You'd have to pay me a hefty premium to live around the people who inhabit Bethesda and Chevy Chase.

Anonymous wrote:Are you working in Tyson’s and thinking of living in Bethesda?

I would kill myself if I had to make that commute daily.

If you work in Tyson’s live there. No question.

Who commutes daily anymore?

You can live in Potomac, have Churchill HS, and be in Tysons in 15 minutes in no traffic. No one wants to actually live in Tysons especially with children. And Vienna and McLean are almost as long of drive as near Cabin John Center. If you live next to River Road off of 495 you can get to Tysons in 7-10 minutes on the weekend.

https://www.redfin.com/city/25423/MD/Potomac/filter/viewport=39.05931:39.03825:-77.13721:-77.1694,no-outline

Are you working in Tyson’s and thinking of living in Bethesda?

I would kill myself if I had to make that commute daily.

If you work in Tyson’s live there. No question.

Anonymous wrote:Bethesda is truly awful. It’s all upscale chain restaurants, and there are zero jobs so you have nothing but children / teens and parents, zero young folks. MoCo is becoming a certified dump. Virginia is superior in every single way, and the only counterpoint you see on here is “Virginia has young kin and is less liberal” but it’s just vastly superior to the dump that is MoCo / Pg.

All upscale chain restaurants, as opposed to salt of the earth local eateries all around Tysons?! Are you joking or have you never been to Tysons?

I see way more teens and young families in Bethesda Row on a weekend night than in almost any other town center in close-in NoVA.

Bethesda and Chevy Chase are just nicer looking than Tysons, McLean, and Vienna. They aren’t as congested with traffic, have more houses with character, and feel like actual neighborhoods. I could care less about the political differences. Aesthetics > politics.

Bethesda is truly awful. It’s all upscale chain restaurants, and there are zero jobs so you have nothing but children / teens and parents, zero young folks. MoCo is becoming a certified dump. Virginia is superior in every single way, and the only counterpoint you see on here is “Virginia has young kin and is less liberal” but it’s just vastly superior to the dump that is MoCo / Pg.

Tysons is a hellscape of huge highways and strip malls, and Bethesda is infinitely better in every way.