FCC also gives you the option of a small school district more similar to what you would get in a New England town. THat will be a stretch for OP's budget but may be doable. I don't think that is possible in Moco. I don't live in FCC but it is a nice option. I live in North Arlington and love it - super walkable and shorter commute than I would have from CC or Bethesda (but that depends on where your office is).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The close-in nice areas of MoCo (Bethesda, Chevy Chase, Potomoac, etc) seem nicer than close-in Virginia counterparts. And they feel more connected to Upper NW DC. It's just a nicer setting and schools, etc are really good (public and private). Northern Virginia seems like the more transient area. Maryland seems more established, has a stronger sense of pride/place.

Virginia does have the better public college options and the horse country areas are beautiful.

I'd rather live in Maryland overall.

I guess you aren't familiar with Arlington or McLean?

dp.. I've been McLean many times, and the town itself is boring.

Arlington and Alexandria are much better.

Anonymous wrote:What areas/neighborhoods in Virginia are comparable to Bethesda, Potomac, North Bethesda, etc. in terms of great schools and somewhat close (commute) to DC?
(The above poster mentioned Arlington and Silver Spring, but I don’t think they are necessarily comparable??)

McLean, North Arlington, Falls Church City (FCC). Town of Vienna is a bit further but people love it (same for Dunn Loring which has a Vienna address and is right near the orange line).

We’re in Arlington near Ballston and it’s a max 20 min commute to Capitol Hill during rush via car using 50. Sometimes 15 if more people are WFH that day. Downtown is also 20 min. We frequently pop into Georgetown or downtown for dinner.

If you’re in 22207 or McLean near the parkway that’ll get you into the city fast too. FCC and Williamsburg / EFC area of Arlington gives you 66. It’s all pretty connected.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Those freaking out about Va taxes, are simply catastrophizing. Unless you make more than 600,000 per year when the first new marginal tax rate begins or more than 1 million per year where the second new marginal rate kicks in, you will be largely unaffected by this.

Well, we've always been told that VA is much better if you have a very high income, so now that advantage will be gone. If you're not a very high earner, the difference between MD and VA has never been very significant, because VA has the car tax, the grocery tax, and crazy restaurant taxes, plus VA has toll roads everywhere especially for people like OP who have budgets that make them like further out.

If you're a very high earner and you're worried about the couple hundred dollars at most these new taxes will cost you, then you have serious psychological issues and should seek professional help. It's not normal or healthy to be obsessing over such an insignificant amount of money.

You should read the laws. It’s not a couple hundred dollars more. You can even use GPT to do the math for you on a hypothetical scenario if it’s too hard to do yourself.

We’ve done a lot of digging into the new income and investment tax proposals. They are likely to pass because they are being sponsored by leadership and/or heads of committees.

OP, if you don’t make $500K+, the new investment and income tax proposals won’t impact you. It’s 8% on $600K+ and 10% on 1M+, and 3.2% on investment income IF your HHI is over $500K.

So the top bracket is 13.2% and would apply to say someone making $1.5M with $300K of that being investment income (rental property, etc). This would be the highest rate in the country if passed.

If you’re below $1M, VA still has less taxes than MD or DC. At the $1M mark, it gets closer and if taxes were your only deciding factor, it’s basically the same across VA, MD, and DC.

Also remember MD has the county tax which adds up once you hit $500K+ too, and DC has a brutal tax on $1M+ income as well.

VA also has much higher job growth and a healthier economy than MD due to the # of corporations here but DCUM gets rabid over that fact (apparently people aren’t aware Google and BLS data exists?). OP you can easily Google the data and see for yourself.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Those freaking out about Va taxes, are simply catastrophizing. Unless you make more than 600,000 per year when the first new marginal tax rate begins or more than 1 million per year where the second new marginal rate kicks in, you will be largely unaffected by this.

Well, we've always been told that VA is much better if you have a very high income, so now that advantage will be gone. If you're not a very high earner, the difference between MD and VA has never been very significant, because VA has the car tax, the grocery tax, and crazy restaurant taxes, plus VA has toll roads everywhere especially for people like OP who have budgets that make them like further out.

If you're a very high earner and you're worried about the couple hundred dollars at most these new taxes will cost you, then you have serious psychological issues and should seek professional help. It's not normal or healthy to be obsessing over such an insignificant amount of money.

Anonymous wrote:Those freaking out about Va taxes, are simply catastrophizing. Unless you make more than 600,000 per year when the first new marginal tax rate begins or more than 1 million per year where the second new marginal rate kicks in, you will be largely unaffected by this.

Most people chose to live in Virginia in large part due to lower taxes.

No one wants these new taxes.

They ran on affordability but are set to increase household expenses significantly by taxing not only your household income but also every penny you spend, including home repairs, home maintenance and home renovations.

The bait and switch frim "affordability" to taxing everything is astounding

What areas/neighborhoods in Virginia are comparable to Bethesda, Potomac, North Bethesda, etc. in terms of great schools and somewhat close (commute) to DC?
(The above poster mentioned Arlington and Silver Spring, but I don’t think they are necessarily comparable??)

Anonymous wrote:I have lived in both...shrug. Choose based on your commute and neighborhood preference. I live in MD and have to say when I have to drive to VA, the tolling system makes me tense ..which lane? Do I have to pay? How much?

Same. I do think MD still has more affordable neighborhoods that are closer in to the city. I live in Arlington and my sister lives in Silver Spring. Our neighborhoods look and feel very similar but houses in hers are significantly less expensive.

As others have alluded, for the longest time VA's advantage was that it was a centrist state compared to deep blue MD. It's gone from a centrist lean red to a centrist lean blue, but the recent election has revealed a sharp blue turn, with a state government that is going to behave a lot more like Annapolis, with lots of higher taxes and fees and inefficient / bloated spending and having to pay for it. I am not thrilled as I liked VA being centrist. Is it temporary or an indicator for the future? Who knows.

But will say VA has the superior state university system. Well worth having it as your default option. I'd still pick VA for this reason alone.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The close-in nice areas of MoCo (Bethesda, Chevy Chase, Potomoac, etc) seem nicer than close-in Virginia counterparts. And they feel more connected to Upper NW DC. It's just a nicer setting and schools, etc are really good (public and private). Northern Virginia seems like the more transient area. Maryland seems more established, has a stronger sense of pride/place.

Virginia does have the better public college options and the horse country areas are beautiful.

I'd rather live in Maryland overall.

I guess you aren't familiar with Arlington or McLean?

Is Arlington considered a counterpart to Bethesda, Chevy Chase, Potomoac?

Honestly, if you're open to both states, I would look in both. I don't think the differences are that significant. Inventory in the 1 - 1.5 million range is slim and the more areas you are open to, the better your chances of finding a place.

Anonymous wrote:The close-in nice areas of MoCo (Bethesda, Chevy Chase, Potomoac, etc) seem nicer than close-in Virginia counterparts. And they feel more connected to Upper NW DC. It's just a nicer setting and schools, etc are really good (public and private). Northern Virginia seems like the more transient area. Maryland seems more established, has a stronger sense of pride/place.

Virginia does have the better public college options and the horse country areas are beautiful.

I'd rather live in Maryland overall.

I guess you aren't familiar with Arlington or McLean?

The close-in nice areas of MoCo (Bethesda, Chevy Chase, Potomoac, etc) seem nicer than close-in Virginia counterparts. And they feel more connected to Upper NW DC. It's just a nicer setting and schools, etc are really good (public and private). Northern Virginia seems like the more transient area. Maryland seems more established, has a stronger sense of pride/place.

Virginia does have the better public college options and the horse country areas are beautiful.

I'd rather live in Maryland overall.

Anonymous wrote:Virginia. MD has become irrelevant

Virginia is about to be some
Maryland with all the new taxes. Would have voted for AS if I’d known she was going to do this. What ever happened to reducing expenses when you don’t have enough money?