Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:McLean is the premium area, arlington is only good because it is near mclean.

If you are poor and out of touch. The DC nice neighborhoods smoke the hinterlands. I have 2 acres, a nice house, parks surrounding me and am minutes from everything!

Yep! McLean is a crap compared to Kalorama, Spring Valley, the Palisades. You can go on.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arlington is a nice area; very walkable near the metro line.

It is super liberal and ultra competitive. It is most expensive land/price per square foot for a reason.

Really depends on what you are looking for, OP. 95% of people posting do not live in Arlington; it is a very small area of the dmv.

It’s sad when people bring up the price of land/square foot. It speaks to the value of real estate, not the quality of life. People actually spend more money, on average, in other places with nicer houses where they get more space.

- former Arlington resident

DP. Right. The “value” of real estate is based on market supply/demand. The demand for smaller, close-in homes is higher relative to supply than demand for larger homes in BFE relative to supply.

If you do an apples-to-apples comparison, people pay more to live in Arlington than they do farther out.

And yet the median and average sale prices for single-family homes are higher elsewhere (and those places are hardly BFE).

Enjoy your dirt.

I’m enjoying my Tatte latte and croissant that I just walked over to pick up this beautiful morning after stopping by the bank.

Just for giggles, we always look at various real estate listings just to see what we could buy elsewhere - around here and when we travel. We could buy a killer house with pool, etc in McLean. But we prefer to walk to the playground with our kids or walk to grab a coffee, etc. So we prefer to stay in our smaller house with a smaller yard. Our dollars don’t go as far here but we prefer the walkable parts of Arlington over other areas farther out.

You could walk to Fresh Baguette in Bethesda for a croissant and coffee or Bethesda Bagels for a bagel and then walk two blocks to a playground or a block more to Farmer’s Market outside the 8/10 Bethesda ES, which feeds into a 7/10 HS that’s half a mile away and walkable as well. And be in a safer neighborhood with nicer housing stock.

Anonymous wrote:I only have one kid, don't live a very kid-centric life and hate to drive, so take this with a grain of salt. But yes, Arlington is one of the best places in the DMV to live. Old Town Alexandria is also great, but has flooding issues and is slightly farther from the District.

Many places within the District would make the cut, imo, but the crime is horribly uncontrolled, like SF levels, and I say that as someone who's lived in non-NW DC and LOVES DC and San Francisco. (That dad whose baby got hit with a brick in Capitol Hill...Jesus Christ.)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:McLean is the premium area, arlington is only good because it is near mclean.

If you are poor and out of touch. The DC nice neighborhoods smoke the hinterlands. I have 2 acres, a nice house, parks surrounding me and am minutes from everything!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arlington is a nice area; very walkable near the metro line.

It is super liberal and ultra competitive. It is most expensive land/price per square foot for a reason.

Really depends on what you are looking for, OP. 95% of people posting do not live in Arlington; it is a very small area of the dmv.

It’s sad when people bring up the price of land/square foot. It speaks to the value of real estate, not the quality of life. People actually spend more money, on average, in other places with nicer houses where they get more space.

- former Arlington resident

DP. Right. The “value” of real estate is based on market supply/demand. The demand for smaller, close-in homes is higher relative to supply than demand for larger homes in BFE relative to supply.

If you do an apples-to-apples comparison, people pay more to live in Arlington than they do farther out.

And yet the median and average sale prices for single-family homes are higher elsewhere (and those places are hardly BFE).

Enjoy your dirt.

I’m enjoying my Tatte latte and croissant that I just walked over to pick up this beautiful morning after stopping by the bank.

Just for giggles, we always look at various real estate listings just to see what we could buy elsewhere - around here and when we travel. We could buy a killer house with pool, etc in McLean. But we prefer to walk to the playground with our kids or walk to grab a coffee, etc. So we prefer to stay in our smaller house with a smaller yard. Our dollars don’t go as far here but we prefer the walkable parts of Arlington over other areas farther out.

Anonymous wrote:McLean is the premium area, arlington is only good because it is near mclean.

Anonymous wrote:McLean is the premium area, arlington is only good because it is near mclean.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arlington is a nice area; very walkable near the metro line.

It is super liberal and ultra competitive. It is most expensive land/price per square foot for a reason.

Really depends on what you are looking for, OP. 95% of people posting do not live in Arlington; it is a very small area of the dmv.

It’s sad when people bring up the price of land/square foot. It speaks to the value of real estate, not the quality of life. People actually spend more money, on average, in other places with nicer houses where they get more space.

- former Arlington resident

DP. Right. The “value” of real estate is based on market supply/demand. The demand for smaller, close-in homes is higher relative to supply than demand for larger homes in BFE relative to supply.

If you do an apples-to-apples comparison, people pay more to live in Arlington than they do farther out.

And yet the median and average sale prices for single-family homes are higher elsewhere (and those places are hardly BFE).

Enjoy your dirt.

Anonymous wrote:We're moving long-distance and don't know the DC area well, but have done a lot of online research.

For someone who wants the traditional 4-bedroom house, walk to school and playgrounds, but also an urban feel, not all strip malls and developments, and close enough to DC to go in and enjoy the city most weekends, Arlington seems by far the best place to live...maybe even the only place.

Bethesda is the only other one that seems to be in that range, but feels more suburban and more snobby. In Silver Spring, the nice single-family homes seem to be further out from downtown and the big downtown complex feels kind of manufactured/too commercial (Dave & Busters, burgers, pizza). I've always lived in big cities and really love the full experience of world-class museums, historical sites, parks, restaurants, at my doorstep. Arlington seems to offer easy access to that.

Am I missing something or is Arlington really the best? And is that why all the homes are like $1.3-$1.8 million dollars, because it's so wonderful and everyone wants to live there?

Are there any other suburbs I should be looking at? We looked at DC too, but prices don't seem much better there.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:McLean is the best place to live, or City of Falls Church or if you can't afford either, just live in Pimmit Hills.

Not if OP wants sidewalks and walkability.