1. The higher income you are the more the tax difference should matter to you. Hence why VA > DC and MD
2. Commuting is definitely best from Arlington as compared to MD both driving and metro. The areas in MD with schools people like are all red line and the redline is always breaking down and crappy because it is the oldest.
3. Schools are decent. I personally think there is very little evidence that white kids from UMC/UC homes will have different outcomes in Langley vs. Yorktown but the McLean/great falls boosters probably would say otherwise.

Park system is in fact great.

Anonymous wrote:Arlington is close to downtown for commuting, but by and large is ugly as sin.

Meh. It’s no better or worse than most of the DC area.

Arlington is close to downtown for commuting, but by and large is ugly as sin.

Anonymous wrote:Arlington's cachet has grown in the last decade. It has lots of variety in the housing stock with apartments, SFH and duplexes. It is urban and suburban which is in vogue with millennials unlike Great Falls and Potomac.

"It has lots of variety in housing stock with $2 million homes, $1.8 million homes, and $900 thousand teardowns. It is urban and suburban which is in vogue with people who are both affluent and desperate for an easy commute and schools that aren't horrible."

Arlington's cachet has grown in the last decade. It has lots of variety in the housing stock with apartments, SFH and duplexes. It is urban and suburban which is in vogue with millennials unlike Great Falls and Potomac.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arlington is hot because it's a short drive to DC ( 20 minutes for me to drive), plus you can have a SFH with a yard, good schools that aren't overly snobby, and low crime. People like to hate on the schools but they are far better than the public schools I grew up with. Falls Church is just too far for people who actually need to be in DC and don't want to spend their time commuting.

Falls Church is far? How long can it possibly take to commute to Capital Hill when it’s right next to Arlington ?

It’s an extra 15-20 min compared to closer-in Arlington. And the roads are all slow - lots of congestion and lights.

Also, the Falls Church metro isn’t close to the main part of town. Only a handful of restaurants.

Good farmer’s market.

I was going to say "global warming". But location with competent gov't services does it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arlington is hot because it's a short drive to DC ( 20 minutes for me to drive), plus you can have a SFH with a yard, good schools that aren't overly snobby, and low crime. People like to hate on the schools but they are far better than the public schools I grew up with. Falls Church is just too far for people who actually need to be in DC and don't want to spend their time commuting.

Falls Church is far? How long can it possibly take to commute to Capital Hill when it’s right next to Arlington ?

Arlington Strawman

She’s flirty, optimistic, and will show you a good time. She’s literally the girl next door.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good job OP. The property values on your street just went up by $1M due to your totally real story, and now the entire word is convinced that Arlington is still desirable even with WFH jobs. Well done.

DC is not going to be a WFH town. Bay Area sure. Maybe NYC. But not DC for a very long time.

do you have any Fed friends? a lot of agencies are telegraphing permanent 3-4 days/week telework to their staff due to productivity increases during covid. there is a new thread every week over on the jobs forum about this too.

Anonymous wrote:Arlington is hot because it's a short drive to DC ( 20 minutes for me to drive), plus you can have a SFH with a yard, good schools that aren't overly snobby, and low crime. People like to hate on the schools but they are far better than the public schools I grew up with. Falls Church is just too far for people who actually need to be in DC and don't want to spend their time commuting.

Falls Church is far? How long can it possibly take to commute to Capital Hill when it’s right next to Arlington ?

It’s the central location to DC and Tysons, schools, AND the amenities. McLean also has a good location and schools, but is less walkable. That’s reflected in the dollars per square foot. The same is true in Arlington—it’s more expensive to live in the walkable areas.

I live in DC but my office is on Crystal Drive in Arlington. I worked in DC for most of my legal career and pre-pandemic enjoyed the work environment in Arlington/Crystal City better than DC but prefer to maintain my residence in DC but work in Arlington. Schools don't matter to me since my kids (twins) will be leaving for college in the fall.

We don’t live in Arlington - and I find it visually offensive for the most part, but they do have an awesome parks system.

Arlington is hot because it's a short drive to DC ( 20 minutes for me to drive), plus you can have a SFH with a yard, good schools that aren't overly snobby, and low crime. People like to hate on the schools but they are far better than the public schools I grew up with. Falls Church is just too far for people who actually need to be in DC and don't want to spend their time commuting.