Seeking DC Metro Location Familiar to Chicago Native (Arlington, Lynchburg: real estate, houses)

[EscapeFloriduh]

Originally from Chicago (technically a close-in pre-1900 suburb, walkable to the L) we moved to Florida for both a change of pace and to be near family.

Well, other than a few progressive/educated pockets, Florida is where you go to check out. A great place to vacation but for us, not the best place to live. While schlepping around with kids is a lot easier in sun vs snow, as kindergarten approaches, the realty of a Florida education is staring us in the face. We miss the amenities, opportunities, and people in a cosmopolitan urban area and are ready to trade convenience and warmth for an overall more enriching lifestyle.

That said, we're looking at moving to DC, Charlotte, or Atlanta with the common denominator being a large city in the Southeast. Each has its pros and cons... and tons of suburbs. While we've visited all three, we're hoping for advice on neighborhoods in the DC area that are similar to Oak Park/River Forest or Evanston/Wilmette in the Chicago area.

Key points are: highly educated (read 25-30%+ with grad degrees), friendly, tight knit (meaning a lot of people have many friends within a walkable and/or compact neighborhood vs sprawled all over three states), great public schools, somewhat urban, shops/restaurants, close to transit, convenient to all the reasons you'd move to DC. Antonym: Loudoun or PG counties. Ideally $500-700k for a SFH. Thanks!

[VAviaCA]

Do you know where you and/or significant other will be working? Traffic in the DC-Metro is awful and you'd want to make sure you don't put yourself in a horrible commute situation.

[EscapeFloriduh]

Originally Posted by VAviaCA

Do you know where you and/or significant other will be working? Traffic in the DC-Metro is awful and you'd want to make sure you don't put yourself in a horrible commute situation.

Right now I have the luxury of owning an online retail business so I can work wherever. At some point, I'll probably get a W-2 job because I miss the interaction and would find something near public transit. My wife works in non-profit so she'd likely be working somewhere in DC, most likely near a Metro stop.

EDIT: Dealing with traffic would be one of the trade-offs we know we'll face moving back to an urban area, so we'd want to be strategic/transit friendly.

[JfromReston]

Originally Posted by EscapeFloriduh

Key points are: highly educated (read 25-30%+ with grad degrees), friendly, tight knit (meaning a lot of people have many friends within a walkable and/or compact neighborhood vs sprawled all over three states), great public schools, somewhat urban, shops/restaurants, close to transit, convenient to all the reasons you'd move to DC. Antonym: Loudoun or PG counties. Ideally $500-700k for a SFH. Thanks!

You are going to have a hard time finding places like Chicago in NOVA. This area is just different. I'm a transplant from the upper mid-west.

You should check out Reston. Reston and Tysons are a new type of urban in the suburbs. Metro now goes to Reston and many people use it to commute to DC - though you need to plan on about an hour commute. Reston is highly educated - I just checked on City-Data at it lists it as 30.6% with graduate degrees. We have an excellent village center/walking path system along with 15 swimming pools. Fairfax public schools are some of the best in the country and there is only one elementary school that I would not recommend (Dogwood). Your housing budget will fit right into the middle of Reston's real estate spectrum.

Let me know if you have any questions, I'll be happy to help. I also spent 20 years living in Atlanta and may be helpful for some comparisons.

[leighland]

Since you are from Chicagoland (not Chicago) I would suggest Maryland. Its Familiar enough to the towns along Metra but very EastCoasty in culture which you would no doubt enjoy.
MD has more of a reverence for historical buildings. VA tends to knock stuff down and build strip malls. (An aside, the 1930's Baptist Church on Church Rd and Davis Drive was just knocked down this week-BOO!!)
Also there is a more of an emphasis to take Public Trans. In Virginia, we tend to drive to the Metro subway, except for a few areas.
If you are insistent on Nova, I would suggest Shirlington, Cherryville, Falls Church City zipcode 22046 and City of Fairfax.
We have a regional transist system we call VRE and its very very very limited-not at all all like the L or Metra

[LynchburgLover]

Originally Posted by leighland

Since you are from Chicagoland (not Chicago) I would suggest Maryland. Its Familiar enough to the towns along Metra but very EastCoasty in culture which you would no doubt enjoy.
MD has more of a reverence for historical buildings. VA tends to knock stuff down and build strip malls. (An aside, the 1930's Baptist Church on Church Rd and Davis Drive was just knocked down this week-BOO!!)
Also there is a more of an emphasis to take Public Trans. In Virginia, we tend to drive to the Metro subway, except for a few areas.
If you are insistent on Nova, I would suggest Shirlington, Cherryville, Falls Church City zipcode 22046 and City of Fairfax.
We have a regional transist system we call VRE and its very very very limited-not at all all like the L or Metra

Maryland is also more "progressive" politically. They're discussing sanctuary state status, very strict gun control laws, etc.

[leighland]

Originally Posted by LynchburgLover

Maryland is also more "progressive" politically. They're discussing sanctuary state status, very strict gun control laws, etc.

Progressive is very very Oak Park and she said she's from there. Again, more inline with Maryland, not so with Virginia. Our current D governor and AG are out due to term limits in the Commonwealth. No term limits in MD

[ZeroiaSD]

Originally Posted by LynchburgLover

Maryland is also more "progressive" politically. They're discussing sanctuary state status, very strict gun control laws, etc.

Yea, NoVa is very progressive, but not all the rest of VA.

[LynchburgLover]

Originally Posted by ZeroiaSD

Yea, NoVa is very progressive, but not all the rest of VA.

Parts of NoVa are; it's very purple. Western Loudoun, pockets of Arlington, McLean, Great Falls, a good bit of Pwc are still pretty red.

Close in Montgomery and PG are really blue and have been for generations, with the exceptions of a small pocket of Potomac and Poolesville.

Still think he/she would be happier in Montgomery.

[ACWhite]

No part of Arlington is red, unless you want to get down to specific houses! Check out the results from recent elections--federal and state. It is very blue to purple.

My neighborhood (along with parts of 22207) is one of the least blue in the County, and I think we generally vote ~65% Dem, with some 3rd party. McLean is also more blue to purple than you're describing.