Apt Complexes in NoVa to Consider (Arlington, Alexandria: apartments, condominium, luxury)

[mjlynch]

Im going down to NoVa (from philly) next week to find a place to live. I will be working in falls church, right where the beltway and rt 50 cross. I would love to hear what people think about 1) potential areas to live and 2) individual apt complexes.

Price range: $1500 - 2000
1-2 BRs

I must be able to have 2 cats, be able to have reliable parking (space, lot, or garage...no street parking only), a w/d in unit and the shorter the commute the better. (no more than 30 mins).

Im very flexible and I would enjoy the 'city' life as well as being in a more quite suburb (im from jersey so Im used to densly populated suburbs). Specifically, i plan to look at Arlington (Ballston, Clarendon), Alexadria, and the Falls church area of FFX county. Other than the places that have internet sites I have no idea where to start looking. Even after looking through rent.com and other sites I still have about 50 places I cant decide between.

Could people please tell me where they live and if they like it / hate it? Also could you tell me some places that would be worth checking out when im down there?

I really appreciate the time people take to answer questions on this forum. God Bless!
Mike

[akorosdc]

It's not that close, but I lived in Alexandria near 395 and loved it there. We lived in Archstone Newport Village, which was a good experience. You can have the cats (I had one), although there is a fee and pet rent. In all honesty, I didn't bother paying the fee/rent. Enough people live there with animals that it was easy to get by without getting caught. I also have friends living in Foxchase (5 minutes from Archstone) who love it. It's cheaper than Archstone, but the places are pretty nice. Certain buildings allow pets, but I'm not sure what fees and all would apply. Both of these places include parking and have buses or shuttles to the metro stations. As for the commute, it'd be closer to 30 minutes in the morning, but it probably wouldn't be too bad. The only thing I'd really advise is not taking 395S to 495, it'll put you through the mixing bowl at Springfield which can be pure hell.

There's also other complexes near there that seemed nice, although I don't have any firsthand experience. It's a great location, very easy to get most places by car (Old Town 10-15 minutes, DC 15 minutes, Shirlington 5 minutes, Pentagon City 10 minutes, N. Arlington 15 minutes).

[DFinnerty]

There are some shady spots right about where you are looking, a few miles in either direction you can probably find something nicer for the money.

[blossom4792]

I've lived in 3 complexes: Courtland Towers (Arlington; courthouse metro); Meridian at Courthouse (Courthouse metro) and Lillian Court in Tysons, where I still own a unit (a condo). Courtland Towers was fine - perfect, definitely a "luxury" place, but just sort of "a place to sleep while you are working like crazy in the city"; the Meridian was fancy and extremely nice; Lillian Court is a condominium, requires a drive to the metro, but fancy and extremely nice. You might like something like the Ballston metro area in Arlington which is a couple of additional stops; not sure what apartments are at the Clarendon metro, but that might be good. I'm just giving you what is called the "Orange" line. If I had to do it over again I'd try to find something older and elegant in the city.