Relo to Gaithersburg (work) and Bethesda (school). Where to live? Help! (Rockville: to rent, houses)

[rclwright]

Hey, everyone. This forum is amazing. My situation:

I'm relocating from the North East to a job in Gaithersburg MD, yet the school that we really want my daughter to attend is in Bethesda.

- any suggestions for a safe community with single family home (new construction or relatively recent)? AND anywhere near $650k? Olney/Brookeville could be nice but is the commute even from there down to Bethesda a nightmare in the morning?

- is commute in from Northern VA reasonable at all? Even at early morning hours?

- anything in the Potomac (western side of 270) area that isn't insane?

Thanks all!
C.

[Kensington]

I think Olney/Brookeville is a lovely area. I also think that the area is inconvenient for commuting and getting around the metropolitan region because you are a good distance from the major highways.

I would not want to do the Olney to Bethesda commute, especially if it's for school. Even without traffic I think it would be at least a half hour. Once you add rush hour traffic, it could be more like 45 minutes+. Hopefully there is somebody on the board who has done that commute and can give you a specific amount of time.

If you are really set on the school in Bethesda, why not live there? You could find an older home for $650,000 and then reverse commute up to Gaithersburg, and have a happy commuting life indeed. A lot of people make the choice to live in smaller, older homes to cut down on commuting times. I also think most of your daughter's classmates will live downcounty (that's closer to DC) so visiting friends, afterschool activities, etc. are going to bring you into Bethesda anyway. This is just a thought. I completely understand wanting to live in a newer house. My current home is the most expensive house I've ever owned, and it's the smallest and oldest-- by a lot!

[Gixxer05]

I live in Olney and commute to Bethesda everyday for work. It's pretty bad i must say, at least I do not enjoy the commute. It's about 40-45 minutes in the mornings and about 40-50 minutes on the way home, always longer on the way home.

Brookeville would be another 5-10 minutes on top of Olney's commute. Without traffic its about 25-30 minutes, not too bad, but that only happens on holidays.

Olney/Brookeville is a great place to live, but i agree with Kensington that it is not convienent if you want to travel around the DC Metro area.

[rclwright]

Kensington, Gixxer,
Thanks for the responses.
Gixxer: Are Olney and Brookeville relatively safe? Which neigborhoods around G'burg are NOT safe?

And finally, if I were to start my commute down from the Olney area down to Bethesda at, say, 630am, would that help the commute time? When is it at its worst?

THANKS!
rclw

[claremarie]

If you live in Bethesda, or in between Bethesda and Gaithersburg, you will essentially be making a reverse commute to work. I'd look at the communities within easy reach of 270, such as Rockville and Potomac. If you have to drive your child to school AND then drive to work, your best bet will be to compromise on the new construction issue and live in Bethesda.

[scooterdog]

I relocated to this area 1 1/2 years ago, and chose to rent a house in Darnestown instead of buying.

You can find nice (but a bit older, '70s) houses in the $650K range in Potomac now - prices have dropped some 10-15% in this range in Potomac. (You have to be selective though as that is close to the bottom of what you can find there.) We just entered into a contract and are very pleased with our choice.

In the area we rent in ("North Potomac", just west of Gaithersburg) we saw a listing yesterday (MLS #MC6319819) for $675K, newer construction ('82) but commuting to Bethesda makes it impractical - that extra 6 miles = additional 20 minutes due to traffic.

We used the time we rented to check out a lot of areas, and coming from Southern California we thought it would be easy to find something we liked - well were we in for a surprise!

[titaniummd]

To get an idea of traffic congestion, look at www.trafficland.com or Chart on the Web:

http://www.chart.state.md.us/MapNet/...x2=0&y1=0&y2=0

Also www.wtopnews.com shows traffic information.

Commutes from VA are worse.