Where should I live in DC area? (Washington: apartment, rental)

[BrockLanders]

Hello,

I have an offer to work in DC and would love to get some advice on where I should consider living. I would be moving from Pittsburgh, PA. My circumstances are a bit unusual. For the job, I will be working in and around the DC area but not in an office setting. Instead, I will be traveling in and around the city in a company car gathering information from clients. It is not a 9-5 job, thus I can schedule appointments to avoid traffic. (Woo hoo!) I will not need to live close to public transportation.

I will be renting to begin and will be on a single income. Basically, I am just looking for a simple, safe place to live.

What I would prefer:
- a suburbany area close to nature
- a town within 40-45 miles of DC at the most
- a safe area

Am willing to sacrifice on:
- size: will live in small, even efficiency apartment
- metro access: do not need to live within walking distance of public transportation
- nightlife: do not need to live in "hip" area (though it would be nice)

Thusfar, I have researched places like Fredericksburg, Leesburg, Olney, Bowie, Columbia, Waldorf. Since I will be able to avoid major traffic, should I even consider further-out cities like Charlottesville or Richmond? Or would the drive itseef be too much of a pain, even when avoiding prime traffic hours?[SIZE=2][/SIZE]

Thanks for taking to the time to read this. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[CHIP72]

I would think you'd want to live somewhere near the Beltway and/or one of the major roads that goes into or through the District, like the Baltimore-Washington Parkway (MD 295/I-295) or US 50.

You should give a doable rental price range, because DC is much, much more expensive than Pittsburgh.

[claremarie]

If you haven't spent much time in the DC area, you might be surprised to find that there is significant traffic at the so-called "non-rush" hours. It's not like Pittsburgh (where I grew up). Unless you can schedule all of your appointments between, say, 11 am and 1 pm, traffic will be a major consideration. If most of your appointments are in places like downtown DC, Tyson's Corner, Rockville, Reston, Vienna, the Dulles area, Ballston, College Park, and Silver Spring, you're definitely going to want to live near the Beltway. Living in a place like Fredericksburg means that you'll be spending three hours a day commuting from home to the DC metro area (not to mention that you will have spent most of the rest of the time driving around as well). Living in Richmond or Charlottesville would be out of the question.
You might consider finding out where most of the clients are, figuring out a housing budget, and then returning here for more suggestions.

[smlaker]

I agree with the previous poster, stay far away from fredricksburg and richmond or anything south of DC. No matter what time of day, you will be sitting in traffic. I recommend staying west of DC in a virginia suburb anywhere between Tysons Corner and Leesburg (Cascades, reston, ashburn) close to Dulles Intl. airport is a plus.

Charlotsville is just plain undoable. I have a summer home just beyond that and you would need to commute up Rt. 29 which is stoplight after stopight not to mention speedtrap after speedtrap. it will take you three hours one way.

[BrockLanders]

Thanks for the advice! I like the idea of living in a western suburb - will now avoid south of DC.

As for rent, is 1500 a month doable? It's a bit of a stretch for me but I could make it work.

Should I spend time looking into living north or east of the beltway?

Best,
BrockLanders

[Zippy7fo]

I would recommend Silver Spring or Arlington...you'll have close access to 495 plus metro when gas goes over 10 bucks a gallon. Columbia is another option and since you control your schedule driving after 9am on I-95 isn't bad....

[akorosdc]

With $1500/mo for a 1 bed or studio, you've pretty much got your pick of areas. A lot I know make do on $900-1000 (close to or in DC). If that's your budget, I'd say stick within the Beltway, since the traffic is much much better than outside. My friend in Vienna complains that she can't even go to the grocery store before 7:30pm because of the traffic.

Silver Spring, Arlington, and Alexandria are all nice (or at least have nice areas). Further away from a metro, you should have no problem finding a nice place in your price range, since that's what really drives up the rents in the area. N. Arlington is pretty popular, especially around Clarendon and Ballston. I've never actually been there, but most like it. S. Arlington is also nice, but it's main draw is the metro and proximity to downtown DC, so if you don't need that it may not be the place for you. Alexandria has Old Town, which is a historic area with a lot of restaurants, bars, and shops, and it's pretty easy to drive to. There's also Del Ray in Alexandria, which has more of a small-town feel.

I really liked where I lived in the western part of Alexandria (near 395 & King), and for driving it's very convenient. It only took about 15 minutes to get into DC (20 during rush hour), 10 minutes to 495. Since most of the traffic was local, rush hour lasted from about 5:30-6:00, and outside the highway and parts of King Street (which were easy to get around) that meant you'd see 10 cars on the road with you. You're also 15 minutes from Old Town and Del Ray and 10 from Shirlington (Arlington), so there's a lot to do close by.

[NOVAmtneer82]

I would suggest staying in the closer-in western suburbs considering traffic on I-66 is nearly as bad as the gridlock on I-95 heading south of town. There are many great places to live inside the beltway along I-66 or close by, check out Arlington, Falls Church, McLean/Tysons, or even Alexandria.

As others have mentioned, there is only a VERY small window of time when traffic on DC area roads isn't bad to downright awful, that would be earlier than 630am, 11am-1pm, and after about 7 or 8pm. Good luck!

[BrockLanders]

Thanks, everyone for the advice. It was very helpful! I went from thinking it would be better to live further out to looking closer to the city center. I'm definitely focusing on the inner-belt western suburbs like Arlington. Best!

[Bluefly]

There's a lot of open space in and near the city. The idea that you have to live in the hinterlands to breath nature is quite a myth - especially in DC. Even if you lived in Upper Northwest, you'd be right near Rock Creek Park which is a huge, beautiful forested park.