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Moving to Washington D.C.
Derrick
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Registered User regular
Hello All,
Due to an awesome job offer for my girlfriend and many job opportunities up that way for me, we are moving to our nation's capital (or close around it). The metro system sounds great, and my GF has interned there and loved it. So, we really would like to be able to use it. Problem is, D.C. also has a crime problem.
The rub is, we have to move in under 2 weeks, and we won't be able to inspect an apartment ourselves before we get up there. What we don't want to do is land in a crummy neighborhood and get locked into gang-member central for the duration of the lease.
Does anyone have any advice on where to look? I imagine this gives somewhat of a decent picture of the areas to live in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Dc-unemployment_aug2006.png (it gives the unemployment figures, as well as this http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/metro/specials/homicide/ (murder map, but it's 5-10 years old I think). Now we aren't destitute or anything but we are moving into new jobs pretty much just out of college, so we don't have much in the way of savings just yet.
So, maybe a few bulleted questions-
- What is a decent price for an apartment in D.C.?
(From what I've read 700/mo for 1 bed is too good to be true. What about around 900-1000 ?)
- What areas do we specifically want to avoid? (Neighborhoods/Quadrants)
- If D.C. just sucks total balls, where is the next best (close) area and do you peeps have any recommendations?
Thanks
Due to an awesome job offer for my girlfriend and many job opportunities up that way for me, we are moving to our nation's capital (or close around it). The metro system sounds great, and my GF has interned there and loved it. So, we really would like to be able to use it. Problem is, D.C. also has a crime problem.
The rub is, we have to move in under 2 weeks, and we won't be able to inspect an apartment ourselves before we get up there. What we don't want to do is land in a crummy neighborhood and get locked into gang-member central for the duration of the lease.
Does anyone have any advice on where to look? I imagine this gives somewhat of a decent picture of the areas to live in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Dc-unemployment_aug2006.png (it gives the unemployment figures, as well as this http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/metro/specials/homicide/ (murder map, but it's 5-10 years old I think). Now we aren't destitute or anything but we are moving into new jobs pretty much just out of college, so we don't have much in the way of savings just yet.
So, maybe a few bulleted questions-
- What is a decent price for an apartment in D.C.?
(From what I've read 700/mo for 1 bed is too good to be true. What about around 900-1000 ?)
- What areas do we specifically want to avoid? (Neighborhoods/Quadrants)
- If D.C. just sucks total balls, where is the next best (close) area and do you peeps have any recommendations?
Thanks
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No place is really worse than another place as long as you're not involved in the drug trade and your neighbors aren't actually crackheads living in boarded up houses. Those places are typically easy to spot (if for no other reason than the rent is much cheaper than other areas).
DC is mostly built up all the way around the capital beltway, and the prices increase the closer you are to a metro stop. As long as you don't get involved in buying/selling drugs, your odds of coming up against random crime is pretty low in most cities.
I pay $1250 a month for my 1 bedroom apartment btw. That's a flat rate, utilities included minus cable/internet. I live in Falls Church, VA in a pretty good apartment complex, but I've seen cheaper places too. Really depends on what you're looking for, and where though. But I'm right out of college and haven't had a problem - plus I'm assuming you'll have two incomes coming in.
I'm still new to the area, so Eggy probably knows the "bad" areas better than me.
I just moved from the DC area back in September. First off, congrats to the lady for landing an awesome job there. I miss that area so much. There is always something going on, it's a young fun culture, etc.. just a really cool place to be.
However, I didn't live in DC. I would highly recommend checking out Northern Virginia, specifically Alexandria.
I had a one bedroom place there for just over 900 that was within walking distance to a metro that was was 4 stops to the heart of downtown DC. The place was also in a really great neighborhood. Lots of local shops, restaurants, cool people all in walking distance..safe too.
http://www.japroperties.com/
These guys were my property management company. Great people, always took care of the place. I was in the Glendale Apartments in Alexandria.
My place was all utilities included (many in VA are).
If you're looking to land this in 2 weeks..give them a call. I don't know if they have openings or not.
As for other places in and around that area, shoot me a PM and I can try and help out.
1 bedrooms in Alexandria for between 700 and 1500 in pretty nice places.
It's worth playing around on that site..it's where I found the two places I live in there.
I don't know about prices anymore, but I lived up NW in Friendship Heights, just off the DC line with Maryland, and there were lots of people who hired out large basements as flats. Might be a possibility. Nice area too.
Rockville & places on the Maryland border are certainly easy to commute from, though I have no idea about the areas themselves - but they certainly aren't obviously hellish from what I saw.
I want to argue that crime isn't that big of a problem unless the perpetrator knows the victim, but anecdotal evidence lately (from my friends, not me) seems to be swaying against me. Hell, I'm having a hard enough time keeping assholes from throwing their trash in my trashcan after the truck's come around on trash day! I don't think I would give it up by going to NoVA at all, though. Sure, you may be four blocks from a metro station that'll take you anywhere in the city (and I do love the metro, even the buses). But I live right next to freaking Chinatown! How's that for convenience!
Also, make sure to check Craigslist daily. It may not be the best option, as places on there go very, very quickly, but you'll least get a good idea of prices and neighborhoods by keeping an eye on it.
Due to an awesome job offer for my girlfriend and many job opportunities up that way for me, we are moving to our nation's capital (or close around it). The metro system sounds great, and my GF has interned there and loved it. So, we really would like to be able to use it. Problem is, D.C. also has a crime problem.
Good luck to you on the job hunting
As far as the metro system, yeah, it sounds great, and it usually isn't too bad most days. However, be prepared for it to not be very pleasant also - depending on where exactly you go to/from, it will have a pile of confused tourists in the mix at most times of the year, trains will break down halfway through the evening rush hour and quadruple your commute, all the stuff you would expect from a large public transit system.
Bullet #1 - I've never lived right in DC, when I lived in Alexandria it was $850/month +electric +water +trash for a 1-bedroom, and we're paying $1200/month (utilities included) for a 1.5-bed condo in Annandale at the moment.
Bullet #2 - again, I don't have any experience living in DC, everywhere i've seen in Northern Virginia has been pretty nice - Annandale has been great so far, Alexandria was a bit more run-down but very livable (although not so much where I was), ditto for Falls Church. Vienna is VERY nice and more suburban, but the rent is correspondingly higher, Tyson's Corner and McLean are very urban and even more expensive rentwise.
Bullet #3 - see above. I really don't recommend living downtown in DC, but your personal preference may vary widely. I grew up in upstate NY near Syracuse, and I don't think my soul could handle living in quite that urban an environment.
You may want to check out http://www.apartmentratings.com/ , keeping in mind that such sites tend to attract a disproportionate number of disgruntled people, unless the complex is mind-blowingly amazing.
I just wanted to re-iterate that.
I live in Alexandria, stay away from the Landmark area near where Duke st. and 395 meet. Traffic is shitty and there's no real redeeming features except that it's cheaper, and of course, you get what you pay for.
I pay $1219 monthly right where I just said not to go, 1-bd, 750 or so sq feet, utilities minus cable, internet and water (which is like $19 a month). No washer and dryer in the unit, which I hate so much.
Closing statement: Do not move into Orleans Village or Virginia Village on 236.
They're just boring as hell. It's pretty much all suburban areas and everyone is pretty much either in high school or below or else they're 30 or above so that's what the businesses cater to (ie, lots of family dining restaurants and few bars or really good restaurants). Plus, MD is due for a bunch of big tax increases soon if the governor gets his way. Seriously, look at northern Virginia.
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Hello.
Seconded. This was almost the exact area where I lived in Alexandria, and I couldn't wait to get out. Tons of traffic noise, run-down environment, random day-laborers using the abandoned parking lot across the street as a daily socializing area, etc.
Also seconded. As well, stay the hell away from the EOS-21 complex on Van Dorn. I know I said earlier to take apartmentratings.com with a grain of salt, but seriously, the place has over FOUR HUNDRED reviews, with only 21% of them recommending.
Hello also
True. Oh, God, the strongest reason I had to go to college was to get the hell out of Waldorf (one of the largest suburban areas south of DC). I always say, I'm pretty sure the only reason anyone in my high school got laid was because there was absolutely nothing better to do.
DC does have a fairly high crime rate, but it's nowhere near as high now as it was years ago. Most of the crime is intra-criminal stuff; dealers getting shot, gang stuff, that kind of thing. If I recall correctly, the crime rate against non-criminals is pretty similar to that of any major city. Just take normal precautions (don't carry a lot of cash or expensive electronics, don't wander around alone and drunk, be alert when walking around) and you'll likely be fine.
I do love the Metro; it's nowhere near as awesome as the NYC subway or the London trains, but for what it is, I like it. It's generally very clean, the underground stations look like V-Ger, and you can get across the city without driving, always good for a night out.
Del Ray near Braddock road is where it's at.
The link in my above post left out 1 bedrooms near Landmark. My first place down there was Southern Towers at the corner of 395 and Seminary...oh god, what a fucking shit hole.
Oh hey
That was on our list of places to look, because Leanna doesn't want to extend her five minute commute much longer.
My friend Andy moved down here from Rochester as well.
Sorry, I meant Southern Towers.
EDIT FOR SUBSTANCE.
Since we've been looking: There is a huge chunk of reasonable apartments in Chantilly where 50 and 66 met. It's near the airport, there's some traffic, it will be right in the mix of things traveling into DC in the morning, but all in all, I've really liked every place I've visited when I had some friends out there.
We're thinking about heading that way ourselves
I'd avoid it, man.
Spacious and afforable, and that's about where the goodness stops.
Fire alarms going off at all hours of the day and night, cranky building management, the general smell up in the hallways (the lobby looks nice though), and the roaches..oh god...the roaches.
Yeah, there's a few of us around here. I got a bunch of us together awhile back, NotACrook came up with some high school reunion excuse to not go. :P
I'm sure there's more of us than I know about here as I didn't exactly spam the boards.
Since EVERYONE ELSE lives here, so will I
I actually live just south of this area at 28/29ish. Close to 66.
I am very very suburb-like though. All I need is a Best Buy (A couple miles) Taco Bell (There too - but TOO far for taco bell to be in all honesty) and a supermarket close by so I like this area. I actually LOVED Reston when I lived there which is North (Closer to the airport if that's your thing like mine).
Our new thing up here are yuppie villiages. Nice shopping centers that avoid the strip mall look but have the usual stuff like a cleaners, a Pei Wei, a Panera, a coffee shop etc. They are popping up even in places formally known as crappy like Herndon.
Have a few friends who rent down that way and one who just bought a place. They seem to really like it and there's generally stuff around there.
While I was living up there, I paid $600/mo for rent in a house with 3 other people. $90 for utilities. $900 to $1000 is on par with a one bedroom condo. ReadExpress is good for finding places to live, I also suggest Craigslist.org.
You can commute in from further out like Annandale (VA), Alexandria (VA) or Bethesda (MD), but traffic sucks in DC. Your commute time to the center of DC will be on average 45 min. What you end up gaining by living further out is a slightly lower rent ($700-$800 one bedroom condo) and more space. What you lose is a shorter commute, you now have to drive for everything and you can no longer go out to neat events on a whim.
What you hear about the homicide rate in DC is pretty much localized in SE DC. The Anacostia area and across the river into Prince George's county MD attracts crime and poverty. You'll want to stay away from Congress Heights and Anacostia. Our escaped inmates, four lane car crashes, gang violence and drug lords all reside there. Otherwise crime is low north of DC (Bethesda) and in Virginia.
Maryland is retarded on all levels. Don't let anyone convince you otherwise. I live there now.
p.s. use wmata.com to find the generic places I'm talking about.
Edit:
Man, living in Virginia is bad news.
Maryland is where it's at.
Edit: Just to clarify something for you, while there are definitelyparts of P.G. county to avoid, not ALL of the county in crime infested; there are actually some rather nice areas. There is also a property tax cap, if you're into thatsort of thing.
The ONLY thing MD has going for it is sellin' the hooch whenever they damn well please.
ABC (Alcohol Beverage Company) stores suck teh donkey dick.
Note that Montgomery County, aka the nicer county to live in of the two closest to DC, does the state control of liquor thing so for the purposes of this thread, MD doesn't exactly have that either.
Seriously, stay the hell away from MD unless you want to be bored out of your mind.
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Inside the city proper, only certain parts of NW are good. The rest of it is pretty bad.
I'd advise living slightly outside of the city but still on the metro. Traffic can be hell. Arlington and Alexandria for VA, and Bethesda for MD.
When I lived in the actual city I ended up paying over 1500 a month for a god damn studio (though it was very nice), rent was crazy in Dupont... and I knew people that paid more. Now I live in Roslyn (literally right across the bridge from Georgetown) and I pay 1000 for a much larger apartment.
The crime rate is worth talking about. While it's true that "most" of the crime is confined to SE and PG county, parts of NE (and even NW) do have bad areas.
Also the people from SE have started taking the metro to more affluent areas, easier to mug people and they carry more cash, there have also been some cases of people going to the nicer areas to rape people. Though in general as long as you stay in areas with a lot of foot traffic, nothing will happen. Also whenever someone gets shot/mugged/raped in the nicer areas all hell breaks loose and the cops are all over it.
Move to Arlington/Alex or NW, don't get sucked into Maryland, the only good part is Bethesda and even that has issues.
Renting in Reston isn't bad because people got stuck with townhouses they now have to break even on. You can rent nice big places for 1500-1900, so three roommates can get a good deal. I actually pay more now in Centreville then I did in Reston. Herndon would be not bad if the crime wasn't so bad. I heard it's getting better though.
except for the whole commute part. that blows.
there is a train if that helps.
http://www.mtamaryland.com/
Oh, and the taxes. they went up a metric fuckton at the first of the year. They might repeal them however. who the hell knows. so on second thought, go somewhere else.
If you want a super-safe, sterilized place, then live in Virginia. But you can definitely go cheaper and more fun if you don't limit yourself to the Dupont Area. I love my neighborhood, and there's U Street, Catholic U, Logan Circle, Cleveland Park (although this can also be kinda expensive) and other places in NW that are great.
Yeah, and Maryland is awful. Any part that you would want to live in is going to be WAY outside the city and a horribly long commute.
Just trying to stick up for the horrible crime-infested ghetto here.
As with what everyone else has said, avoid SE. All DC addresses are "Street address NW/NE/SE/SW." NW is where most of the good areas are: U St, Dupont, Logan, Columbia Heights, Mt. Pleasant, Chinatown, etc.
As for the slightly out of DC areas: Silver Spring is nice and not too expensive. Bethesda is a more expensive Silver Spring. And Arlington is another good place.
Mainly it comes down to what your commute will be and what you're willing to deal with on a daily basis. If you can avoid the beltway and 66, do it.
Personal opinion: NoVA is nice but very suburby which isn't great for a young professional. Silver Spring and Bethesda are both very nice and a good mix of suburban/urban, but I loved living downtown and able to just get up and do practically anything on a whim. I plan on moving back downtown asap. Cheapo ways to live downtown would be to find a row house or other group situation, apartments will be expensive, but there are reasonably priced apartments if you look hard enough.
*EDIT* Yes MD sucks. Having to go to a liquor store just to buy beer? Ugh! That's what grocery stores are for. Plus MD roads and drivers are crappy! Virginia is vastly superior to MD. As a whole there's also a lot more shady areas of MD than in VA.
Thanks everyone for both your help and advice. Zip, this goes double and perhaps triple for you. You've got a beer on me anytime you want to take me up on it (or equivalent, if beer isn't your cup o' )