I am going to be relocating to D.C. at the beginning of June and I am hoping that someone from that area can tell me about some of the apartment options there. I have already been through a number of apartment search sites and I'm going to be heading out there mid May to look in person. I'm just looking for some advice so that I can limit the scope of my search somewhat.
I am going to be splitting time between two offices in the D.C. area. One is right next to the Metro Center station, and the other is right next to the Court House station, both of which are on the Orange line. For that reason, I've mostly been looking at areas near the Orange line, or on the Blue line since I can transfer at Rosslyn. So Crystal City, Rosslyn, Courthouse, Clarendon, Ballston, all seem like reasonable options. Are there are other areas I should be thinking about or is there is a specific place in one of those areas you would recommend?
When I was out to interview I walked by a couple of the apartments near the Court House station that looked nice enough from the outside (
Courtland Towers,
Archstone Courthouse Plaza,
Arlington Courthouse Place). We're looking for something like a large 1BR or a small 2BR around $1500-$1800 a month. Any suggestions or recommendations are greatly appreciated.
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Honestly, anywhere along the metro is fine. At some point or another you can cross and get where you're headed. There's also buses and such.
It seems like you've got realistic rent expectations. Stay out of Southeast/southwest (housing wise, unless you're into Alexandria/Arlington VA). Some parts of Northeast are shady too. I looked at a place on M NW and it was...not welcoming.
Other than that, just get a feel for the place and take a walk by at night and see what it's like.
How old are you? Do you go out a lot? Know people down here? All these will affect where you'll want to live.
About me: I'm married, 32, Wife is 33. We're both Phoenix natives and have never lived out on the east cost before. We don't know anyone out there, we don't have any family or friends anywhere east of the Mississippi actually. We've never had a chance to live in a downtown/urban environment (there's no such thing in Phoenix really) and we're looking forward to that. We have two cars but will probably only bring 1 since parking seems a bit outrageous.
I currently live in Ballston but I'll be moving to another part of Arlington this summer. If you have any specific questions about the area let me know.
From Google Maps the areas appear a little less developed and look a little more suburban (surrounded by tiny houses) but it's hard to tell without being there in person.
Boring and not much there. If you’re looking at Maryland get a place in Bethesda or Silver Spring. But the best way to do DC is to just sell your car and live near a metro station in Downtown DC, west of 14 St and south of U St.
At the risk of sounding politically incorrect, Wheaton is home to a lot of the area's day laborers and there have been gang shootings at the Wheaton mall. Take that for what you will.
I'd stick with Clarendon or Courthouse if you're not going to live in the District.
Also, trying to get from MD to Arlington by car in the mornings (and the reverse in the evenings) would be one of the worst commutes imaginable.
I lived there for two years, moved to Courthouse, and never looked back.
We'll see.
If we ever decide to have kids, I'm not exactly clear on what we'd do because the public schools in the district can be fairly horrible.
Maybe they just don't like hanging out with YOU. Lay off my peeps! There's some serious benefits to living in the Commonwealth, not least of all not having to deal with the District government/dmv/police/etc.
ps-do I know you?!?
Move to Tenleytown and send them to a private school like everyone else does.
Regarding crime, it’s not just Fort Totten and Wheaton. Many areas of the District and its nearby suburbs are crime-ridden shitholes. Southeast DC is the worst; public gang shootouts still happen down in Anacostia. Within NW DC it tends to be very localized to areas near conglomerations of public housing. To spot public housing in DC look for the usual large repetitive building with surrounding fences, but also watch for smaller apartment buildings with lots of window unit air conditioners and NO LOITERING signs. If you plan to live near a park, drive by it on a Saturday afternoon to see if its used by drug dealers or soccer players.
I used to always recommend that new people just suck up the high prices and spend the first year in Dupont Circle or Georgetown and then move after you know more about the area. That’s probably still good advice.
Your crime myths are kind of questionable actually. Some areas in NE like the Trinidad have had some bad high profile violent crime, and there's a lot of non-random violent crime in SE, but there's a lot of crime in NW, too. It just skews towards more thefts, muggings and sexual assaults.
The shorthand explanation is that the people committing crimes live near Navy Yard, but they have to travel up to Lincoln Park or over to Foggy Bottom to find people carrying enough cash where robbing them isn't a complete waste of time. Sort of like how there are more homeless people pan-handling per block in Georgetown than there within two miles of the Rhode Island Ave metro stop. They go where the money is, then they go home.
edit: I have to back up Darkewolfe on his "peoples from NOVA be douches" point. You all are to Washington DC what people from Jersey are to NYC. I'm sorry, but there ya go.
False (conditional on where in Arlington)...I commute daily down 95 from route 214 in MD (exit 15 to the bridge) and I hit virtually no traffic delays. So if you're going to the Alexandria side of Arlington, just get the highway after the bridge and hook 1 north. Should be fine.
False (conditional on where in Arlington)...I commute daily down 95 from route 214 in MD (exit 15 to the bridge) and I hit virtually no traffic delays. So if you're going to the Alexandria side of Arlington, just get the highway after the bridge and hook 1 north. Should be fine.
Another complication is that my wife doesn't have a job offer out there yet, so she'll probably still be looking when we first get there. As a result, it would be nice if she had a car just in case she needs to get someplace not near the metro. On a related note: Anyone need to hire an accountant?
I don't think so, no.
I've lived in D.C. (admittedly Rosedale) for 700 a month. I lived in Chinatown for 900 a month. You just have to hunt really hard for a month or two on craigslist.
Yeah, seriously think about this. I live in Annandale, it takes me 45 minutes or so to go from the Dunn Loring metro to Gallery Place where I walk a couple blocks to work. Beats the hell outta fighting traffic and paying for parking.
Do you actually drive up Rt. 1 from 95? I haven't made the drive recently, but Rt. 1 is pretty nightmarish in the mornings and evenings. And he said he's working in Courthouse, so down 95 across the Wilson and up Rt. 1 to 110 to Rosslyn is pretty much the most roundabout way to get from north of DC to Arlington possible.
And Talondel, don't listen to the people being all judgy-mcjudge about people who live in Virginia. I don't really know who shoved the stick up their asses. Arlington is a perfectly nice place to live. I hope they are kidding about people in Virginia being douches.
When I worked in Hart it took me 10 minutes to walk to work. I could also always get home no matter how late I'd been out drinking with friends in Dupont.
Definitely want to check out Craigslist for apartments around here. There are some really good finds if you just watch for a month or so.
I visited an apartment in the Westover Village part of Arlington today and liked what I saw. It's not in the shady "Westover Apartments" complex that I've heard bad things about, it's a three story building with like 9 apartments in it. Does anyone have any experience/advice/random anecdotes about that area? It seems like a great fit - rent < $1000 for a 1br, walk to restaurants and shops, less than a mile to two metro stations, walking distance to Westover Market's legendary Great Wall Of Beer, and a reverse commute to work in Tyson's Corner.
The two things I'm not looking forward to, if I pull the trigger on this, are Comcast, and lugging a couch and heavy wooden desk up three flights of stairs.
NOVA PAers, any feedback for me?
West of 14th, south of U in NW? That doesn't really leave you much and is a pretty small portion of the city, and incidentally that's pretty much the most expensive area to rent in.
I would expand your search to Capitol Hill and Eastern Market if you want to live in the city. There are lots of nice residential areas in those neighborhoods, although you do have to actually do some field work as they go from gentrified hipsterville to housing project very quickly (although, that applies to most of DC, honestly).
Sidwell Friends, or failing that, Andover or Exeter - duh.
In northwest you have a lot of options, and the specific area you mentioned is way too precise. It doesn't even include the Chinatown area, for instance, which has lots of great options.
You also have a wide swathe of Southeast which is aimed at 20-somethings and marines; there are lots of easy to find places in that area.
Finally got to D.C. today and started looking around for apartments. We did like the Courthouse/Ballston area, but didn't find an apartment in that area that we liked. We're heading back out again tomorrow to keep looking in that area. We did find one place we liked in the Crystal City area, but we're not sure about the neighborhood. Seemed a little quiet, but kind of hard to tell on a Sunday.
We also found a place that looked decent up in Silver Spring. We had previously been warned off of Fort Totten and Weaton (I believe the PA consensus on those areas was roughly "you WILL get mugged, you might get raped") but Silver Spring didn't seem all that different than the Courthouse area, at least from what we saw.
So I ask pose you these two questions PAers: 1) Can you recommend an apartment near the Courthouse or Ballston Metro Station? Keep in mind that "near" means "within walking distance" and being from Phoenix, our definition of "walking distance" is probably significantly shorter than yours.
2) What other areas should we consider if nothing in Courthouse / Ballston works out. Crystal City? Silver Spring?
TLDR: We're still looking for a nice/upscale 1BR in or near DC, preferably very close to the metro, and convenient to the Courthouse and MetroCenter stations.
Thanks!
Crystal City is kind of...a weird place. It's actually been improved quite a bit in the last few years, but's still at its core a failed experiment in mixed use neighborhoods. There are a couple very popular restaurants but there isn't much of a nightlife to speak of. It's mostly office buildings and therefore it gets pretty dead on the weekends and after happy hour. That being said it's a safe area and within short driving distance of both the Clarendon/Courthouse and Old Town Alexandria areas which both have more than enough going on.
If you have to commute to Courthouse on a regular basis, don't bother looking in Silver Spring. That is seriously a hellish commute any way you slice it. Actually, I know someone that lives in Silver Spring and commutes to Rosslyn, but that wasn't her plan in the first place. I think she drives into DC with her husband and then jumps on the Metro. In any case, don't look for a place to live in MD when you have to work in VA; it's just going to make your like more difficult than necessary.
Mostly the apartments we saw today around Courthouse were just a little on the outdated side for the money. We looked at Archstone Courthouse Plaza, Courthouse Place, Meridian at Courthouse, The Prime at Courthouse, Courtland Towers, and 2201 Wilson. Two (Courtland and 2201) we had to toss because they don't take pets, and we have a cat that we wouldn't consider getting rid of. Of the others, the Prime was quite nice and even had a decent view, but it would be about $2100 a month after you factor in parking and pet fees. The remaining ones were all pretty old once you got inside the apartments in terms of appliances, fixtures, cabinets, etc. That's not really a deal breaker, but for $1900 a month I would like better.
Based on the other areas we looked at, we could either get a much nicer place for $1900 a month, or an equivalent place for about 15-20% less, in either Crystal City or Silver Spring.
We still have a view places to look at out in the Courthouse/Ballston area. We didn't get to Vista at Courthouse, The Clarendon, Balston Place, or Archstone Ballston Square.
In this area, you're not going to get close to Metro AND a modern style apartment (open style, stainless appliances, etc) unless you're willing to shell out a lot of money. That's just kind of the way it is.
One area you might want to check out is Shirlington. It's not directly on the Metro, but it's probably a 5 minute bus ride to the Pentagon station. I've seen a lot of apartments and condos for rent advertised on Craigslist. It's a pretty cool little area with some nice restaurants and a movie theater that shows a lot of limited release/arthouse stuff. You should check it out--you can definitely get more for your money there, and if Craigslist is any gauge some of the buildings around there are desperate.
For instance, here's a listing for a place in Shirlington: http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/nva/apa/1160513019.html
I'll probably only end up being in D.C. for a year, I want to make sure I'm someplace where I can enjoy it.
Crystal City is pretty dead nights and weekends because it's mostly office buildings. There are a few very popular restaurants, but outside those it's a ghost town at night. It's within a short drive of lots of fun areas, but it is not itself really all that fun. It's major upside to Silver Spring is that it's a heck of a lot closer to where you're working.
Seriously, look in D.C. With the price point you're looking at, try Mt. Vernon Square apartments near Chinatown, for instance. We had a really great two bedroom there for $1800.