Ready to move but don't know what to do (Alexandria: apartments, for rent)

[Grsz11]

My wife and I are ready to move to the DC area in a few months, however, there are a few issues holding us up with where to look. I am attending school at American University in NW DC. My wife may not have a job lined up by the time we need to pull the trigger and figure out for sure where to live, but she is really hoping to work in Fairfax County (public schools). We are both comfortable with a 45 to 60 minute commute, my commute would be into the city three days a week at about 4:30 PM. The problem is, we aren't sure where to look that would work for me driving to the city and allow her the ability to work anywhere in the area. Also, obviously if she did not have a full-time job our income would be limited, even with a job we couldn't spend more than $1500 towards rent. We are looking for a 1 BR townhouse in a more suburban area Any suggestions on where to look would be great.

[marie5v]

It's nearly impossible to say, since you don't know where your wife will be working and your price is very low. You can probably rule out townhouses. There may be some out there for that price, but most likely you wouldn't want to live in them or they wouldn't be driving distance to DC. You might consider Alexandria. There are many schools along Route 1 heading south from Old Town Alexandria toward Mt. Vernon, and may others within commuting distance, since you would be right at the intersection of major roads. It's also drivable to DC by going straight up route 1 (although it's not exactly near American U - I actually think that might be closer to the MD side - you might consider also consider Montgomery county and driving south into DC - it's also a good public school county to work in).

If you look at Alexandria, you can probably find a 1bdrm apartment in your price range in either Old Town (nice place to live) or further down route 1 in Huntington Gateway. Further south than that and it's mostly low-income apartments, although not really that bad if you can't afford anything else. For Old Town you can look on Craigslist, and I think there are also several large apartment buildings on Washington St. that have stuff in your price range. Those will be historic or at least very old buildings, but it's a very nice place to live. Further south you'll find newer buildings but not such an attractive area.

You might also consider the Kingstowne/Franconia area just off 495. It's close to 395 so would be workable for you, and is a somewhat central location for your wife. There are a lot of apartments and townhouses there for rent, some probably in your price range. Rose Hill apts for example are near there - not the greatest, but definitely affordable (a few young couples I know have rented there until they could afford something better).

(and I was assuming you had no kids and school didn't matter - otherwise I would have given different advice)