Moving to McLean..Capital One Headquarters. (Arlington, Reston: apartments, homes, movie theater)

[svt93style]

Hello, I stumbled upon this site in search of an apartment.

I currently live in Dallas, Tx (plano actually) and will be moving to McLean,VA to work at the Capital One headquarters.

I am a single 27 yr old male looking to spend $950-$1300 a month on a place. Location is important to me, I don't want to drive more than 30 mins to get to work, and I would like a garage.

Any help would be great...and links, info whatever you have.

Thanks.

Also, do people drive to work or is there good public transit there?

[mlv311]

Congrats on your new job! I can't offer advice on where to live since I'm only familiar with Arlington County. The public transportation system in the DC metro area is clean and reliable. Many people take it although probably not as much as in NYC. Most people who drive to work do so because they don't have a parking space available at work or public transportation doesn't offer a direct/easy route to and from work. If you are working in McLean, you probably don't have a metro (subway) station within walking distance to your job so you may need to drive.

Good luck,

Maggie

[dullnboring]

Well, if it weren't for the garage criteria, you would have your veritable pick of places. There's plentiful one-bedroom apartments in the area in your price range, but they usually come only with an assigned parking space rather than a garage. My recommendation would be to peruse Craig's List, setting your price limits a bit higher than $1300 (just to see) and typing in terms in the search function of both "garage" and then the names of various cities within a 30 minute commute of McLean, such as: McLean, Tysons (Corner), Falls Church, Vienna, Oakton, Arlington, Reston, Great Falls and Dunn Loring. There are also a handful of Maryland communities that theoretically should put you in McLean in under 30 minutes. I'm not a fan of Maryland-Virginia commuting but the communities of Potomac, Bethesda and Chevy Chase should offer a comparable commute. Unfortunately however, these areas are also some of the most expensive in Maryland so you're unlikely to find something in your price range there.

http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/hhh/

As far as public transit, I believe that the D.C. area has actually the second highest rate of public transit use in the nation (after New York) although I may be mistaken. Even with that however, the majority of people drive to work. Metrorail is extremely convenient and a great mode of transport, if you work or live (especially if you work AND live) in Arlington or D.C., but much of the area's jobs in recent years have moved to the outer suburbs which makes commuting by Metro extremely inconvenient and in some cases, not possible. A lot of people like myself who live outside of the Beltway (the I-495 loop that circles around the DC area), rarely ever use Metro as it's just time consuming and inconvenient to even get to a station. McLean is not served by Metro. I believe the nearest Metro stop is in Dunn Loring, around 4-5 miles away, so while I'm sure there are some people who commute via public transport and take the train to Dunn Loring or West Falls Church, and then a bus to McLean, the overwhelming majority of people drive.

[bbabessp]

I would suggest Vienna and Oakton You'l be close to mclean/tyson corner. Also, you would be very close to the metro that you can take into arlington or DC for some night life. Also if you look in falls church then you can take route 7 to work. Also, Reston is a nice area with the reston town center lots of resturants/ bar shopping a movie theater etc. this is on the west side of tyson off of rt 7. Hope that helps.

[saganista]

Public transit is good to excellent in the area. But it's not for you. The Capital One building is tucked into a nook at one end of the Tyson's Corner area. No proximity to rail, poor access to bus service. There are however any number of very decent to really nice places to live within 5 miles of it....tons within 10. There are at least a handful within 1 to 2 miles. Bad as the traffic is in the area, you'd be insane (in my view) to do anything but drive (or bike). Anywhere in McLean or even west-end Falls Church would be great. You could get to work using virtually no main roads, which would be a HUGE plus. Vienna, Oakton, and Dunn Loring are also really nice (I live there), but that would almost force you onto Rte 123 (or even worse) for a good part of your commute, and 123 is awful in rush hour. Ditto Rte 7. The pitch for everything here is upscale. $1300 would put you on the low end for a decent-or-better one bedroom. Pay less, get less...and that's if you can find it. Pay a little more and you could start to get pretty comfy though. Very unlikely to find a garage. Half the single-family homes don't have one. As for getting into town, that IS easy. Tool over to either the West Falls Church or Dunn Loring Metro stations, and you're downtown in 20-25 minutes. And there's lots of stuff to do out here too! Anyway, you're in really good shape because there ARE places from which you can get to Cap One quickly and easily. So few around here can say that...