Commute to Gainesville area (Arlington, Reston: apartments, lease, houses)

[dra334477]

Hey everyone. I'm a recent college (engineering) grad moving to Northern Virginia to start work. Specifically, I will be working about 6 miles west of Gainesville. I just received word today that I got the job, so I want to get a quick start on finding a place to live. Since I'm not too familiar with the area (I've only been there for the interview), I'm hoping to get some tips here. I tried to do some searches through old threads, but they are so dominated by questions about commuting into the city that it was hard to find pertinent info.

These are my preferences for the kind of place in which I would like to live. Of course, I doubt any one place would satisfy all of these (especially since some probably contradict others), but these are some of the things I have in mind.

I enjoy the urban living feel of being able to walk out of my apartment, cross a street or two, and have access to shops, restaurants, entertainment, etc.

I would like my commute to be less than 30 minutes if possible. The commute will almost certainly be against the heavy traffic, I'm guessing.

I have friends in the Arlington and DC areas, so easy access to the city is a plus, although I probably will only go into the city on weekends.

I like being in a multicultural/multi-ethnic environment. Language barriers don't bother me.

Being around other young professionals is also a plus. I don't have much of an interest in a location's school system, family friendliness, etc.

I would like to have my own place (no roommates, no shared facilities except laundry). My experiences with living alone have been much better than my experiences with roommates.

Those are the things that come to mind. Hopefully nothing I said ticked anyone off. Just looking for some helpful suggestions.

[VRE332]

ok you can have all those options, but can you afford to live here? You should keep going down 29 and see what's out there... There's also this scary thing called traffic, and it's jammed sometimes out here as well.

[dra334477]

I was deliberately vague about money because I would like to get suggestions for possibilities, and afterward I can use cost considerations to filter the possibilities. I don't have a hard rent limit, that is.

Also, since I'm not in VA presently, I can't drive down 29 looking a place with the right vibe. Sorry if that wasn't clear before. What I would really appreciate are suggestions for locations that meet some of these criteria, then, from afar, I'll explore those suggestions further as best as I can.

[VRE332]

You should go rent a place down in the City of Manassas

[themommy]

First, congratulations on your new degree and your new job, and welcome to DC! From where are you moving?

It sounds like something in Fairfax Corner would meet at least some of your criteria (rents there look to be starting around $1300/mo for a 1/1). Something in Reston Town Center might work, too, although you're going to go over your 30-minute commute criterion by a bit there, especially during rush hour, even with a reverse commute (rents on a 1/1 starting around $1500/mo).

I enjoy the urban living feel of being able to walk out of my apartment, cross a street or two, and have access to shops, restaurants, entertainment, etc.
Fairfax Corner and Reston Town Center are both mixed-use. There are apartments, shops, movie theaters, restaurants, etc. all in the same development. Both are also within easy walking distance of supermarkets.

I would like my commute to be less than 30 minutes if possible. The commute will almost certainly be against the heavy traffic, I'm guessing.
Fairfax Corner = Probably around 30 minutes
Reston Town Center = Probably longer than 30 minutes

I have friends in the Arlington and DC areas, so easy access to the city is a plus, although I probably will only go into the city on weekends.
I have no idea what you mean by this one. Do you want walking distance to Metro? Do you want easy Interstate access by car? If you need to live no more than 30 minutes from work, then you're going to have to work with being a longer drive away from the city and your Arlington/DC friends for fun. You won't be able to live within walking distance of a Metro station, but you could drive to one.

I like being in a multicultural/multi-ethnic environment. Language barriers don't bother me.
That's good. You've just described the greater DC metro area.

Being around other young professionals is also a plus. I don't have much of an interest in a location's school system, family friendliness, etc.
I'm sure you'd find other young professionals around either Fairfax Corner or Reston Town Center.

I would like to have my own place (no roommates, no shared facilities except laundry). My experiences with living alone have been much better than my experiences with roommates.

VRE's question about your rent limits was a valid one (it was the first question that popped into my head as well). Having accepted a job here, I'm sure you've done enough research to learn that living here is expensive. That cost also varies widely depending on the neighborhood you choose. People are more likely to take the time to answer your questions if you give them a full picture of your needs. Can you handle $1000/mo? $1500/mo? $2000/mo? More?

Also, you're correct in assuming that you aren't going to find anything that satisfies all of your criteria. Could you weight them? Or at least indicate which ones are must-haves?

[dra334477]

Thanks for the replies so far. I'm going to try to address the issues raised by themommy and clarify some of the vague points of my original post.

The short version. Ranked in order of decreasing priority:

30 minute or less commute
Own place
Urban feel
Multi-ethnic environment
Around young professionals
Walking or short driving distance to metro station.

Specifics:

I have friends in the Arlington and DC areas, so easy access to the city is a plus, although I probably will only go into the city on weekends.

With regard to having easy access to the city, I mean that I would like to either be able to walk to a metro stop or drive to one. This point isn't terribly important since my trips to the DC area will probably be once a week (if that), and wanting to be within driving distance to the metro is a pretty weak criterion. I would probably be going into Arlington most of the time when I do go into the city. If it comes down between having a 30 minute or less commute and being nearer to a metro station, I would rather have the shorter commute.

I would like to have my own place (no roommates, no shared facilities except laundry). My experiences with living alone have been much better than my experiences with roommates.

Regarding rent, I would be willing to spend up to 1500/mo, but of course cheaper is a plus.

I like being in a multicultural/multi-ethnic environment. Language barriers don't bother me.

What I mean by this is that living near one or two small ethnic communities with authentic, hole-in-the-wall restaurants would be a plus. An even greater plus is if one of those communities were Chinese/Taiwanese since I study Mandarin in my spare time and lived in China for a while.

Being around other young professionals is also a plus. I don't have much of an interest in a location's school system, family friendliness, etc.

By this I mean I just want to be able to make some new friends close by without having to drive 10 miles to see them. I don't anticipate making friends with starter families simply because it's harder to go to a movie or a bar or play basketball or do anything on short notice.

Thanks again for helping me with this, everyone.

[themommy]

The thing about the DC area in general is that the further out from DC proper you go, the more suburban things get. It's not like some other cities where there are little pockets of "urbanity" connected by suburban family-oriented areas. It's more like a fairly smooth continuum in which things get more and more suburban the further out you go. Gainesville being really far out, it's really suburban with little walkability. It's great, but it's the kind of place you'll be into after you have the wife and kids.

Since the 30 minute commute is your top priority, it does sound like either Fairfax Corner or Reston Town Center would be your best bet. I guess the best way to describe either of them would be to call it an engineered downtown. They're fairly new developments designed to be mixed use, but they are both surrounded by areas that are pretty heavily suburban. They're lots of fun, but probably not as urban or ethnically diverse as you'd really like. It's about as close as you're going to get if you want to stay within a 30-minute drive of Gainesville, though.

Fairfax Corner will give you an easier commute; however, the nightlife there is more limited. There are three or four restaurants that are sit-down and have bars; the rest of it is shopping, coffeehouses, and the movie theater.

Reston Town Center will give you a longer commute and, I think, a slightly more frustrating one; however, it's larger and feels more urban, IMO, than Fairfax Corner. Still not your ideal urban neighborhood by any means, but there's more nightlife there for sure.

Do you have the option of maybe doing corporate housing for a month when you first arrive, then committing to a lease after you've had a chance to get more of a feel for the area? Even if you'd be paying for that month of corporate housing yourself?

[dra334477]

I'll definitely be investigating some kind of temporary housing option when I get the full details of my job offer. Visiting a place is really the only way to be sure of it, I suppose. I'm glad I'm getting some suggestions for places I should check out. Anyone else want to chime in? As much as I appreciate her (his?) advice, I'd prefer not to have a back and forth with just the mommy on this thread. I'm going to try and refrain from posting further unless responding to direct questions. Thanks, all.

[JfromReston]

Originally Posted by dra334477

The short version. Ranked in order of decreasing priority:

30 minute or less commute
Own place
Urban feel
Multi-ethnic environment
Around young professionals
Walking or short driving distance to metro station.

I think the reason that you are not getting more response to your query is that your desires are just not possible. If you are going to be west of Gainesville there are not urban areas within a 30 minute commute. You are going to be just too far out for that. Like themommy said Fairfax Corner tries to be hip and urban but just doesn't make it in my opinion and Reston Town Center is more than 30 minutes from your new work location. I can't comment on VRE's suggestion for the city of Manassas as I've never been there.

[dra334477]

Ok. To make the criteria a bit more reasonable, let's eliminate the "Urban feel" criterion. This seems to be nearly impossible to satisfy without sacrificing most of the other criteria (particularly, the 30 minute commute time). With that elimination in mind, what about Centreville or Chantilly? Both have fairly large populations at about 50k each, are rather diverse, and meet the 30 minute commute specification (I think). One criticism of Centreville is that is has no real town center. I don't know about Chantilly in this regard, though.