Need pedestrian friendly/historic town near Bethesda/DC (Silver Spring, Takoma Park: condos, how much)

[green_womyn]

Help! My hubbie and I are moving from a tiny, cute, historic beach town in California to Maryland. He's going to school in Bethesda, and I will be working probably in DC. We'd live anywhere around there, near metro would be great. Maybe even northern VA? BUT I want a cute, walkable, safe and historic town. No developer homes (I'm in architecture).

Help! Where should we look?!
I want to walk from my condo/sfh to cute restaurants
But we don't like urban environments, we don't want to hear our neighbors at night.

Thanks!

[claremarie]

How much do you plan to spend on housing?
Cute, walkable, safe, historic areas are expensive, because lots of other people want to live there too. It's especially difficult to find single family homes within walking distance of cute restaurants, and you can expect to pay top dollar for even the smallest and dumpiest such house. Neighborhoods near the Metro, restaurants and shops are also increasingly urbanized, with high-rise condos/apts replacing strip malls and small single family homes. Downtown Bethesda, for example, has wonderful restaurants, art galleries, shops, etc. but has also become a neighborhood full of noise and high-rise buildings. Likewise for the Ballston/Clarendon/Courthouse corridor in Arlington, Virginia.
You might try Takoma Park (the Montgomery County portion), which is an older neighborhood with lots of interesting, historic homes.
If you're willing to live in northern Virginia, take a look at the City of Falls Church. It's still mostly single-family neighborhoods, with lots of interesting Victorians, capes, and other older home styles. It's close to two Metro stops (though neither is really within walking distance of most neighborhoods), and has a nice, far less bustling downtown area with some decent restaurants, an old-fashioned hardware store, a great bike path, and a year-round farmer's market. Because the City has its own highly-regarded school system, homes are expensive, and there aren't as many condos or townhomes as you would find in Bethesda or Arlington.

[green_womyn]

Thanks for the response! I'll look into those areas. We're hoping for a 2-3 bedroom garden condo or maybe a tiny bungalow. Looking online it seems like the market is really slow and heading downward in MD/DC area especially. We're from CA, and things have slowed down here but are still moving.

Do you think it would be possible to get a 2-3 bedroom something for under $300,000 in any of those areas??

Thanks!

[claremarie]

You won't get a 3 BR anything for under $300K near any of the areas I mentioned. Any single famiy home under $450K is probably being sold as a tear-down.

[Kensington]

A couple more areas to try are Kensington, MD (would be a very easy commute to Bethesda) and downtown Silver Spring. I live in Kensington, and I wouldn't define it as quaint, but there is a historic area that is walkable with little shops and a couple of cafes. Downtown Silver Spring has older single family homes and would be walkable to more shopping and restaurants.

You really aren't going to find a lot of garden style condos in close-in Montgomery co., I think the land is just too valuable. As for single family homes, I would expect to spend at least $500,000 for both of the areas I've mentioned.