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You can definitely afford a decent home for 700K in pretty much any of the DC suburbs. That knocks one of the two major issues of life in the DC area out of the way. The second major issue is commuting. Commuting in the area is horrific and I always recommend trying to minimize a commute as much as possible. Do you know where on M Street your husband will be working? While M Street is generally associated with Georgetown, it actually runs across downtown DC all the way into Northeast, and I believe dead-ends at Gallaudet University. For commuting purposes, it would be best if he were away from Georgetown simply because Metro does not serve Georgetown (although you can take buses) and I would recommend taking Metro into DC if at all possible. To minimize commuting, I'd recommend staying within the inner DC Metro area, places within Fairfax, Montgomery, Prince George's and Arlington counties and the city of Alexandria. However, if you'd like to get even more bang for your buck and have a high tolerance for commuting, you could of course expand your search to the outer counties of Loudoun, Prince William, Charles, Howard and further.
Generally, Fairfax County is regarded as having the best public schools in the DC area. Howard, Montgomery, Loudoun, Arlington and Prince William as a whole are pretty good as well. In each of these counties, there's a handful of schools best avoided, but they are the exception to the norm. Alexandria is decent. Prince George's has a handful of bright spots in it's public schools (like Eleanor Roosevelt HS), but as a whole, the school system is struggling. Gettng back to Fairfax however, most all of the schools are pretty good but the best of the best tend to be concentrated in the western and northern portions of the county which, surprise surprise, are the wealthiest portions of the county.
Personally, I think the best areas to look into with your budget are those in McLean, Vienna, Dunn Loring, Oakton and the city of Falls Church. All of these are not excessively far from DC and near Metro stations (with the possible exception of McLean depending on where you are, but you're not too too far from one), have some of the highest-performing schools in the state (and the nation for that matter), and you have homes for under 700K.
Of course, you may have other preferences (i.e. new home vs. older home, suburb vs. more urban area, Maryland vs. Virginia, Metro access is important vs. doesn't matter, etc.) that may nix these suggestions, but this is just a general starter guide.
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