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I just got a job at George Washington University Medical Center and will be moving in about 3 months and I'm looking for a neighborhood to live in. I don't really know the DC area at all (I'm coming from the west coast) and I'm sort of overwhelmed with options. I have a basic idea of where GWU medical center is, but to be totally honest I have no real clue about what that means in terms of commuting, resources, rents, etc. I mean, I've heard good things about Alexandria, Arlington, Georgetown, but I'm not sure how practial some of those locations are for where I will be working, or what I'm looking for in a place.
Anyway, a little bit about me, I'm a 27yo female, I work in the medical field and I keep relatively long hours...unfortunately. I'm looking to spend somewhere in the neighborhood of $2000 a month for a place, maybe $2500 ABSOLUTE MAX, for a studio/one bedroom, whatever I can afford for the price. I currently have a car, but should I keep it? Will that depend on where I move? Is commuting via public transport pretty straightforward? Because of my work hours, I'd love to have a commute of 30 minutes or less (is that a pipe dream in DC?) I'm young and single and I like to go out as much as I can (which, sadly, isn't too terribly often) Bars, clubs, restaurants, theater, whatever. Why not take advantage of all the excitement DC has to offer while I can, right?
So where should I be looking?
Congrats on the new job. GW Medical Center is a top notch place.
I would recommend looking on craigslist for apartments by the Courthouse/Clarendon metro stops. They are 1 and 2 stops away from the Foggy Bottom/GW metro stop where you'll be working. These are both in Arlington, VA. You can absolutely find a 1 bedroom for ~$2,000/mo there, and could probably do even better with a little bit of shopping.
I have some friends that live there and they really love it.
At 2000 a month you can live pretty much anywhere. If you want to be close to nightlife, try dupont or logan circle. Most of dupont is a reasonable walk to gwu.
You could try foggy bottom, the neighborhood gwu is in, where your commute would be minimal. Its a heavy undergrad area of course for gwu and there is not much there but its close walking distance to hot spots like dupont.
Whether or not you bring your car totally depends on where you live and the kind of person you are. I doubt you will be driving to work. If you plan to live in the city itself, there are several areas where having a car might be more of a burden because street parking is hard to come by and parking spots are expensive, and you could just walk to most daily amenities. This includes most of the neighborhoods near downtown like dupont. Other parts of the city like capitol hill where I live has easy parking if you can parallel park.
if you are going to live in arlington or other suburbs, I think you would feel stuck without a car.
I agree, you have a lot of choices with your budget. Arlington (the Ballston, Clarendon, Courthouse and Rosslyn areas), Foggy Bottom and Georgetown are all nice, safe, walkable neighborhoods that would all give you an easy commute to GWU Med Center. The GWU Med Center is right next to the Foggy Bottom metro station on the blue and orange metro lines. The Arlington neighborhoods mentioned above are on the orange line. There is no metro in Georgetown, but you could take a bus to GWU and it would prob take about 10 min. And you could walk to work from a place in Foggy Bottom. If you live in any of those neighborhoods, you definitely won't need to have a car...although you might want one for errands sometimes or to go out of town. If you do decide to bring your car, you'll have more available parking in Arlington than in the District.
One thing I forgot to mention is that taking the metro to Foggy Bottom from Courthouse or Clarendon (Arlington) kind of sucks because those rush hour Orange lines get absolutely packed like sardines. So if you can afford to live somewhere where you can walk to GWU--like Dupont--go for it. That would be more expensive than Arlington but you'd be closer to more nightlife, restaurants, etc.
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