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Leesburg is Nice area and you can definitely find something nice in that area. My question to you is what part of D.C. are you going to be working in?? The reason I say that is leesburg is a little journey from D.C. especially in the morning
For me, I'm not sure as of right now. As for him, Capitol street ..I'm really not sure where everything is. So I'm not sure what part of DC that would be in other than probably downtown I'm assuming. But I would like to buy a house eventually and not spend too much time renting but at first I would like to rent so I can get more familiar with all the areas and be able to get a realtor and everything and find out where I'm working, etc.
Northern Virginia isn't cheap at all. In some cases it a lot more expensive than areas in DC. The only reason you think this is because you are looking out into the outer suburbs of northern virginia such as Leesburg. The outer suburbs are far from the city and I would not suggest those areas because of the long commute. If you want to live in a decent priced area not far from the city check out Springfield, Alexandria and Burke. Springfield and Alexandria have the metro as well which is great because depending on where you work you won't have to drive These areas also have much more amenities and great schools (if you have kids or plan on having them).
I would not suggest the exurbs in NoVA, especially at your age. Considering you are both in your twenties DC, Arlington, or Silver Spring are the best suggestions considering your relative age. I would highly dissuade you from Springfield or Burke as well. Alexandria is nice, but even that location skews older. Great if you are over thirty, but less so if you are in your twenties.
I should note, this is not an area you move to and buy a house, especially at your age. You do not know it very well, and you have to be an INFORMED consumer when buying in the DC area. Having knowledge of the city and suburbs and relative commute times is critical out here. Move to Arlington, DC, or Downtown Silver Spring first, and RENT than figure it out from there after a year of living here. Most young people in DC live in these three places.
If you can avoid the exurbs do so at all costs. This is not a city to drive in, and the closer you are to the inner core the better. You are not going to connect with people in your age range as well in much in Northern Virginia, especially far out.
If you were in your thirties I would recommend Alexandria or Bethesda.
This is the exact opposite of Detroit, you ideally want to live in DC if you are young, or at least as close as possible. East of the River is to be avoided if you are new to the city.
Unless you have kids, NoVA save for Arlington is not the best place to live. If you want nightlife and amenities, stick to DC. The area is hyper centralized.
You will find NoVA very boring if you move there, and buying a house there will lock you in. So no...don't. When you are in your thirties and your career is established, and you have kids go ahead. But for now...you need to be closer in.
Moving to the NoVA suburbs is a quickfire way to hate this area. you will complain about the traffic, you will miss much of the nightlife, and I can go on.
OP, I am so far away from speaking in absolute but I HIGHLY suggest you listen to what the other posters are saying in terms of location, buying, and unfamiliarity with the area. I'm just saying, these folk know what they are talking about. Take it one step at a time and you will be alright.
My boyfriend recently got a job offer in DC and he's thinking about taking it.
We're from Michigan and have been living in the Lansing area.
How does it measure up compared to the Detroit metro?
How is the nightlife?
What are the best places to live? We're 21 and 23.
Is it good for bartending? I'm a bartender and I'm also a college student.
Would you recommend it? Does politics rule life?
Stupid question but is it colder or warmer than the crazy Michigan brutual weather?
How are the people?
What are home prices? (I've seen the rent prices so I'm expecting expensive)
Warmer than Michigan. Higher MSA than Detroit Metro; higher population density than Detroit in its core. High rise suburbs. DC is going to make Detroit seem cheap; although downtown Detroit is no slouch it is a tiny fraction of what is going on in DC with the rents and the development there, not just in Detroit proper but out in the suburbs. Development everywhere, in the suburbs, city, whatever.
DC metro, official, a million more than Detroit metro. Practically, the CSA, how many people drive from other areas to get to DC to work about 10 million, and that includes several states (Virginia and Maryland but also people from West Virginia). What you'll notice is that Detroit's metro and CSA is not as far, wide, and expansive than DC.
No, politics does not rule life. No more than finance rules life in NYC. There are other people with other professions in DC. Primary difference between both cities is that DC is more White collar than Detroit. Michigan, like other Rust Belt/Midwest, is more of an area in transition from labor into White collar, etc.
You can go lower than $300,000 in the suburbs. If you want an area closer to Michigan, look, feel, tempermant, people, etc Hampton Roads might be a better fit for you, though if I had a chance to go to DC without living hand to mouth I would probably take it.
It really depends on the job. Northern Virginia is really nice, but you have to pay. I'll put it this way, if he has a regular job, say $35,000 to $50,000 a year, in DC he's going to be taking the train, or the bus, or some combination of both, living an hour or two away, unless you're working and doing the same or you're in a sublet type of situation that affords you the ability to be able to live in the city in a nice neighborhood. I'm not even sure if you can get a home in some of DC's worst neighborhoods for less than $300,000 these days. The car will just be a noose around your neck. You're probably going to hate that commute from Northern Virginia into DC. It really depends on how far into the rat race you're willing to go and if you want to trade off a more relaxed situation in Michigan (assuming that is the case) for a more hectic, fast pace situation in DC.
OP, the thing to consider about the East Coast/Mid Atlantic/South is that while there are affordable places to live at (by Midwestern standards) you really don't want them because they're usually in slums. I paid $1,300 a month to stay in a bad area in Hampton Roads people that weren't familiar with that did not grow up there appeared to be afraid of. The foundation sucked, the plumbing sucked, I had a serious roach problem and I had sh*t in the ground from a consistent plumbing situation that the neighbor could not afford to fix that encroached onto my property. You couldn't see the sh*t, but you could smell it and walk through it if you were to go in between houses and walk to the backyard. And that is in a more affordable part of Virginia. All because this area is close to sea level. Northern Virginia/DC is going to be far more expensive (I was basically renting out a 2 story, detached home).
But I was getting ripped off. I can pay the same amount to stay in a nice area where I'm at now. Still working class, nothing glamorous, nothing to write home about. Try that in DC and see how far you get on that budget. Homes you don't want in this area go for $280,000; I can pretty much get whatever I want in Ohio in a working class neighborhood for that type of money. So if you and your boyfriend don't mind bartending, and hustling, hard, then by all means DC may be the place for you. But I would have some type of backup plan or take advantage of the opportunity to pursue an education or do something else with your time.
The reward is in the quality of life. You don't have the food deserts. You get high-end, vegan, organic, bourgeois grocery stores within walking distance from the ghetto. You get high-end retail another block away from low-end retail. People tend to get along and crime rates are relatively low. People are a lot nicer and easier to get along with. So on and so forth.
Warmer than Michigan. Higher MSA than Detroit Metro; higher population density than Detroit in its core. High rise suburbs. DC is going to make Detroit seem cheap; although downtown Detroit is no slouch it is a tiny fraction of what is going on in DC with the rents and the development there, not just in Detroit proper but out in the suburbs. Development everywhere, in the suburbs, city, whatever.
DC metro, official, a million more than Detroit metro. Practically, the CSA, how many people drive from other areas to get to DC to work about 10 million, and that includes several states (Virginia and Maryland but also people from West Virginia). What you'll notice is that Detroit's metro and CSA is not as far, wide, and expansive than DC.
No, politics does not rule life. No more than finance rules life in NYC. There are other people with other professions in DC. Primary difference between both cities is that DC is more White collar than Detroit. Michigan, like other Rust Belt/Midwest, is more of an area in transition from labor into White collar, etc.
You can go lower than $300,000 in the suburbs. If you want an area closer to Michigan, look, feel, tempermant, people, etc Hampton Roads might be a better fit for you, though if I had a chance to go to DC without living hand to mouth I would probably take it.
It really depends on the job. Northern Virginia is really nice, but you have to pay. I'll put it this way, if he has a regular job, say $35,000 to $50,000 a year, in DC he's going to be taking the train, or the bus, or some combination of both, living an hour or two away, unless you're working and doing the same or you're in a sublet type of situation that affords you the ability to be able to live in the city in a nice neighborhood. I'm not even sure if you can get a home in some of DC's worst neighborhoods for less than $300,000 these days. The car will just be a noose around your neck. You're probably going to hate that commute from Northern Virginia into DC. It really depends on how far into the rat race you're willing to go and if you want to trade off a more relaxed situation in Michigan (assuming that is the case) for a more hectic, fast pace situation in DC.
OP, the thing to consider about the East Coast/Mid Atlantic/South is that while there are affordable places to live at (by Midwestern standards) you really don't want them because they're usually in slums. I paid $1,300 a month to stay in a bad area in Hampton Roads people that weren't familiar with that did not grow up there appeared to be afraid of. The foundation sucked, the plumbing sucked, I had a serious roach problem and I had sh*t in the ground from a consistent plumbing situation that the neighbor could not afford to fix that encroached onto my property. You couldn't see the sh*t, but you could smell it and walk through it if you were to go in between houses and walk to the backyard. And that is in a more affordable part of Virginia. All because this area is close to sea level. Northern Virginia/DC is going to be far more expensive (I was basically renting out a 2 story, detached home).
But I was getting ripped off. I can pay the same amount to stay in a nice area where I'm at now. Still working class, nothing glamorous, nothing to write home about. Try that in DC and see how far you get on that budget. Homes you don't want in this area go for $280,000; I can pretty much get whatever I want in Ohio in a working class neighborhood for that type of money. So if you and your boyfriend don't mind bartending, and hustling, hard, then by all means DC may be the place for you. But I would have some type of backup plan or take advantage of the opportunity to pursue an education or do something else with your time.
The reward is in the quality of life. You don't have the food deserts. You get high-end, vegan, organic, bourgeois grocery stores within walking distance from the ghetto. You get high-end retail another block away from low-end retail. People tend to get along and crime rates are relatively low. People are a lot nicer and easier to get along with. So on and so forth.
I'm a bartender, my boyfriend is not ..he's got a pretty good job offer, he works in politics
Warmer than Michigan. Higher MSA than Detroit Metro; higher population density than Detroit in its core. High rise suburbs. DC is going to make Detroit seem cheap; although downtown Detroit is no slouch it is a tiny fraction of what is going on in DC with the rents and the development there, not just in Detroit proper but out in the suburbs. Development everywhere, in the suburbs, city, whatever.
DC metro, official, a million more than Detroit metro. Practically, the CSA, how many people drive from other areas to get to DC to work about 10 million, and that includes several states (Virginia and Maryland but also people from West Virginia). What you'll notice is that Detroit's metro and CSA is not as far, wide, and expansive than DC.
No, politics does not rule life. No more than finance rules life in NYC. There are other people with other professions in DC. Primary difference between both cities is that DC is more White collar than Detroit. Michigan, like other Rust Belt/Midwest, is more of an area in transition from labor into White collar, etc.
You can go lower than $300,000 in the suburbs. If you want an area closer to Michigan, look, feel, tempermant, people, etc Hampton Roads might be a better fit for you, though if I had a chance to go to DC without living hand to mouth I would probably take it.
It really depends on the job. Northern Virginia is really nice, but you have to pay. I'll put it this way, if he has a regular job, say $35,000 to $50,000 a year, in DC he's going to be taking the train, or the bus, or some combination of both, living an hour or two away, unless you're working and doing the same or you're in a sublet type of situation that affords you the ability to be able to live in the city in a nice neighborhood. I'm not even sure if you can get a home in some of DC's worst neighborhoods for less than $300,000 these days. The car will just be a noose around your neck. You're probably going to hate that commute from Northern Virginia into DC. It really depends on how far into the rat race you're willing to go and if you want to trade off a more relaxed situation in Michigan (assuming that is the case) for a more hectic, fast pace situation in DC.
OP, the thing to consider about the East Coast/Mid Atlantic/South is that while there are affordable places to live at (by Midwestern standards) you really don't want them because they're usually in slums. I paid $1,300 a month to stay in a bad area in Hampton Roads people that weren't familiar with that did not grow up there appeared to be afraid of. The foundation sucked, the plumbing sucked, I had a serious roach problem and I had sh*t in the ground from a consistent plumbing situation that the neighbor could not afford to fix that encroached onto my property. You couldn't see the sh*t, but you could smell it and walk through it if you were to go in between houses and walk to the backyard. And that is in a more affordable part of Virginia. All because this area is close to sea level. Northern Virginia/DC is going to be far more expensive (I was basically renting out a 2 story, detached home).
But I was getting ripped off. I can pay the same amount to stay in a nice area where I'm at now. Still working class, nothing glamorous, nothing to write home about. Try that in DC and see how far you get on that budget. Homes you don't want in this area go for $280,000; I can pretty much get whatever I want in Ohio in a working class neighborhood for that type of money. So if you and your boyfriend don't mind bartending, and hustling, hard, then by all means DC may be the place for you. But I would have some type of backup plan or take advantage of the opportunity to pursue an education or do something else with your time.
The reward is in the quality of life. You don't have the food deserts. You get high-end, vegan, organic, bourgeois grocery stores within walking distance from the ghetto. You get high-end retail another block away from low-end retail. People tend to get along and crime rates are relatively low. People are a lot nicer and easier to get along with. So on and so forth.
I don't see how Hampton roads would be a better fit at all. Also her boyfriend got a job offer in DC, not Hampton roads. Also she's young, the DC area is way better fit because it has more young people and a lot more stuff to do than HR.
I don't see how Hampton roads would be a better fit at all. Also her boyfriend got a job offer in DC, not Hampton roads. Also she's young, the DC area is way better fit because it has more young people and a lot more stuff to do than HR.
Hampton Roads is FAR removed from the DC area. Seriously, as it stands I would not recommend she live in most of the DC suburbs. I outright recommend they do not buy a house until they have lived here at least a year. They are new to the area, and in their early twenties.
I don't see how Hampton roads would be a better fit at all. Also her boyfriend got a job offer in DC, not Hampton roads. Also she's young, the DC area is way better fit because it has more young people and a lot more stuff to do than HR.
From the affordability viewpoint. I'm saying ideally, if he was offered a job in HR I was under the impression, from the original read, that the job was bartending. But what I know now none of my speaking points really apply, although I still think that HR is more on the speed of where the OP is coming from but that's neither here nor there. Although it would be nice to know what the salary ranges would be.
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These areas also have much more amenities and great schools (if you have kids or plan on having them).
