Best Neighborhoods For Me? (apartments, renter, condos)

[Liana]

I may be moving to DC in the future, and I'm trying to find out which neighborhoods would be best to live in.

I am looking for a neighborhood that is relativly safe, and would prefer to rent an apartment with a roomate (or roomates) rather than buy, as I am young (early 20's) and therefore don't make much yet. Safety is key for me--I would rather have to live with multiple roomates (or in a small studio apartment) in a safe area, than get a larger apartment for the same amount of money in an area not as safe.

I would be relying on the Metro for transportation, and therefore would like to live within walking distance (say, five blocks or less, if possible) of a metro station. It has been recommended to me that, if possible, I try and find a place on the red line. (I am open to other options as well, provided they are relativly safe and close to a metro station).

[dullnboring]

Look into the areas around the Cleveland Park, Tenleytown, and Van Ness/UDC stops on the Red Line. All of these areas are safe, fairly quiet and mostly residential areas with a large number of young people. Of the three, I prefer Cleveland Park just due to it's proximity to the rest of DC (close to nightlife spots like Dupont Circle and Adams Morgan, and a short 5-10 minute Metro ride away from where most of the jobs are downtown). They are generally on the more expensive side but if you're willing to rent a room or share an apartment, you can make it doable. The general rule of thumb in DC is that the neighborhoods west of Rock Creek Park are the nicer communities. There are nice and safe communities to the east as well, and some iffier sections east of the park (the closer you get to downtown), but it holds true as a general rule of thumb. There are of course neighborhoods in the suburbs that are safe as well but generally, these areas are more car-dependant so it's difficult to find places to live within walking distance of a Metro station, although there are always at least a small concentration of apartments around Metro stations throughout the region. Another suggestion would be to look at the neighborhoods along the Orange Line in Arlington, notably Clarendon and Court House. Both areas have a high concentration of young people, most of whom commute into DC in some 10-15 minutes and where there is a high concentration of apartments and condos near Metro stops.

[Liana]

Thanks--especially for the Arlington tip! I looked up apartments in Arlington after I read that, and have located some great looking places close to the Court House and Clarendon metro stops for less than comperable places seemed to be going for in DC itself.

If it's not too much trouble, are there any other major differences between living in DC itself and living in Arlington that I should know about? How different are the taxes, etc?

[dullnboring]

I'm not that knowledgable on tax issues in the DC area and would have imagined that the taxes were highest in DC, followed by Maryland, then Virginia, so I was a bit surprised when doing a google search prior to responding to this post that DC taxes are either on par or lower than taxes in suburban jurisdictions for "middle income households". Now whether or not this transfers over into a single twenty-something not making much money, I'm not sure as I'm not really very well-educated on taxation. However, the gist of what I discovered is the fact that while DC has a fairly high income tax of 8.5% compared to lower tax (I believe around 7% in Maryland and 5.5% in Virginia), the difference is made up in other ways. For example, DC has a significantly lower property tax and Virginia has an annual propery tax on all vehicles, which DC and Maryland do not (my '98 Ford Taurus with 130,000 miles on it is around $60/year but most cars are in the triple digits). I found this information on the DC Fiscal Policy Institute web site which seems to have a wealth of tax-related information, but my eyes have a tendency to glaze over tax information, so here's a few links, and you may want to just browse around the site a bit:

http://www.dcfpi.org/?p=78
http://www.dcfpi.org/?p=155

As far as other differences between DC and Arlington, well, DC is a major city with many of the problems that go along with it. Public schools are in a decrepit state whereas they're quite good in Arlington. Similarly, there are many issues relating to infrastructure where DC lags behind. I've never lived in DC proper but I know a lot of people who have who just got fed up with a lot of the bureaucratic hassles of life in DC that manifested itself in so many ways, whether it was acquiring licenses for a business that was taking too long, a chaotic DMV, getting the same bill three times over and then given the run-around when calling trying to fix things, or poor snow removal. Things of that sort, that tend to plague cities around the country can just be a headache after dealing with them for a long time. Just the red tape and the seemingly lack of communication between different agencies in the city and ineffectiveness and such, really bothers a lot of residents. However, as a young renter living in an apartment, it's quite possible that you'd remain oblivious to many of these issues. Arlington is also more suburban in character and low-density than DC.

[Liana]

Yeah, quality of schools, property taxes, vehicle taxes, etc, isn't a big concern for me...the people who suggested I live in DC itself did so mainly because that way I'd have a short commute (although the commute from Arlington along the Orange Line looks fairly short, too, in terms of number of stops...and requires no backtracking like the red line would). I don't think poor snow removal would bug me, since I've lived in some pretty snowy places...Nor city bureaucracy, since I've lived in some big cities.

I've pretty much narrowed down my search (for the most part) to Arlington near the metro stops, and certain parts of DC (the ones you suggested, plus Foggy Bottom and some other areas which a friend recommended). Thanks for all the help.