Good schools, Good community (Washington: for sale, real estate, rental)

[mdlee1974]

My family and I will be relocating summer '07 to the states.He will be working in the DC area.We have 3 children 2 of whom will be in school.Our oldest will be in the 8th grade.We are looking for a few locations that has excellent schools and a safe community.Not concerned about the travel time right now.Looking to purchase a 4 bedroom home in a nice community.Can anyone point me in the right direction w/ local newspapers online, realtors and so forth? As well as areas that would be good to live in.No more than a 2 hour commute please.Thanks so much.

[dullnboring]

How much are you looking to spend on housing? That will determine a lot, because at the moment, the criteria is pretty broad in searching for areas within a two hour commute and good schools. That could be pretty much anywhere in the DC area minus a few no-go areas. You should check out realtor.com, and craig's list to get an idea on the price of single-family homes and rents in the area. I would guess in your desire for a four bedroom house, safey and great schools, that you will want to gear your search to the outer suburbs, in places like Loudoun, Howard, Prince William, and maybe Fairfax and Montgomery counties. You can search their school district's website to find information about the schools in each jurisdiction, their test scores and such to do some comparison. Just google "Fairfax County Public Schools" or "Montgomery County Public Schools", etc.

[KittiKat]

There are many wonderful areas that would meet your requirements. I actually have a 5 bedroom house that is available between DC and Baltimore. Wonderful location and great school district. Have lived in Alexandria, VA and Laurel, MD and both are nice locations but the traffic in Virgina is especially tough. Good luck!

[saganista]

I don't have any houses for sale anywhere, but there are lots of people who do. If you are willing and able to afford them, the prime areas for combining good schools and safety would be the aforementioned Fairfax and Montgomery counties, with a couple of other areas not too far behind. With the traffic situation generally bad and getting worse eveywhere however, a key concern will be just where in the DC area you will be working. Even something that looks pretty safe on a map can easily leave you with one of those two-hour commutes, and those aren't fun for very long. My general advice is that where you work will determine where you can live. Wishes for a white picket fence and friendly neighbors are all fine, but those can be had in many areas, and if you look in the wrong ones, trouble lies ahead. You obviously need to be able to afford the place you want to live in, and it should be of the general type (detached, row house, condo, urban rural, etc) that you prefer, but after those two things, making sure you have a doable commute is about the next most important criterion.

As for resources, the obvious ones are the Washington Post and Craig's List. Also worth checking out is militarybyowner.com. Because there are lots of military in DC and they tend to be transient, that site seems always to have a sizable sample of homes that can help you get attuned to what's what where when it comes to DC area real estate. Another option that many area newcomers consider is that of rent-first-buy-later. There is a substantial and diverse stock of rental properties in the DC area and putting down roots that can easily be picked up again down the road is sometimes a good way to get your feet on the ground. Buying anywhere will tie up a good chunk of your cash, so taking the time to be sure about what you're getting yourself into is something that a lot of folks at least look at....