Any housing areas/property hour out of DC or so? (house, neighborhood)

[grapico]

Are there any property or stuff that is reasonable in the DC area? I'm talking about an hour or so commute outside the city. Would like to have a place where I can have a horse and do some gardening... Don't really care to live in a neighborhood but will if I have to, not looking for ritzy property either... Just some open land with an old house or something.

thanks

[PenguinSix]

In Maryland, Southern Anne Arundel, Southern PG, and Northern Calvert are all very rural (Anne Arundel is filled with horse farms, stables, etc) and within the 1 hour to DC commute.

You haven't mentioned if schools are an issue. The schools in Calvert are very good--amongst the best in Maryland, but the area is very rural (not a lot of nightlife).

Check the maryland forum and search for 'horses' or 'equestrian' as this has been discussed a few times.

In Calvert, look around Dunkirk, Owings, North Beach, Chesapeake Beach, Huntingtown, Sunderland.
In PF, consider areas like Waysons Corner, Upper Marlboro
In South County AA look at places like Harwood, Lothian, Deale, Tracys Corner

[saganista]

Those are all good places in MD. There are a couple in VA as well that are maybe just around the hour mark or a little over from DC. The western side of Great Falls in the area of Springvale and Utterback Store Roads would be one. There's a decent chunk of Hunter Valley (between Vienna and Reston) where horses are common also. The W&OD Trail is groomed for horses everywhere west of Vienna, and there's a reason for that. Further out there's more, and eventually much more, but the city gets out of realistic reach pretty quickly...

[Smoke_Jaguar4]

In Virginia, go west from DC to Great Falls, Langley, and McLean. Lots of horse farms along Georgetown Pike. An hour out will also get you to Loudoun and Fauquier County, both are well known for the equestrian lifestyle.

[saganista]

Yup, and you could toss Clarke County in there too. Just beautiful country both east (Loudon) and west (Clarke) of the Shenandoah, and there are horses everywhere. But you've long since gone past the one-hour mark in getting back to DC. If you look at a map of northern VA, there are sort of three north-south markers. Routes 123 and 674 (Hunter Mill Road) kind of mark the one-hour-to-DC line. Next out to the west is Route-28. If you needed to get to DC daily, you'd be almost insane to live anywhere west of there, but horses get more common as you go. Then comes Route-15, and anywhere west of there -- Upperville, Middleburg, The Plains, etc. -- is going to be serious Horse Country, but an hour to DC is out of the question from there. So it's a trade-off. If you merely WANT to be able to get to DC within an hour, that's one thing. If you NEED to get into DC in an hour (as in commuting), it's another. As a general rule, if you work in DC, you've got no business living in Loudon. It's just too far. But if you just sort of want to be within roughly an hour or so of town, then stuff beyond Route-28, and maybe even beyond Route-15 if you're a fanatic, comes into play. And don't forget all those places in Maryland either. Some of them are gong to be beyond a one-hour commute also, but heck, maybe it's worth it...

[grapico]

Thanks to all, gave reps to all who replied, have to wait on some. Seems very interesting and I will be researching all the areas. I will be a day time commuter if I were to do this.