College grad moving to MD (Bethesda: apartment, lease, luxury)

[phrozzy]

I'm a 24 y.o. male moving to the DC metro area from Auburn, AL (your typical college town - full of students and retiring alumni). The job is going to be in Lanham and I'll be making around 65k.

I'm looking for a urbanized area thats safe (relatively anyway) and not typically dominated by drunk college students at night. City noise like traffic (but not construction) I can stand but keg parties and such I can't.

I'm looking to lease a luxury style 1BR apartment or studio in the Bethesda area or somewhere similar to areas like Wisconsin avenue (but cheaper). The area reminded me of areas along the Camby River of downtown Vancouver (full of high rises w/ underground parking, convenient shop locations, good restaurants) which I really loved. I'm not sure if I am capable of living in an apartment that costs about 1500-1700 a month but we'll see. Having a metro station near by won't matter because the metro doesn't reach the office anyway.

Any suggestions?

[jland]

Prices in DC area are pretty high. For the amounts you mentioned as your upper limit, I doubt that you could get what you really are looking for. You might consider splitting an apartment with someone that you get along with really well. That could open up alot of options.