PLEASE HELP!! Which Town or City in North VA? Help Please!! (Arlington: best towns, affordable apartment)

[princem3]

I'm in early stages of researching a possible relocation to a Northern VA town / city in the coming months.

With this move I will also be relocating my business to VA and I need some help in choosing TWO of the best towns to meet both the following needs.

For my personal place of residence I would prefer to be within a Max 20 - 35 min outside the DC area in VA to be able to enjoy the great city social scene, life, culture and to be able to network.

For my business location I'm willing to be as much as 20 minutes away from my town of residence in the OPPOSITE DIRECTION of the CITY in order to keep my office spaces commercial lease cost down. We are mostly an internet based company with very low traffic so location means nothing to us.

Just in case the previous paragraph was not clear.. I wish for my office and DC to be in opposite directions while I live right in the middle. So my office could be south of my home while DC is north of my home.

RESIDENTIAL TOWN PREFERENCES :
1. Close access (20 min or less) to major downtown areas with great nightlife
2. Diverse population with lots of culture
3. Affordable housing (I plan to rent for a few months but hope to buy within a year of moving there)
4. Relatively safe area with low crime rate.
5. 20-30 min access to excellent school(s) with great MBA programs
6. Personal property Taxes (Car, housing, etc.)

TOWN OF BUSINESS PREFERENCES:
1. Desolate town likely with cheap office space
2. No more than 20 min outside town I will reside
3. No more than 40 min outside of DC
4. 20-30 min access to excellent school(s) with great MBA programs

A friend of mine recommended living in Woodbridge, VA which seems great on paper and is only about 30+ min from Downtown DC, but I'm open to hearing other suggestions.


Thanks

[ChristineVA]

You are not going to find a "desolate town" 40 minutes outside of DC. Also, it is really hard recommending a place for your business not knowing exactly what type of business it is because location *might* matter. I know we rented an office off 395 (Edsall Road) area and my accountant told me it would be much cheaper to go down to Woodbridge.

My advise would be to stay off of anything that happens to be I-95 or I-66. Even a reverse commute to these places doesn't help much. At any given time, I-95 southbound is backed up, especially in the summer when it's travel time. I-95 is full of travelers all the time, it's not just caused by the locals.

[Margery]

What is your budget? What do you consider "affordable housing"? This, more than anything else, will dictate the options open to you and you may have to compromise on some of your specifications.

[FindingZen]

I don't know if Prince William County (which includes Woodbridge) has any incentives for businesses to relocate but considering more people commute out of there for work instead of into it, I'd think they'd be falling all over themselves for your arrival.

There's a magazine called Virginia Business that might be useful for you in terms of where to locate your office. I'd second the suggestion to locate the office away from 95 or 66. Perhaps (in PWC) Route 234 or the Prince William Parkway? (I admit I don't know enough about that area to have seen office parks there.)

[VEIK]

40 minutes from DC for office space puts you in: Chantilly, Herndon, and Ashburn.
Thats 35-40 minutes via toll road, with no traffic. Add extra time for rush hour.

Advantage there - you avoid I-95.

[VEIK]

RESIDENTIAL TOWN PREFERENCES :
1. Close access (20 min or less) to major downtown areas with great nightlife
2. Diverse population with lots of culture
3. Affordable housing (I plan to rent for a few months but hope to buy within a year of moving there)
4. Relatively safe area with low crime rate.
5. 20-30 min access to excellent school(s) with great MBA programs
6. Personal property Taxes (Car, housing, etc.)

Alexandria, Falls Church, Arlington.

Alexandria has its own little old town, with some night life.

Arlington has some clubs, stuff is somewhat newer in North arlington, ie - Clarendon and Crystal City.

Falls church would be the the place where I would look for affordable apartment, there are few apartment complexes close to Metro, in the Eden Center area, within walking distance to Metro.

[claremarie]

Have you ever been to the DC area? Northern Virginia is not like the NYC area, with separate and well-defined towns. Twenty minutes from DC is Arlington or Alexandria. Another twenty minutes will get you about five miles. The rents won't be sufficiently cheaper to justify deliberately locating your business further out from your residence. Pick a few location within 20 minutes of DC, with a residential/commercial mix -- Arlington, Falls Church, or Alexandria.

[DC Oldtimer]

A friend of mine recommended living in Woodbridge, VA which seems great on paper and is only about 30+ min from Downtown DC

I think this is awfully optimistic. Sounds like your friend drives at 3 am.

It is a LONG commute from Woodbridge to downtown DC during the hours that people typically drive. The kind of thing someone does only if he cant afford to live closer in.

I cant tell you what to do, but I sure wouldn't live out there.

[ChristineVA]

Originally Posted by DC Oldtimer

A friend of mine recommended living in Woodbridge, VA which seems great on paper and is only about 30+ min from Downtown DC

I think this is awfully optimistic. Sounds like your friend drives at 3 am.

It is a LONG commute from Woodbridge to downtown DC during the hours that people typically drive. The kind of thing someone does only if he cant afford to live closer in.

I cant tell you what to do, but I sure wouldn't live out there.

I do the Woodbridge to DC commute. Here are my times:

Leave house NLT 5:20 a.m. Arrive at my DESK in DC at 6:00 a.m. (40 Minutes). This works day after day after day, unless there is an accident.

Depart DC (my desk) at 2:30 p.m. (it takes me a few minutes to get off the base) and arrive at my home around 3:15. If I go to my hairdresser's in Lake Ridge (northern part of Woodbridge), I can be there at 3:00. It's true, I've done it routinely.

Having said that, note that I am traveling at the VERY start of the rush hour. When I left DC at 3:00 p.m., I didn't get home until closer to 4:00 but mainly at 3:45.

[Azmordean]

I'm not sure if I agree 20 minutes to DC is only Arlington and Alexandria. If you are talking about going into town on evenings or weekends, when traffic isn't as bad, some areas OUTSIDE the beltway, but not too far out, are possibilities. Personally, I think Fair Oaks, Fairfax, Vienna, those sorts of areas should be in contention in terms of your residence.

In terms of commuting, since you have a reverse commute, I'd consider the following:

The Dulles Toll Road, in my mind, is NOT a good choice. Why? Because there are TONS of businesses in that corridor. I have found on many days, there is just as much traffic going FROM the city TO the Dulles Corridor in the morning as vice versa, so you don't gain much with a "reverse commute."

I-95 and I-66 follow much more "in in the morning, out in the evening" commuting patterns, so they may be better choices. I-95 though, can get clogged at any time because its one of the busiest highways in the nation, and has many through travelers as well as local traffic. So, in my mind, from a pure transportation standpoint, I-66 likely is your best bet. You should, MOST days, have a fairly easy "reverse commute."

That being said, I *suspect* office locations down 95 in, say, the Woodbridge area, are probably cheaper than something a similar distance west of the city on I-66, but I can't say that for sure.