Anyone live in The Carlton Condos in Arlington? (for sale, rent)

[Historynh]

I will be living in D.C. for a year come September, and working near the Metro Center stop, and I put an offer in on a two bedroom condo in The Carlton condo building. I understand there is a Metro bus close to the building that will take me to the Pentagon Metro stop in about 10 minutes, and the Blue line takes me directly to Metro Center.

Thoughts on the building and neighborhood? I noticed a large Asian grocery and a Latino grocery store nearby, which is great, although I'm not sure if I can walk to larger grocery stores? Is Shirlington walkable? I'm trying to determine if I need to bring a car; I would prefer not to as the condo I have a contract on does not come with a deeded space.

Any thoughts/comments would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[coolio69]

I think you should bring a car.

It's a good area, though. I've never lived there but that condo is kind of in a valley where a little creek runs. If you go anywhere you have to go uphill. Going to the shirlington area would not take you through any hills. You could buy a bike and bike to Shirlington. There is a walk/bike trail that can take you to shirlington. Shirlington has a Harris Teeter grocery store, which is nice, but I think is a little overpriced.

Going up George Mason (a big hill) will take you to Rt 7 where there will be a target and another strip shopping center which has a Giant grocery store.

[weezycom]

you could get a Zipcar membership. That way, you'll have a car when you need one but don't have to deal with the day-to-day of keeping one.

[Historynh]

Thanks for the responses. I live in semi-rural NH where a car is necessary to absolutely everything, so I was not sure. The Zip Car is a great idea.

So I read this review on Yelp about The Carlton condos, and the author (woman) says the building is infested with giant rats and roaches. Ummm.....

[smokemaster]

I know one bedrooms were selling for 50K, after the last bust. How much are you paying?

[Historynh]

$160K, 2 bedroom, high floor, view of 4 Mile Run. In the last six months there have been a few 2 bedrooms that sold between $150 and $200K, so when did the one bedrooms go down as low as $50K? I looked at another unit for sale there, 1 bedroom, original (1965) kitchen - clean unit but kind of icky...definitely needed some work - list price was $135K. I think if the market goes bust again, I can rent it out and we won't lose much each month and can wait out the crisis if we want to sell. Fortunately we are able to put down a significant down payment, so mortgage payment is low.