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Hello,
I apologize for the long post, but I've been reading posts on here for about two weeks and I now have a lot of questions! Thanks in advance for all of the help.
I am 23yo male who will be working as a research analyst Hyatsville, MD. I’m from MT (which is where I’ll be moving from), but I’ve lived in Minneapolis for 5 years and I lived in Chicago for 6 months, so I’m no stranger to urban life or rural life. I do like to party and go out to clubs and bars, but only on the weekends now that I will be starting this new job. Coming from MT, I have a great appreciation for privacy and I have a preference for the outdoors vs. the need for city-life stimulus 24/7. I’m looking to spend $600-850/month on rent (including utilities). My salary is $37k, but after my student loans, credit cards, food, transportation, car insurance, etc. is taken out I have only approximately $600 left for rent without dipping into my credit cards. I’d prefer to live a modest lifestyle for 6 months-ish until I find out how much I will really be making (after bonuses and other perks, taxes, etc.) and then if my budget allows, I will find a nicer apartment of my own around $900/month. My girlfriend will also be moving in with me next summer (she still has another year of school left in MN), so we will have 2 incomes with which we can afford a nicer place.
I have concentrated my housing search to the west and southwest area of DC, ranging as far north as McLean to Lorton in the south. I’ve found some nice basements for rent in Lorton for around $600/month. I don’t know what to think about the Falls Church area, Alexandria, Annandale, or Springfield, as I don’t know what areas would have street-parking that is safe for my car. Can anybody give me some rules of thumb for these areas? Intersections, N S E W directional areas of the town, roads that mark good/bad areas, etc. I’ve heard to stay away from the Route 1 corridor, but what sections of Route 1 how large of a buffer around it? I’ve also heard that the “real” part of falls church is much better than the outlying/fake part of Falls Church. How large and where is the “real” area?
Rent is cheaper in the Lorton area than for other comparable rentals in the north, and Lorton seems like a nice area all around. In Lorton I would have a better chance of finding a nice basement all to myself rather than having to share a house with 3 or 4 people in Arlington. I would like to share a house with 2 or three other cool people, but it will be hard to find a good match using only the internet. I’d prefer to wait until I meet people to get into a roommate situation. I’ve checked the auto-theft crime index in Lorton and it was 34 vs. 79 for an area that I checked in Arlington. Is Lorton universally “safer” than Arlington? It appears this way, but my dad who used to live in Arlington thinks Arlington is safer than Lorton.
I will post some of the places that I have been looking at, and if I could get your input it would be much appreciated:
I have read and searched the forums, and I’ve read practically every thread specific to Arlington and Lorton. I would definitely love to be able to meet new people and live among other young professionals, but if I have to live quietly for 6 months I am fine with that too. I do have a car, but I’d prefer to take the metro and keep my car parked at home rather than drive to work. For one, my work is in Landover and it doesn’t seem to be the best environment. My car is an Acura Integra and comprises 6 out of the top ten most stolen vehicles, so it’s much more likely to be stolen in high theft areas. I can’t afford to have my car stolen at this point in my life. Hence, it is extremely important to me that I find a safe place to live where my car will be safe if it’s on the street. Also, I’ve read how terrible the traffic is on 95 and I think I’d rather ride a train.
I anticipate taking a metro bus to the metrorail station and then taking the orange line to my work; my work is only a couple blocks away from the Landover station. How terrible would the commute be from Lorton to Landover? It looks like it will be an hour on metrorail alone (not counting the metrobus that will take me to a station.
Yikes, Hyattsville will be a painful commute from NoVA, especially Lorton. Think 45 mins at least.
Arlington is very safe, depending on the area of course. That can be said for anywhere though. Generally speaking, the area of Arlington adjacent to and south of Rt 50 (Arlington Blvd) tends to be less desirable than north Arlington. There are some nice areas though.
I'd avoid Seven Corners if I had a choice, although the address you listed might not be bad. It's a tricky area to navigate (lots of traffic and crazy lights) and is very popular with immigrants (might be related to crime).
I used to live about a mile away from the north Springfield address you mentioned and it was a nice neighborhood like 8 years ago.
The Arlington address seems to be in a decent location.
Just out of curiosity, why have you concentrated your search so far South from Hyattsville? I ask because it sounds like you can find what you are looking for and willing to spend, in Hyattsville or other a few other communities within 10-20 minutes of Hyattsville such as: College Park, GreenBelt, or Beltsville.
I have to first ask, is there any specific reason that you've chosen Arlington and Lorton over locales in Maryland?
Personally, the idea of a Lorton-Hyattsville commute makes me cringe. Arlington wouldn't be that great either but at least it's high-density with easy access to Metro. A long commute can really adversely affect one's life in this area and in my opinion, choosing a place to live within a reasonable commuting distance is pretty much on par with rent/housing prices as far as top criteria to meet. A commute from Lorton to Hyattsville could very well regularly clock in at 90 minutes each way during rush hour, door to door.
As far as a comparison between the two, well as you have surmised, Lorton is basically more quiet and suburban whereas Arlington is more urban and lively with a high concentration of young people and singles, and of course, more expensive. Crime-wise, I'm not sure. Lorton has a worse reputation for whatever reason (most likely a holdover from the prison that used to operate there), but I think the two are about neck and neck. Both are very safe, both with a few areas that are iffier, but as a whole, there is no community within each city that I'd term "dangerous", just some a little rougher than others.
As far as the Route 1 issue, generally the worst section that people think of is the stretch in between the Alexandria city limits and Fort Belvoir. Basically, the area known as Hybla Valley. Route 1 as a whole is pretty gritty throughout, all the way down through Woodbridge, but it's nowhere near as bad as it used to be. I was just on it the other day and they've cleaned up large swaths of it. The worst part remains around Hybla Valley although even that isn't horrific. It's really a hit or miss sort of thing. My friend lives in Groveton/Hybla Valley, less than one mile from Route 1, and he lives in a perfectly nice and safe townhouse community with clean lawns, friendly neighbors and near Huntley Meadows Park. So, there's exceptions, but as a general indicator, I'd say two miles is a good buffer zone between Route 1.
As for the city of Falls Church vs. the postal code of Falls Church, well, the actual city of Falls Church is really tiny. It's only two square miles and has around 10,000 residents. Meanwhile, some of the areas routinely labeled as Falls Church are Seven Corners, Bailey's Crossroads, Idlywood, Lake Barcroft and Merrifield. These areas combined probably have a population of over 100,000 and make up probably around 20 square miles (both just guesses on my part) so there's a rather high likelihood of choosing a place that's not the "real" nicer Falls Church.
I forgot to comment on the places you linked to. Well, this is just conjecture on my part since I don't know anything about the specific homes/neighborhoods/complexes that the maps point to, just the character of the general region, but my general thought is that the place in Springfield/Burke is probably the nicest. This is the safest of all of the communities and that area is generally a quiet suburban mishmash of large single family homes and townhouses. You're least likely to go wrong in blindly choosing a place there than the other communities. However, there's the nasty commute issue to deal with, although you're not terribly far from the Burke VRE station or Franconia/Springfield Metro. In that respect, it's better than Lorton. The Lorton place is probably fine, but it's just the commuting issue that presents a problem. Arlington and Falls Church/Seven Corners could go either way. The Falls Church/Seven Corners place appears to be closer to Falls Church than Seven Corners which is good, but that area is really tricky so I can't be 100% certain. I would avoid Seven Corners if possible. It's not a horrible area by any means, but one that I wouldn't recommend unless no other options are available. Similarly, the Arlington location may be okay. It may not. There's a wide mix of housing in that area, none of which is awful, but there are gritty and rougher sections, if not in the area you linked to, not all that far off. Again, we're not talking about having to worry about drive-bys here, but higher petty crime and just generally gritty looking in spots. Of the options presented though, Arlington would be the best for commuting purposes.
You are more likely to find a place within your budget the further out you go, but you have to wonder whether or not it's worth it in terms of commuting time, and also whether any savings you make are eaten up by money spent on gas/parking/Metro commuting each and every day.
We live in McLean, and my husband has been commuting to College Park MD, which is right next to Hyattsville, for 20 years. It's not a bad commute, all things considered, but we do live right by the GW Parkway and can be across the bridge into Maryland in under 10 minutes.
However, you can't live in McLean for $600 a month. You also can't live in most of the nice and convenient parts of NOVA for $600 per month. Because of your limited budget and your unfamiliarity with the area, I would strongly suggest that you consider renting a place in Maryland that is much closer to Hyattsville than anything in northern Virgina. College Park is full of rental options for young, cash-challenged people, and you'd have the college town bars, etc. for weekend entertainment. You could also try Silver Spring, which has a wide range of housing choices.
If you've never lived in the DC area before, you really don't understand how a long, soul-sucking commute can completely ruin your life. Unless you have compelling personal reasons for living in Virginia, I can't see how it makes any sense in your situation.
I hadn't really considered Maryland because I assumed that the area wasn't as safe and vibrant as the Arlington area and I assumed that the commute wouldn't be that bad. Any specific areas of those Maryland towns that you would recommend? I read about Greenbelt, but it's inside Prince George's County which has a bad reputation. I know that there are good and bad areas, but it just made it a whole lot easier to cross that whole area off the list and concentrate on a categorically safer area (i.e.Arlington). I've also read some comments on Silver Spring; I'll check it out some more.
Renting a place for $600 and living far away was more of a short-term (6 month) thing until I learn more about the area and find out how much I'll be making. My salary is $37k, but I've heard that there are additional cash perks of up to $5k that I could be receiving but aren't explicitly stated.
Living far away doesn't really cost all that much more. A metrorail ticket from springfield to landover is 3.90, but is still 3.25 from arlington to landover. That's a difference of $1.30/day, plus the bus fare to the metro station (1.35 in the morning and .35 in the evening after using the metrorail transfer).
I really appreciate your insight. I created this post so that I could receive your input; I'm not committed to anything that I've proposed, I WANT to hear the negatives that you have to offer.
By the way, this is where I'll be working: 0Professional Pl, Hyattsville, Prince George's, Maryland 20785, United States - Google Maps. As you can see, it's very close to the VRE and the station. As I said earlier, I don't want to drive my car to work and I will be taking the metro. I'd like to take my car to work, but there seems to be a significant number of car-thefts in the area (crimemapping tool shows the thefts, and homefair.com says that it has twice the national average at an index value of 202 vs. 34 for lorton and 78 for arlington) and seeing as how my car is much more likely to be a target, I'd prefer not to put it in that situation. If I lived in Green Belt or Silver Springs, I'd have to take a green-line or red-line rail into L'Enfant Plaza so that I could catch the orange-line. That seems to me like that wouldn't be any better of a commute as hopping on the train in Arlington. I'm guessing that when you proposed those options though, you were assuming I'd drive.
Last edited by pinksmilingelk; 06-12-2007 at 07:27 PM..
Reason: added last paragraph
I'd say to look around in Maryland also. VA as a whole is maybe nicer, safer, richer than the MD side, but there are plenty of good places in both. But as for that Falls Church/Seven Corners place, it's nowhere near Seven Corners. It's tucked into Greenway Downs, which is pretty sizable hillside cluster of perfectly respectable but aging 1950's SFH's inhabited perhaps primarily by groups of young professional types. Lots of trees and basically a perfectly good, safe area. Of course, it's not really in Falls Church, but it's one of the nice Faux Falls Church areas. If you like German sausages and such, the German Deli is on the main drag (Lee Highway) just at the top of the hill. I stop in there often. It's not Munich, but they've got some very nice stuff. Anyway, if you went to work at like 5:30 am, you could possibly snag a parking spot at the East Falls Church Metro station just down the street a mile or so. Run time to New Carrollton from there would be 47 minutes and the one-way fare is 3.90. Later on, the EFC parking lot will be full (it's small) and you'd have to drive a couple miles west to Dunn Loring. The fare from there is the same, but it's a longer ride by 7 minutes.
Hey thanks everybody! I'll look at the areas you suggested. I'm kind of intrigued by the College Park area; it would be fun to be near a campus. Don't think that you got rid of me though - I'll be back posting neighborhoods in that area and asking for your opinions again.
In Maryland, I would recommend checking out the areas of Silver Spring, Takoma Park, College Park, Greenbelt and Hyattsville itself. These communities may not be as vibrant as Arlington, but they're more funky and urban than your average DC suburb, and if you were willing to compromise lively living for Lorton, I think you could do so for the Maryland burbs if it meant a shorter commute. Downtown Silver Spring is becoming more and more vibrant and Takoma Park is an interesting little quirky hamlet, and Hyattsville, while rough around the edges, is frequently touted as an up and coming place to watch.
You're right about a commute via Metro being a bit of a backtrack, MetroRAIL that is. There is always the bus however which I'd imagine (truthfully, I'm not that experienced with Metrobus) could take you from any of the above cities and drop you off at the Metro station by your office.
I would recommend searching through the Maryland and DC forum for the cities I listed, and then doing your own independent research, especially regarding crime rates as that seems to be a big issue for you, and you know how much crime you'd be comfortable with. I'm not sure where you lived within the cities, but I'm under the impression that both Minneapolis and Chicago have a much higher crime rate than these Maryland suburbs, so I'd imagine if you were able to live comfortably there, these places should be no problem.
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