Where to live between Dupont Circle and Ft. Meade (Silver Spring: apartment complexes, rent)

[devinemissk]

My husband and I are moving to the DC area at the end of the summer. I will be working near Dupont Circle, and he will be working at Ft. Meade. We're looking for suggestions of neighborhoods/communities in Maryland, located about halfway between the two where we can rent for a year or so (we're planning on buying once we're settled).

We have two major "wants":
1. We both want a commute of an hour or less. I plan to take the Metro, and my husband will drive (we only have one car). I would love to be close enough to walk to the Metro station, but am also willing to take a bus to the Metro. Less ideal would be having my husband drop me/pick me up at the Metro, but we could make that work (or get a second car -- though we'd like to avoid that, too).
2. We want a single family home or a townhouse with a yard (we have a small dog). We are not interested in apartments, particularly not big apartment complexes, and we really want a little green space of our own.

A little more about us: We are big fans of walkable neighborhoods. We don't require our neighborhood to be antiseptic, but we don't want to be in a high-crime area, obviously. We don't have kids, so we're not concerned about schools right now. Our budget is < $2000/month.

Are there specific places we should avoid? Particular places you'd recommend? Are we being realistic about the commute? Will my husband be sitting in bad reverse commute traffic going from, say, the Silver Spring/Greenbelt/New Carrollton area to Ft. Meade? Is the reverse commute bad? (Does a reverse commute exist? We're in Chicago now, and there's no reverse anything -- it's bad in all directions almost all the time.)

[devinemissk]

I've gotten responses elsewhere suggesting that the north commute on the BW Parkway is not bad, so now I have questions about safe neighborhoods with good Metro access:

1) Are there any safe, relatively walkable neighborhoods to the east? I'm thinking with access to the Orange or Blue lines, since I can take either of those to my job, and those areas would give my husband easy access to the BW Parkway.

2) How far outside of the Beltway can we be in the Silver Spring area and not have my commute be insane? If I can walk to the Glenmont or Wheaton stations on the Red Line, will that be essentially equivalent to being at Greenbelt and having to transfer to the Red line at Ft. Totten or Metro Center?

3) How "suburban" are some of these areas? We'd like to live somewhere somewhat walkable (for restaurants, retail, things like that -- I expect to drive to the grocery store, church, etc.) and I'm concerned that being as far out as Wheaton will put us in car-land.

Any advice would be very appreciated!

[bowian]

You didn't mention Anne Arundel County, but what about Odenton? There is a MARC commuter train there for your commute to DC, and he would be fairly close to Fort Meade. A good halfway point, IMO.

[devinemissk]

Odenton isn't halfway -- it's basically right by Fort Meade, so I'd bear the brunt of the commute. Which, as I understand it, would require me to take MARC to Union Station and then walk to/transfer to the Red Line to get to Dupont. I'm not opposed to commuter rail, but since all the MARC trains end up at Union Station, it's not super useful for me. It also limits me in how late I can leave work and still make a train.

[J_Lurk]

Would you rather be walkable, or would you rather have a bit of green? With your budget, you may have to make a trade-off.

I'm not absolutely certain, but I think you can go all the way to Ft. Meade and still be commuting around an hour. Your trade-offs are more in terms of how much traffic you want to deal with in your down time, and how much you want the green vs. the walkable. There's also the issue of balancing the commute, which is tempting, but the closer you get to DC the more it gets to be 45 minutes each instead of 1 hour for one and 10 minutes for the other. It isn't a straight math equation due to the traffic and congestion. There's also a lot to be said for one of you being closer. It enables someone to go home and let the dog out at a more reasonable time, and someone to be the "go to" person for household emergencies.

Personally I'd look at Historic Laurel. You'll get the green space for your dog, your commute will still be under an hour, and yes, you'd have to use MARC. But when you get home you'd be in a nice area with some walkable neighborhoods.

But, to answer your specific questions:

1. I don't know that area well, but there aren't a lot of recommendations for it on this board.

2. You might want to look at the commute times on the metro map. Getting on at Greenbelt adds about 10-15 minutes to a trip vs. getting on at Silver Spring, plus the transfer time. Personally for regular commuting I'd take MARC over the Green Line, but that's based solely on experiencing the Green Line. Maybe someone who has done both can chime in.

3. I know people in the Wheaton area, and it can be walked, but in a painful "breathe in a lot of exhaust" way. You also can't drive anywhere without being in heavy traffic at any time of day.

[eponena]

Greenbelt. Immediate access to the parkway, very walkable, and depending on where you live, you can walk to the greenbelt metro. Also College Park (if you don't mind high percentage of college students).

[Jadedea Jade]

hyattsville is also a good place. theres the prince georges plaza metro. it should take you 25-30 min to get to dupont circle.