Moving To The Maryland Suburbs of DC? START HERE! (Columbia: apartment complex, renting)

[Lafis]

Good advice, bufflove and goldenage. My husband is looking into Four Corners and other areas. I'm sure we'll be back with more questions. Thanks so much.

[Tia1971]

We will be relocating to MD in a few months. I believe we've narrowed down the location to Severna Park, Arnold, Edgewater. Could anyone provide a brief summary/comparison between these towns? we're looking for a home 3 bedroom 2 bath at least 1800sq ft, some sort of yard, good schools, to raise our 2 children (3+bedroom)- husband will work in DC(willing to commute if his weekends are on the water). We'd like to keep the purchase price under 500K (preferably closer to 400K). We're not familiar with living in a community with amenities like pools/parks etc - but love the idea. And a dream home would be w/in walking distance to shops/eateries/library (mom n pop preferred over chain restaurants).
Any chance we can find this in MD?
TIA

[Onwego]

Hello all,

I'll be moving down in May to work mostly in foggy bottom. Occasionally I'll also work near the Pentagon area. I currently have a car and I'm open to drive 30 minutes or less to work. However, living close to the metro would be ideal since I've realized that foggy bottom is very metro accessible. I don't want to spend more than $1800 monthly on rent and utilities, maybe a little more.

Thanks for suggestions

[bufflove]

It's impossible to say what area would fit in your budget without knowing what type/size of housing you're looking for. 1br apartment or 4br house? Does the quality of school district matter? Do you prefer a vibrant or a sleepy neighborhood?

The only general help I can provide is that you should use google maps to figure out if your job is walking distance to the Farragut North or Dupont Circle metro stations (which are on metro's Red Line). If it's not, then you'll ideally want to live in a neighborhood that's accessible to the Blue or Orange lines (which service the Foggy Bottom station, itself). That'll be the first step in identifying which areas make sense to explore further. Here's a copy of Metro's map so you can start getting a bit familiar with different lines, the neighborhoods they serve, etc. Metro - Rail - Maps - Rail/Google Map

[Onwego]

Originally Posted by bufflove

It's impossible to say what area would fit in your budget without knowing what type/size of housing you're looking for. 1br apartment or 4br house? Does the quality of school district matter? Do you prefer a vibrant or a sleepy neighborhood?

The only general help I can provide is that you should use google maps to figure out if your job is walking distance to the Farragut North or Dupont Circle metro stations (which are on metro's Red Line). If it's not, then you'll ideally want to live in a neighborhood that's accessible to the Blue or Orange lines (which service the Foggy Bottom station, itself). That'll be the first step in identifying which areas make sense to explore further. Here's a copy of Metro's map so you can start getting a bit familiar with different lines, the neighborhoods they serve, etc. Metro - Rail - Maps - Rail/Google Map

Thanks bufflove. I was thinking more 1 br or studio apartment with or without utilities. My problem now is even though I'll spend most of my time in foggy bottom I also have to work some days in the pentagon area. Quality of school district isn't an issue for me and I would want to be able to have access to a vibrant neighborhood.

I'll check the walking distance to Farragut North and Dupont circle metro stations in the mean time.

[bufflove]

If the job is walking distance to Farragut North/Dupont (Red Line) that opens up Bethesda or Silver Spring (also on Red Line) in Maryland as viable options. If you really need to travel to Foggy Bottom (Orange/Blue Line) for work, then the Arlington area of Virginia makes the most sense. You *could* live in MD, travel via Red Line, and then transfer to the Orange/Blue line to reach Foggy Bottom, but it'd be a bit of a hassle and a longer commute.

[Onwego]

Originally Posted by bufflove

If the job is walking distance to Farragut North/Dupont (Red Line) that opens up Bethesda or Silver Spring (also on Red Line) in Maryland as viable options. If you really need to travel to Foggy Bottom (Orange/Blue Line) for work, then the Arlington area of Virginia makes the most sense. You *could* live in MD, travel via Red Line, and then transfer to the Orange/Blue line to reach Foggy Bottom, but it'd be a bit of a hassle and a longer commute.

Looks like I really need to travel to Foggy bottom. I've been looking at the Arlington area, and I've received great advice on their forum. I'll keep looking around the dc area and the arlington area. Thanks a lot for the information.

[TheWilsons]

Hello all,
Wife and I are moving back to the DC area from out of state with our first new born child in tow this fall. We lived in SW DC for 4 years, I lived in Arlington for 2 years before that and she was born and raised in the Alexandria so we know the area. We're looking to buy in the Silver Spring area in one of the neighborhoods just north of downtown for around $500k. Thoughts on schools, specific neighborhoods, vibrant neighborhoods? crime low? etc?

We've narrowed down on this area after considering Silver Spring, Takoma Park, Alexandria, S Arlington and Falls Church. I think we'd like to get a better idea of the specific neighborhoods just north of downtown Silver Spring. Thanks!

[bufflove]

The neighborhood immediately north of the downtown Silver Spring CBD is called Woodside Park. It's a great area with a very nice housing stock (primarily 1920s-30s) on well maintained, leafy streets. Unfortunately, it's largely out of your price range. I can't recall a house being 500K or less in quite a few years, though maybe you could find a stray fixer upper.

East Silver Spring (directly east of downtown Silver Spring/Fenton Village) will have more houses in your price range, though they will either be on the smaller side or needing TLC in order to be sub-500K. East Silver Spring primarily consists of 1920s bungalows. The housing stock isn't as stately as Woodside's, but they're still nice, smaller houses primarily filled by young families, but there are still some older, longtime residents as well.

Both areas are nice and have easy access to all that downtown SS offers+easy access to DC. I don't have kids so I don't know much about the schools beyond what's available publicly. Generally, the cluster is well-regarded, but I can't speak to specific schools.

If you end up not being able to find anything within your budget in those downtown-adjacent neighborhoods, I'd suggest looking a couple miles to the east in the Long Branch neighborhood of Silver Spring or a couple miles northwest in the Four Corners neighborhood. Both are more traditionally suburban, though both do have a neighborhood commercial strip providing some restaurants and basic amenities. Four Corners's commercial area is more established while Long Branch's is more "up and coming". Long Branch is along the proposed Purple Line route so the area will likely improve, but not for a few years. Might be a good investment, but the tradeoff is fewer neighborhood amenities in the short term. Both neighborhoods obviously would have easy access to DTSS and DC. DTSS has tons of parking garages and many bus routes so living a few miles out from the core wouldn't be bad at all.

[TheWilsons]

Thanks bufflove,
Good info! I didn't know the name of the neighborhood but Woodside park does appear out of our budget. We're excited to find an area with other young families and close to amenities SS/DC has to offer. Any other neighborhoods similar to silver spring, not too suburban not too urban you might be able to suggest?