Move from Chicago: Montgomery County or NOVA (Bethesda: rental, townhome)

[livelife1]

Hi my husband and I are anticipating moving to Montgomery CO or NOVA from Chicago. I will be working in Bethesda and my husband in DC. Our income will be between 90-100k. We are looking to rent a 3 bdr townhome, in a decent area with decent schools. I have read most of the blogs on this site about the two areas, but still cannot get a good read on which county would be better for us. I visited a couple of weeks ago, and I did not get to see Montgomery county, but did see PG county (which we are not interested in) and NOVA which was nice. If someone with knowledge of both NOVA and Montgomery county could comment we would greatly appreciate it. We are looking for:

Family oriented neighborhood, with decent rental options

Good schools (they dont have to be number one in the nation our children are still very small 3 and 8 months)

And if me and the hubby need to get out and have a nice dinner and drinks we are not stuck in the boondocks with no sign of life in sight!

No long commutes to work.

In chicago we have very good restaurants and places to have drinks and listen to good music, and we dont want to lose out on that, but we are in a area where we send our 3 year old to private school.

We just want to live in a middle to upper middle class community where it is not only family friendly but we can still enjoy ourselves.

It seems as though I cannot get this for less than $1600? So what do you think MoCo or NOVA

Any solid suggestions?

[dkf747]

Originally Posted by livelife1

No long commutes to work.

That means Montgoery County since you said work is in Bethesda or DC. All of the rest of the things you listed can be found in Montgoery county, so there's your answer.

[firefightermom]

[quote=livelife1;6289029]
No long commutes to work.

Based on this alone, you will want to stick to the southern portion of MoCo. If you've read the other posts about the area you are aware that traffic is horrendous. Not sure there is such a thing as a short commute in the DC area, just b/c of the overcongestion and lack of good roads.

Southern MoCo has good schools, tons of shopping/restaurants, but extremely expensive also. Not sure what you could get for just $1600 a month.

[ashwill]

Both areas have simliar pricing (montgomery country may be a little lower) but the traffic in VA is horrible. Montgomery country has one of the best school systems. check out best schools systems in the US you should see it somewhere at the top.

[filmsniffer]

Based on your preferences, it is obvious Montgomery County is where you should go. It's closer to Bethesda AND DC. You can get some properties with $1600/month now that the bubble has burst.