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I currently live in NYC and will be moving to DC for grad school this August. I'm starting to look for apartments and would appreciate some suggestions about apartment hunting, neighborhoods, finding roommates etc... Someplace safe that would be safe for a young female without burning a hole in my wallet. I don't have a trust fund and will be paying for grad school out of pocket so I'd like to save as much money as possible with safety being a priority.
I'm looking to stay on the red line and as close to Tenleytown as possible. Are there some neighborhoods in the outer boroughs that I should look into? any feedback or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Don't have a roommate yet so I'm not sure if it would make more sense to find a roommate first or if that makes any difference in my overall cost.
thanks,
Last edited by limca; 05-20-2011 at 03:04 PM..
Reason: grammer
LOL @ "outter borroughs" line. You might be from NYC if...
You should give some indication of what your monthly housing allowance will be. DC isn't NYC in terms of housing costs, but it's not terribly far behind. Tenleytown and pretty much anything in NW DC west of 16th Street is going to be expensive--sometimes tremendously so. You're likely looking at a roomate situation.
One place you might want to look is in some of the larger apartment buildings that line upper Massachusetts and Conecticutt Aves. There are some deals to be had in those places, particularly if you're splitting your rent, and you'd be a quick bus ride over to AU.
You might also consider apartments around the White Flint and Twinbrook areas of Montgomery County. They're not immediately adjacent to Tenleytown, but the Red Line runs through both, and you'd have a relatively brief 10-15 min train ride to AU.
Are you going to be driving? If not I'd recommend confining your seach within the District with the exception of maybe Silver Spring.
If he/she sticks close to the red line stations in western Montgomery (Twinbrook, White Flint, Grosvenor) getting by without a car shouldn't be difficult. And since the OP will be attending AU, Silver Spring might actually be more inconvenient. Once a RideOn bus enters the equation, things tend to get more dicey.
I hear you about Silver Spring being inconvenient to AU. I just think its a nice area that's relatively affordable and I've met folks who get by without a car there. I don't know if I would say the same for say Wheaton or Gaithersburg.
Also one has to consider life outside school or work. When I was without a car I lived in Falls Church and had a relatively simple 30 minute commute by bus to work. So commuting was never a problem but having fun on the weekends was a challenge.
Are Twinbrook and White Flint like the suburban stations in VA? Isolated areas with nothing to do but commute to work? I couldn't imagine living say next to the Dunn Loring metro station without a car because you can walk to the train but there's nothing to walk to in the neighborhood. I will admit my unfamiliarity with MD but in my opinion the suburbs are not good places to be without a car even if you're next to a metro station.
I hear you about Silver Spring being inconvenient to AU. I just think its a nice area that's relatively affordable and I've met folks who get by without a car there. I don't know if I would say the same for say Wheaton or Gaithersburg.
I would never suggest one live in Gaithersburg without a car--you could do it, but you'd be hating life.
Quote:
Are Twinbrook and White Flint like the suburban stations in VA? Isolated areas with nothing to do but commute to work?
No, there is significantly more development surrounding those stations than stations like Dunn Loring. The Red Line in MoCo basically follows Rockville Pike which, although it is a traffic nightmare and a generally unpleasant place to be, is rather rich with developments and amenities. White Flint, for instance, is much closer to a Ballston or Virginia Square (or Silver Spring) than to a Dunn Loring.
Things become much more spread out once you get out towards Shady Grove, but you could live quite comfortably without a car pretty much at every station from Rockville on south.
I would never suggest one live in Gaithersburg without a car--you could do it, but you'd be hating life.
No, there is significantly more development surrounding those stations than stations like Dunn Loring. The Red Line in MoCo basically follows Rockville Pike which, although it is a traffic nightmare and a generally unpleasant place to be, is rather rich with developments and amenities. White Flint, for instance, is much closer to a Ballston or Virginia Square (or Silver Spring) than to a Dunn Loring.
Things become much more spread out once you get out towards Shady Grove, but you could live quite comfortably without a car pretty much at every station from Rockville on south.
I gotcha. Honestly I haven't to been to any parts of Montgomery county except for Silver Spring in like two years and I was too drunk to remember much of Bethesda. When I was talking to headhunter about a job in Germantown I did consider a move to Bethesda though. I can't imagine commuting to Germantown from south Arlington although I survived the Chantilly commute last summer without air conditioning so I guess I can survive any commute.
Why thank you--that's why they pay me the big bucks.
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