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Any information would be a GREAT help. We are currently getting ready to relocate to the DC area. My husband would be working in Arlington. However we would like to find something with a little bit of room with it, meaning an acre or 2. We have been looking on the map at these following towns, Front Royal, and surrounding areas and also Fredericksburg and surrounding areas. I am wondering if there is anybody out there that could give advise on the commute, the towns and schools! Anything and everything is welcome. If there are any suggestions that is great to. We are trying to get an idea of things before we come out there for our house hunting trip! I hope to hear something.....
Land is not cheap in DC metro, even in places like Fredericksburg and Front Royal. I'm guessing that a house on two acres in one of those places will cost you at least $500k. And trust me...if your husband is working in Arlington, he would be miserable commuting from Fredericksburg or (especially) Front Royal. It's hard to evaluate what might be a good area for you without knowing what your home price range is or whether you would be able to compromise on the amount of land you are looking to get.
So the commute would be worse from Front Royal, Thank you for telling us we had heard that I66 would have been better then the interstate from Fredericksburg. We unstand that we are going to have to down size alot but we have been looking on Realtor.com and spoke with afew agents and they said we could get some land one-two acre for around 325k-350k however our home will be alot smaller like 3 bdrm and around 1200-1500sqft. we looked in gainesville and very expensive for a house so if we stay around there will have to do a townhouse. My hubby does not really want an hour long commute and I think that if we were in Linden that is what we are looking at. It is hard to do a relocation when you have no idea about the area or you do not know anybody. Thank you for helping!!!!
One thing to keep in mind with I-66 is that it is HOV (2+ passengers) only going inbound to DC during morning rush hour and outbound during evening rush hour. That means that your husband might have to carpool if he is taking 66.
I've moved around a good bit in the past few years, and one thing I always recommend when moving to a new city is to rent first. DC metro is a huge place and it is important to get a feel for the neighborhoods/towns you might want to live in. If you want to keep your husband's commute down to an hour, you will probably need to live closer in to the city than you think. The ideal situation is to already be living here and when you find a place you want to buy, you can test drive the commute during rush hour to get a sense of what you can realistically expect if you live there. Also, if you rent first you can work with a realtor slowly, without any pressure to rush out and buy.
We had been talking about renting and I think that you have it right rent until we get a feel for everything and find where we would be the happiest for the family and the commute.Thank you very much!
I agree that renting is a good idea. My husband and I moved to DC from the midwest a year ago. We had never been here before and also didn't know anyone. We made a housing trip for a few days 2 months before we planned to move, and got a rental then. We just drove around with maps and used Craig's List to find places and set up appointments to see places. It worked out well, and we liked our rental. But I think it's important to see the neighborhoods before you decide to rent when you are new to a city. Arlington is very nice and you can find a great place for a good rent. Arlington has lots of amenities and a nice variety of housing types/options. If you're willing to go with a townhouse, you'll have plenty of nice, modern options. We looked at single family houses to rent, in the close-in suburbs, and found pretty much all of them to be quite dumpy for the amount of rent we were willing to pay, but the townhouses for the same rent were amazing and beautiful.
Thank you for the advise I really need it right now. It is scary doing this relocating thing!!! I have heard wonderful things about the schools so that makes me feel better! We are very excited about the move. A bit dissapointed about how far the commute would have been from Linden. I am just excited about all that we as a family will be able to do and all the things we will learn
When I did a simiilar rental scouting trip, I rented a car that was equipped with Magellan GPS. It made it really easy to find listed rental apartments in houses in a city that I was not familar with. We were able to check out about 25 rental options in two days. Definitely worth the price of a car rental.
With all due respect, bringing an auto-dependent mindset that serves the West to DC is going to be dangerous - for both you and the city. The idea of having a couple acres out on the exurban fringe and commuting into the city might have been nice 40 or 50 years ago, but it has been done by so many already and has created a malestrom of problems in the DC area. Traffic is one of the worst in the country and housing developments have obliterated open space. The pursuit of this traditional American dream may serve your interests well, but it decreases the quality of life for everybody else by turning the region into a sprawling, placeless suburb that is nearly impossible to escape in any reasonable amount of time.
Living near the Metro has become highly valued for that reason. When moving to the Northeast, it's far better to have a more European mindset of finding a townhouse or smaller home in or around Arlington and mass transit. Entire vibrant cities have sprung up around metro stops in the past decade. Bethesda even has a timeline of its history and one of its eras is "the automobile era". Much of the region is progressing beyond the automobile. You would be doing yourself and everybody else a favor by joining in.
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Thank you
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