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-Walking distance from a supermarket
-Walking distance to nightlife (10-15 minute walk is fine)
-Walking distance to convenience stores
-Walking distance to restaurants
-Building with a gym
-Building with no mice or rats
-Building with up-to-date bathroom and kitchen
Getting back to the original question...
In general, I think you'd get the best value if you find a private rental (so you might need to scratch the "building with a gym"). Apartment buildings with amenities seem to be priced accordingly, particularly since they're easy to find for people who are remote or have little time and therefore have a larger audience to choose from. It takes more work, but if you've got the time it can be worth it.
I'd find some neighborhoods that fit your requirements and scour CraigsList, HotPads, or go for walks around the neighborhood (I see a lot of privately-owned apartments advertised by signs on the window). When I helped my boyfriend look at apartments a couple of years ago I was surprised to be able to find units all at similar prices in Crystal City, Pentagon City, Logan Circle, Adams Morgan, Dupont Circle (ok, so I might have been a little biased towards having him closer), Capitol Hill, and SW. Some of them just took more digging to find than others.
Arlington is a suburb with a commercial downtown area. Arlington is considered a suburb of DC.
A lot of areas in Northern Virginia and Maryland have urban downtowns including:
-Arlington
-Rockville
-Bethesda
-Silver Spring
-Tysons Corner
And many more. Having small commercial downtowns does not mean these places are not suburbs. You would need miles and miles of urban built environment before you would really be in what most consider an urban city like DC, Baltimore, Philly, NYC, etc. DC is a city. Arlington is a town. Towns are suburbs. At best you can call Arlington an "edge city" I guess. But most don't consider it a real city.
Arlington is the suburbs. Sorry.
Actually Arlington is a county. A strange little county with no county seat or other towns. I consider it an "inner ring" suburb like Bethesda, Silver Spring, Takoma Park, Hyattsville, Falls Church, etc.
For the price you pay in hip DC neighborhoods you could live in an even better NYC neighborhood for less or the same. Columbia Heights is cool but had gotten mad expensive. I was raised there and have seen the change.
-Walking distance from a supermarket
-Walking distance to nightlife (10-15 minute walk is fine)
-Walking distance to convenience stores
-Walking distance to restaurants
-Building with a gym
-Building with no mice or rats
-Building with up-to-date bathroom and kitchen
Obviously I don't expect to check every box.. but the more the better. And I prefer being in a built environment over being near parks and trees. To me that feels too much like the suburbs.
I have not been to the SW Waterfront area in probably two years, so I will have to walk that area. It sounds interesting. I was surprised to see how much Georgia Avenue changed since my last visit. DC changes so fast that if you haven't been to a neighborhood in a few months you probably don't know what it looks like now. Since starting my search I'm surprise by all the new apartments, restaurants and businesses I'm running into that didn't exist a year ago.
If you live in the central area of SW, you're close to the Safeway (which has a Starbucks), CVS, Z-Burger, Subway.
I mean you could walk up 7th and be in the Chinatown area in about 20 minutes, or you could take the train and you're there in 7.
It really depends on what your budget is, I think you can find some SW apartments in the older buildings for $1600 or so, utilities included but those get gobbled up fast.
If you live in the central area of SW, you're close to the Safeway (which has a Starbucks), CVS, Z-Burger, Subway.
I mean you could walk up 7th and be in the Chinatown area in about 20 minutes, or you could take the train and you're there in 7.
It really depends on what your budget is, I think you can find some SW apartments in the older buildings for $1600 or so, utilities included but those get gobbled up fast.
$1600 is exactly the price I was looking for. I can go as high as $2000 but I would rather not. My ideal price range is $1500 to $1700. Beyond that I start getting itchy. I also keep in mind the fact that rent goes up every year in most buildings. So the lower I can start the better.
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