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I was hoping to gain some insight on whether my family and I (wife and newborn son) would be happy in the DC area. We currently live and work in Orlando, FL and moved here years ago from central PA. This may sound crazy to some but FL is just not for me, too hot and no seasons, attractions lose their allure over time. Our families still live in central PA so a move to Dc puts us closer again. Career wise I am a software engineer so I'm expecting my next position to land me close to 6 figures and my wife is in mental health counseling so she brings in a nice income too. The market for developers in DC lists 9000+ jobs at a given time, insane! Climate wise since I grew up in PA I know DC will meet my needs, what I'd like to know is a few things...
- From researching, I'd likely to be able to afford a nice house in Woodbridge or Manassas on the VA side (which I think I'd prefer). I know that's about 20 miles south of the main city but I see tons of jobs in Fairfax, Arlington and other VA locations, does the commute get better with that setup? (FYI my current Orlando commute is about 30 min one way)
- Outside of housing, what other expenses are much higher there (maybe daycare, I know some in Orlando run 1000 per month)?
- Are the CDPs like Woodbridge nice communities to live in where I can know my neighbors and such?
Basically I've outlined my tentative plan for where to live so I'm looking for advice, suggestions. If answering anything about Orlando can help gauge what I'm used to currently I can provide more detail...
Everything will be more expensive than Florida. Literally everything. Food, clothes, daycare, light bulbs, soap, napkins, etc. Everything. It will also be more expensive than PA.
If you live far from the city limits there is no such thing as a 30 minute commute. For where you want to live the commute will be around 1 hour and 30 minutes. If your commute is not during rush hour you might pull off 40 minutes or so. Big maybe though.
Your best bet if you MUST live in Virginia is to either work in Virginia near your house, live near a Metro stop and take the train into the city OR live closer to the city limits.
1. It entirely depends on where you work. The 95/395 corridor (Dumfries, Woodbridge, Lorton, Springfield, etc) has TONS of commuting options compared to places off of 66 like Manassas FYI. You could definitely get between Woodbridge and a job in Arlington in 30 minutes if you took an express bus that goes down the HOV/HOT Lanes (separated from regular lanes). There is also the VRE that you could take between a place like Woodbridge and downtown DC or Crystal City in Arlington.
2. Everything will be more expensive. I'm not really fluent in daycare numbers but I know it's like a difference in hundreds of dollars between the suburbs like Woodbridge and places like DC, Arlington, and Alexandria.
3. People are more reserved up here in general, but that doesn't mean there still aren't outgoing neighbors as in any other place.
Additional tips:
1. Be careful in Woodbridge -- there are some shady areas. Stay west of 95 and Lake Ridge is the nicest part with the best schools. I would recommend reposting this in the Northern Virginia Forum to get more advice.
2. There are TONS of tech jobs in the Dulles Corridor (from Tysons to Reston, Herndon, Sterling, and Ashburn). I would try to get a job in that area if I were you because that would make your commute much simpler than commuting into Arlington or DC every day.
The DC area is a much deeper job market for technology jobs, but it is also much more expensive. Two income households are typical around here even with kids.
I will agree with GoMason on the rest, if you are looking to live in Virginia, get a job in Virginia.
The area is significantly more expensive though, and my advice for the area is not to base your expectations in terms of COL on where you are currently living. Come into knowing that the DC area is like the SF bay area or NYC, everything is going to be much more expensive. The income can more than make up for this in many cases though.
It should be noted, the cost of childcare in the area is notoriously expensive. So expensive it outpaces rent/mortgage in the area. For those of us without kids the COL is not that bad, but those with it can be unbearable for this reason alone.
Thank you all, I will report in North Virginia, did not realize there was a separate thread.
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