Georgetown Graduate Student needing housing advice (apartments, condo, homes)

[spelgirl42]

I am locating to DC Metro area in August to attend Georgetown. I am a 24 year old, single woman and would love some information about options on where to live.

I perfer to live near a metro (so that I can just hop on it and then take the shuttle to Georgetown's campus) and will still probably bring my car.

My budget is about 1200 with utilities, and I would perfer a studio or a one bedroom.

Please help me. I am relocating from Atlanta, GA and am not familiar with the area. Specific apartments recommendations would be great as well, especially since I am hoping to visit later this month. Thanks again.

[Carrot2000]

Here's a good place to start:

Georgetown University - Off-Campus Housing Search (http://gu.och101.com/search_frame.htm - broken link)

[smakawhat]

1200 is a bit low, try looking also at Craigslist to get an idea of prices and what you can get where.

[14thandYou]

I know a lot of young women living the the Woodley Park and Cleveland Park areas. These are very safe neighborhoods in upper Northwest DC. You can pop onto the Red Line easily or you can get on a bus going down Wisconsin or Connecticut Avenues toward Georgetown or downtown, respectively. Most of the streets are residential, but there are a lot of places to eat and some places to shop and hang out along CT Ave. As well, some apt. buildings are within easy walking distance of Adams Morgan with its myriad bars, clubs, and restaurants. There are a lot of single famly homes with English basement apartments as well as large multi-unit apartment/co-op/condo buildings. I will say, however, that the gals I know who are living there for around your budget are all sharing homes or larger apartments with roommates.

The Dupont Circle area is pricier, but I've seen some one-bedrooms advertised in your price range. I think a studio could definitely be had for $1200 north and east of the Circle. It is also on the Red Line. Depending on where you are living in Dupont, you can also walk into Georgetown fairly easily, though the University might be 45 minutes away on foot. The neighborhood is bustling and has all the amenities one could ever want.

A note about crime: we're heading into summer when there is always an uptick in crime, violent and otherwise. If you troll this forum, you're going to see horror stories about some areas. There are areas like Dupont, which are really very safe, that will get mentioned by some as being hotspots during the summer. The biggest problem seems to me to be robberies, and there are things that one can do to be a somwhat less appealing target -- staying sober, avoiding "checking out" on a phone or iPod, not visiting the ATM at night, walking in groups, etc. However, given the shear number of people who live in some neighborhoods and the number of nightly visitors to the bars and restaurants, your odds of being a victim are very low.