D.C. Area Nesties
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Moving to the D.C. area and need some advice.
My husband will be working in D.C. and I am staying home with my 6 month and 2 1/2 year old. I would like a family friendly area not too far from D.C...we are going to rent. What do you think about the Annandale area? I am in Florida so I am trying to do everything through the internet. Also looking in Rose Hill, Mclean, Burke and Springfield. Which of these areas do you think would be ideal for an easy commute, safe/family friendly neighborhood?
Thank you so much!
Re: Moving to the D.C. area and need some advice.
Where exactly will he be working? It matters, a lot.
Also, not sure where you are searching, but I like homesdatabase.com. You can put in your search criteria, then move the map around to see what comes up.
Oh, and what is your ballpark rent you can spend? (Note, that I said can not want to pay. Here, you pay what you can, not what you want. It stinks. )
Where will your husband me working? Burke and Springfield are pretty big areas (meaning your DHs commute could be drastically different depending on what side of these areas).
Are you looking for a house? Condo? Apartment? Do you have pets? Price range?
Do you know where in Annandale you are looking? There are a lot of great family friendly neighborhoods there and it's not a bad commute into DC if you are driving or taking the bus. Like any large area, some are nicer than others. My DCP lives in Broyhill Crest which is really nice. Anything by Rose Lane is also lovely. I live near Brook Hills which is a great neighborhood. The neighborhoods on either side of Hummer Rd. are really lovely. The ones backing up to Hidden Oaks Nature Center are incredible. Barcroft is also really nice. Lake Barcroft and Sleepy Hollow Woods are in Falls Church and are very posh. If we had another $100,000 on our housing budget, that's where we would have bought our home. You may also want to consider North Springfield - it's inside the beltway and an easy commute to DC. There is also a great townhouse/condo development off of Edsall Road (Timber Forest Drive is the road into it, I can't remember the name - something Landing I believe) that is super nice and right next to 395. There are other nice townhouse communities off of Edsall as well and some that are showing their age.
You may also want to look at Old Town Alexandria, Del Ray, Falls Church, Fairlington, and Shirlington. All would be very family friendly and great commutes. A little further afield in Alexandria is the Foxchase Development, I rented here when I first moved to DC, they have two story 2 bedroom with a den apartments that are really nice. The neighborhoods off Taney and up to Inova Alexandria are also affordable and nice.
I would avoid looking outside the beltway unless you are looking to metro in. If that's the case, Springfield, Rose Hill, Vienna, Bell Haven (you can drive from here on the parkway) would be great. Burke is very family friendly but has the double whammy of not great public transportation and a long drive to any of the major arteries into DC. It would not be my choice for commuting. The exception here is if you decide to use the VRE which is a little pricey and doesn't run as frequently but it's a very comfortable commute.
We just relocated to Burke and it is very family friendly (we joked that we are one 5-yr old shy of fitting in in our neighborhood).
We are leaving behind our two bedroom, 2.5 ba, finished basement TH right at the Ft. Belvoir gate at Beulah/Telegraph Rd. Our previous landlord is looking for tenants and would prefer an "in network" from a referral rather than a stranger. I suppose this counts for a referral?!
Would you be interested in hearing more? I could email you.